Philosophy
Our approach stems from problems we see in our current society. These range from political to educational to health to religion and beyond. However, instead of fixating on these issues, we prefer to take action. When assessing how to deal with a corrupt system, an immoral culture, or some other societal issue, there are many strategies one could employ.
- Some choose to “fight” the system through protests, sabotage, rebellion, etc.
- Some choose to “join” the join the system with hopes of changing it from the inside through reform.
- Some choose to do “nothing” and relegate themselves to research, discussion, and armchair philosophy.
We choose none of these common approaches but rather take a parallel society strategy. While there can be practical reasons to fight or reform or stand aside, we believe there are moral issues with these stances as well as issues of effectiveness. Instead of taking on the leviathan head on, we are building our own systems and operating as much in the parallel society as reasonably possible. This is the strategy of the original Church under the Roman Empire. It was the method used by Vaclav Benda, Vaclav Havel, and others with Charter 77 under the communist Soviet Union. It is the approach used today by many agorists, libertarians, integrated communities, and other like minded groups.
The system is broken. We aim to build something better. While the vast majority of people will choose to continue along in the current milieu or advocate for change within that paradigm, we desire to provide another option for those few who want to operate outside of those systems.
The Agora Food Club is a ministry of The Agora. The structure of The Agora is modeled after the original Church and takes the same general approach with its operations. The attempt is avoid the line between submission and support as much as possible. We submit to authorities over us but at the same time we don’t support the corrupt systems we find ourselves in. The Agora does nothing illegal or outright defiant. However, we also recognize the corrupt systems and culture we live in and do our best to create alternatives and operate within these alternative moral, parallel systems in the vein of the concept of The Kingdom of God. As with the original Church, outreach and ministries are not strictly for church members nor are they reserved strictly for Christians. They are for all in the community for the betterment of society, the acknowledgement of the value of all life, and to fulfil the call for Christians to be salt and light in a decaying world full of darkness.