A Christian Response to Civil Disobedience

 

   

                 

     In 2012, the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana reworked one of its hub bridges to resemble the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama where Civil Rights protesters attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, blocking traffic and ending in a violent (on the officers’ part) confrontation with police officers. Except Fort Wayne’s bridge was lined with quotes from the great Martin Luther King Jr. and named in his honor. Eight years later, Black Lives Matter protesters in Fort Wayne attempted to recreate that moment, marching from downtown to the MLK bridge, partially obstructing traffic as they went. The city of Fort Wayne responded with brute force using tear gas and riot police to force the then-peaceful protesters to stop doing the very thing the bridge was honoring. The night escalated into vandalism, more tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and dozens of arrests. It won Fort Wayne national notoriety and an ongoing lawsuit from the ACLU.

          In Matthew 23, Jesus goes off on a rant against the religious and political leaders of his day. Among his many accusations against them was a particular act of hypocrisy, which I never really understood until June of this year. He said:

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' so you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

          America has proud memories of the Civil Rights Movement. Leaders like Amelia Boynton Robinson, Rosa Parks, and John Lewis are remembered as heroes. Its fallen heroes like MLK, Viola Liuzzo, and James Reeb are commemorated as martyrs. Many white Americans look back on these time and say, “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part in the police brutality, the voter suppression, the armed militias committing violence in the streets, the turning a blind eye when white supremacist groups’ murder black Americans and the white people brave enough to stand with them. We built these heroes elaborate tombs and monuments and name holidays and bridges after them. We would not have taken part.” But, as Fort Wayne in June so dramatically illustrated, we who built the tombs of the prophets of social justice are far too quick to follow in the footsteps of their murders.

          Protesting through civil disobedience is the foundation of the United States. Many historians agree that without the civil disobedience of the Sons of Liberty in Boston through riots, burning effigies, and the Boston Tea Party, things never would have escalated to the point of war with Britain and the United States of America may just have been Southern Canada. Every major social change from the abolition of slavery to women’s right to vote, to labor laws involved its activists committing some sort of civil disobedience.

          What is civil disobedience? It is the informed and purposeful non-violent breaking of a law because the violator believes a higher law compels them to do so. If disobedience is violent, it is not civil disobedience. There is debate on if the Sons of Liberty should count as civil disobedience because they did commit vandalism and theft, which most later groups (including the Civil Rights leaders) condemn. Those who commit civil disobedience must do so out of conscience, not for personal gain or convenience. A person who speeds because it is fun is not committing civil disobedience; he is just breaking the law.

          There are three types of civil disobedience that all Christians agree on. First everyone agrees that Christians should commit civil disobedience if the law requires them to deny Christ. These Christians stand with Peter and John in Acts 5 when they say, “we ought to obey God rather than men.” These are the Christians in more than 30 nations of the world where being a Christian or doing a basic Christian activity like owning a Bible, being baptized, or talking with other believers is illegal.

          Second, Christians should commit civil disobedience when a law compels them to do something immoral. In Daniel 1, Daniel and his friends were ordered to eat food that would have been a violation of the laws God had clearly given them. They refused in defiance of the government officials over them. Eventually, they found a compromise, but Daniel makes it clear that they would not sin against God by doing something he forbid.

One of America’s most horrific laws was the Fugitive Slave Law which required any government official or private citizens in non-slave states to return any runaway slaves to their owners or face prison time. When a southern slave hunter came to a town, they could identify any black person as a runaway slave and, on the authority of their word alone, the local sheriff was required to arrest the black person and assist the slave trader to return them to the south and arrest any white people that the slave hunter identified as hiding them. Hundreds of abolitionist law enforcement and civil officers chose to go to jail rather do these horrific acts. And thousands of pastors, housewives, and conductors who made up the Underground Railroad constantly risks their freedom and safety to violate it.

          Third, all Christians agree that Christians should disobey laws that forbid them from doing a morally right thing. In some countries, people are allowed to be Christians, but are not allowed to tell others about Christ. Yet, this is something Christians are commanded to do (Mt 28; Acts 1). Christians in these nations are creative and careful, but they do put themselves at risk by ultimately breaking these laws. Until the 1970’s, it was illegal for white Americans and black Americans to marry. Many Christians couples wanted to follow the biblical model and marry, so they did so since the law forbid them from doing something morally right.

          At this point, not all Christians agree about the limits of civil disobedience. Some will agues that except for the three examples above, Christians should not violate the laws of the land. If this position is consistent, it is valid. However, most American reformers have identified two other cases when non-violent breaking of laws is acceptable.

First, Christians can break laws that are inherently morally wrong even if the Christian could find a way around it. When Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus, she was breaking the law that required black people to yield their seats to whites. Technically, Rosa Parks’ defiance does not fit one of the three above categories: she was not being forced to deny Christ, do something immoral, or forbidden from doing something moral, but the law itself was incredibly immoral. Since no one else would do something about, Rosa Parks and her allies did. Reverend John Lewis--- who was a congressman from 1986 till his death in 2020--- once boasted that in the 1960’s and 70’s he was arrested 40 times…. And was arrested another 9 after becoming a congressman! Most of these were for breaking these types of laws---- walking into a whites-only waiting room, sitting at a whites-only café, sitting beside his white friends on a bus.

          Starting the conversation is the other big category that American protesters use to justify breaking laws. In these cases, protesters purposefully breach minor laws to raise awareness about a larger issue. The protests and marches of the Civil Rights era often obstructed traffic, trespassed, and refused to obey police officers when they were ordered to disperse. Most the time, it was these minor violations that they were charged with after they were brutally arrested.

          The marches over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 took place over several weeks. The worst incident happened on Sunday, March 7 when the Dallas County sheriff ordered all white males in the county to come to the courthouse to be deputized to assist with dealing with the entirely non-violent marchers. These “deputies” made the most of their new status, chasing and beating the crowd. 17 marchers were hospitalized including a 14-year girl who required more than 30 stiches in her head, John Lewis whose skull was fractured, and Amelia Boynton who was beaten unconscious.

When we look back at these unconscionable acts and say, “If we had lived in those days…” we should do so with care. White supremacists’ groups are enjoying a resurgence in our country. Voter suppression through jerry maundering and uneven polling access are well-documented facts. White Americans who point loaded weapons at peaceful protesters are featured at a national political convention. A white supremacist in Kenosha who shot two unarmed black Americans raised more than a million dollars through Christian crowd sourcing websites for his defense. Since May of this year, we have learned how much our legal system and our white churches still struggle with protecting black reformers and prosecuting white criminals. We built the prophets of civil disobedience elaborate tombs; but are we honoring their murders through our actions and non-actions?