I would dispute the idea that anarchists are archangels, though I want to be clear that I am basing that on the most literal interpretation of “archangel” one could imagine. One of the wonderful things my parents inadvertently did for me was to raise me in a manner relatively free of religion. This meant I went to my Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary to make sure I wasn’t missing some major connotation of “archangel.”
Basing my answer on the definition of an archangel: “a chief or principal angel; in medieval angelology one of the nine orders of celestial attendants on God,” I am not doing god’s work nor attending to him (I am choosing male pronouns because I think they help illustrate the patriarchal nature of the Abrahamic lineage of religion, though that is a tangent), god does not guide my actions, because god does not exist. If you want to view my actions through the lens of your particular faith (or lack thereof) that has nothing to do with me, though if you tell me I am doing god’s work, what holy work I do, etc (and I’ve had jobs where this is a regular occurrence), I will likely tell you that no, I am doing what I think is best, or right, or what I want to do, for either myself, or for those I care about. The more of your god you put on to me and my actions, the more I will come to view you with pity and contempt.
As far as reading the bible, I tried, and actually, I tried at a time when I identified as an anracho-punk. I felt it was important to try to understand the roots of the dominant culture if I wanted to challenge and destroy it. I got bored when everyone was begetting everyone for what seemed like one hundred pages. I’ve periodically picked it up to look up particular references that I wanted to understand, or to make particular arguments against it, but on a whole, studying the bible is such a low priority to me that I am more likely to find myself reading a romance novel. Do other anarchists (and anarcho-punks) read the bible? Certainly some do. There are Christian anarchists (even Christian anti-civ/ anarcho-primitivists) out there, and while I can’t personally reconcile all of their beliefs, I also don’t care as long as they don’t get their shit on me.
What to watch out for? How do you mean? Watch out for dogma: it is easy to say, “no gods, no masters,” but still be ruled by gods and masters that you’ve internalized. Watch out for people trying to use the term “anarchist” to attract people naturally inclined towards rebellion to their cause. Watch out not only for god, but for mere humans (like, ahem, Jesus) elevated to deity status; often they have names like Avakian, Bakunin, Bookchin, Goldman, Kropotkin, Lenin, Mao, Marx. Related, watch out for documents which are elevated to the level of holy scripture (similar to the bible); often this is called a platform, points of unity, or alternately, a manifesto.
