Political Theology

A Taxonomy for Civil Obedience And Disobedience

December 18, 2020 by wagraham 3 Comments

When it comes to the question of when we should or should not obey civil authorities, our default must be obedience (Rom 13:1). That said, we live in a complex world in which we also must not do evil. To make sense of this complexity, I propose that we use these four distinctions to guide our moral reasoning for when we should follow the default of obedience and when we might need to disobey an evil requirement.

Obeying civil authorities is good.
Civil authorities can require good, or neutral actions. We should obey.
Civil authorities can themselves do evil structurally, which we should lobby against.
Civil authorities can require us to do evil, which we should resist.

How Should Christians Think about Unjust Governments?

April 17, 2018 by wagraham 4 Comments

God appoints governmental leaders to do good (Rom 13). And the Bible instructs Christians to pray and obey their leaders. Yet a tension exists between God’s appointment of governing leaders to good and what they actually do. Some leaders simply do wrong and are unjust.

So how do Christians manage this tension? The biblical answer is that Christians follow a middle way as the salt of the earth and as those who pray for rulers to protect these rulers from the devil’s monsters. [Read more…] about How Should Christians Think about Unjust Governments?