Albert Einstein once said, “Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.” I agree. Although we are called to obey the laws of the government, no law but God’s law is perfectly just, and so we must not blindly obey all commands we receive. What the government says is legal should not always be lawful, and what the government says is unlawful sometimes should be permissible. That is why I believe that Christians can rightly violate the law of the land if the laws violate human life, if they violate God’s rules, or if they are discriminatory.
To begin with, a Christian may rightly disobey the earthly rules if they violate human life. Because God created every one of us, all humans are sacred and equal. So if a law holds another’s life in low esteem, then it is not to be obeyed. For example, in World War II, the Germans believed that the lives of the Jews and other people groups were not important. So the Germans began killing the Jews. The Germans made a rule that no one could protect Jews from the soldiers sent to kill them. But the ten Boom family hid some Jews in a secret room in their house. When the Germans came to search the house for Jews, they did not find any. The Jews were saved. Because the law violated the sacred lives of the Jewish people, the ten Booms knew that it was right to go against the man-made decree. Another example is of the Israelite midwives who, while in captivity in Egypt, disobeyed the pharaoh.. The pharaoh told the midwives to kill the Israelite babies they were delivering. Instead, the midwives let them live because the commandment violated the life of a precious baby. The midwives knew that disobeying the law was the right thing to do because they were saving the babies. Life is a gift from God, and no one has the right to take it away but God. So when a law ignores the value of life, it must be disobeyed.
Another circumstance in which Christians can rightly violate man’s rule is when it violates God’s. Although the Bible says to obey the government, God’s law is higher than man’s because man’s is imperfect and faulty. So when what man says goes against what God says, we must do what God wants us to do. Missionaries working in closed countries are a good example of disobeying an earthly decree to obey God. In countries such a Saudi Arabia and China, it is illegal to distribute Bibles or witness to others. But men and women such as Brother Andrew, a Dutch missionary who worked with Muslim converts in Muslim countries, disobeyed those laws. God tells us to spread the good news about him. Brother Andrew followed God’s commands, even though the government said otherwise. Although Brother Andrew and other missionaries were aware of the law and of the danger they would be in for breaking it, they still broke it. They did the right thing because they were obeying God’s commands. The disciples also disobeyed the authorities when they were told to stop preaching about Jesus. Acts 10:42 says, “And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God [to be] the Judge of quick and dead.” The disciples were told by God to spread the good news, and so they went through all the towns preaching. The Pharisees and leaders of the church were not happy about what the disciples were saying, and so they told the disciples that they were not allowed to preach any longer. But the disciples knew that no matter what opposition they got, they had to obey God. God’s law is more important then man’s. As the disciples did, and as missionaries continue to do, we must disobey earthly rules if they have us break God’s.
Finally, if a law is discriminatory, then it can be disobeyed. Everyone is equal. We are all made by God, and all loved by God. If a rule considers someone more important then someone else, then it must not be followed. One set of discriminatory commands were the Jim Crowe laws in the 1950’s. The Jim Crowe laws segregated the African Americans from the whites. They forced the African Americans to ride at the back of buses, to eat at a different counter in a restaurant, and to go to different schools. But Rosa Parks knew this was wrong, and on December 1, 1955, to protest the injustice, she chose to ignore the Jim Crowe laws when riding a bus. Rosa Parks took a stand for what was right by disobeying. Another group of people who disobeyed a discriminatory law were the suffragettes. In the early 1900’s, women were not allowed to vote, own property, nor do many other things that men were able to do. But the suffragettes saw the injustice and protested. Many illegally went to the polls to vote. Eventually through their efforts, the laws were changed. The rights of those people were being violated by unjust decrees. For that reason, they rightfully disobeyed those laws.
When we look back on history, we can see countless examples of the leaders of a country making laws that are wrong. We see in those times brave people who stood up for what is right, who broke the laws because they know they were unjust. Without those people, the laws still might be the same. We might be living in a world of oppression, where it is a crime to worship anyone but the government, where it is legal to murder those who are different than you, and where lying and dishonesty are rewarded. Our world isn’t perfect. But because Christians rightly violated the law of the land when the laws violated human life, violated God’s rules, or they were discriminatory, the world is a better place than it was before. Whenever a commandment is unjust, Christians must disobey that law.
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