Julian Assange & Jesus: Shaming the State

Jesus Was Killed for 'Speech Crimes' Against Government; Will Assange Meet the Same End?

(For Part Two of this two-part miniseries on Assange, see the Mar. 6, 2024, post)

I want to take y’all back to my first appearance as a guest on a podcast, and to a point that I haven’t highlighted previously.

Jeff Macolino and I had this exchange on the Nov. 27, 2023, episode of his eponymous weekly show (listen at Spotify, Apple, ListenNotes, Amazon and Podchaser):

DOM: [Jesus] basically is killed for thought crimes.  He said the wrong things and thought the wrong things … in a world full of people trying to do cancel culture and censorship and lock people up for it.  One of the most Christ-like figures we have in the modern world that people know about [is] Julian Assange.  He’s a political prisoner because he said things that made violently powerful people uncomfortable.

JEFF: Truthful things.

DOM:  Yeah, it was true!  It’s not like he was wrong!

JEFF: That’s the scary part.

‘Free Julian Assange’ graffiti mural, artist unknown, via Artists for Assange: https://artistsforassange.org/free-julian-assange/

Julian Assange embarrassed the most evil institutions

Connor O’Keeffe at the Mises Institute put together an excellent, link-filled summary of Assange’s ordeal and completely non-violent “crimes,” last week to coincide with Assange’s latest extradition hearing.

But the Mises Institute is an opponent of the kind of heavy-handed government revealed in those reports; perhaps the organization’s leanings led them to overlook some Wikileaks errors? Well, the government-supported NPR listed the major stories Wikileaks broke prior to Assange’s 2019 arrest in London, without any mention of the stories being mistaken on the facts. Wikileaks never had to retract any of those reports for falsehoods.

Assange and his team did excellent journalism.

And while Assange and Wikileaks utilized leaked government material to show atrocities and other deceptions, there’s no evidence that any person’s natural human rights were violated in sourcing or amplifying the stories. They were controversial, but consistently nonviolent.

The truth, however, hurt the State’s reputation in the eyes of many who would generally support the State, and jeopardized some sinister State operations. And this “crime” of shaming the State is taken very seriously by State actors and State cronies.

Jesus also embarrassed these most evil of institutions

Clashes with high-status, civil authorities also happen with Jesus during His public ministry.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as Jesus using publicly esteemed characters in His parables and making them the antagonists, like the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). Other times, He refutes their attempts at inflicting violence in the name of law-and-order more directly, like in the case of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11). I cover both of those passages in my book, Good Neighbor, Bad Citizen (Amazon, B&N, Lulu).

The Gospel of John also records a standoff with Temple authorities in which Jesus causes a bit of good chaos over their fraudulent selling of sacrificial animals and “money changing” (John 2:13-25). The other Gospels note a similar incident shortly before Jesus’ arrest (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46).

Indeed, Jesus’ final trip to the Jerusalem area features a ratcheting up of ill will from those who had already begun plotting against Him (John 11:45-57). As the Passover feast approaches, some elders directly challenge Him in the temple area regarding His “authority” for teaching (Matthew 21:23-27, Mark 11:27-33, Luke 20:1-8); Jesus leaves them dumbfounded by asking them a simple question.

The high-status folks then try their hand at entrapment, asking Him about paying taxes to Caesar (Matthew 22:15-22, Mark 12:13-17, Luke 20:20-26), which backfires when Jesus gets them to expose their allegiance to Caesar (also, Jesus never tells any of His followers to pay the tax, in case you wanted to “go there” with the discussion).

Jesus then explicitly denounces the Israelite ruling factions as “hypocrites” several times (Matthew 23:1-36).

Through it all, Jesus commits no violence against anyone. But His words put the civil/religious authorities to shame for their actions.

And speech “crimes” are enough to get a person persecuted, both back then and today.

The Comments section is a persecution-free zone …

… So, let me know your thoughts!

Have you followed Assange’s ordeal? What do you think of Wikileaks’ reporting?

Did you know about Jesus’ many clashes with the authorities of His time?

Assange, of course, isn’t the only person who’s been targeted by governments for nonviolently reporting on the State’s evildoing. Who are some other people you’re aware of who’ve been harassed, persecuted, or worse, for their roles in whistleblowing?

What can people do positively to counter anti-speech measures?

Anything else on your mind regarding these topics?

(For Part Two of this two-part miniseries on Assange, see the Mar. 6, 2024, post)