Yesterday was a dark day indeed for I read the last three chapters from Judges. The grim story of depravity and violence and a complete lack of a moral compass, not to mention the widespread misogyny, is not just shocking but unfathomably unsettling.

I would classify myself as a Christian anarchist. I am suspicious of human authority and of human power brokers. I distrust the claims of human leaders as a matter of course. And I would take pride in it.

But these three chapters of darkness in the scriptures warn me about the dangers of the position I hold with the repeated refrain, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” (Judges 21.25) And when everyone did as they saw fit, a woman was gang raped, precipitating a civil war that almost wiped out one of the tribes of Israel.

What Judges is telling us is that, while human rulers may not be perfect, when there are no structures, the bullies will prey on the weak. When there is no order, humans will exploit each other without restraints. When there is no ruler, whose continued rule depends on at least a semblance of order, human sinfulness will run riot and will devastate everything in its path.

My bible reading for yesterday is still troubling me even though the day is over and today is also almost done. The bible does not depict its characters as heroes nor as plain villains. Rather, in these chapters from Judges we can see that even the good desire for strong family ties can be a driving force for the increase of human sin and the misdirection of the human moral compass.

But the bible does have such stories in its pages. Why are they there? Is the presence of such stories to be taken as an endorsement of their contents? That would be like saying that the presence of an airbag in a car is an endorsement of accidents! Rather, the presence of an airbag is a reminder about the need for road safety.

In much the same way, the presence of such stories in the bible is a reminder of how depraved the human heart can be and of how even the best of motives may not be sufficient to ensure ethical decisions and actions.

And more to the point, given the repeated refrain about there being no king, a story such as this is a reminder to people like me that power structures, though fallen, are needed to protect, even if ever so slightly, the dignity and lives of those among us who are weakest.