Imagine that the Prime Minister called a press conference to announce an important new policy. From the podium at Number 10 they tell the public that they have created a vast 90 foot statue to be placed in Parliament Square. The statue is made of solid gold and when the government sends an alert to everyone’s mobile phone, each UK citizen should bow down and worship this golden figure. If they do not worship the statue, they will be arrested. The Prime Minister instructs the assembled press to get the word out, and then returns back to their office.
That might seem an extraordinary story, but it is not fictional. It didn’t happen in the UK but in Babylon in the sixth-century BC, during the time of Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. It is recorded for us in chapter three of the book of Daniel, where we find that non-worship of the golden idol meant being thrown into a blazing furnace.
What would you do if you were an Israelite in Babylon, or in that more contemporary version in the UK? Would you bow down to worship a golden idol, or would you refuse and face the consequences?
Submit or resist?
History shows examples of Christians who have taken action to change the will of leaders and governments. Some have worked within systems of government, such as William Wilberforce serving as an MP to end the slave trade; others have acted in protest, perhaps most famously in the civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As Christians we are told to submit to the authorities and obey their laws (see Romans 13:1-5 and 1 Peter 2:13-17). Government is a good thing, given to us by God to give order to society. Christians are not anarchists who want to throw off any external authority. We live good lives among those who don’t believe (1 Peter 2:12) so that God is honoured and glorified.
This is fine as long as the government is doing what is right. If the laws they enact are honouring to God then Christians should obey them. But what if the law is wrong? What if the government asks Christians to do something they cannot in conscience comply with? What then?
Since we believe that God is the final and perfect judge, we could simply leave things to him. Pray about the issues of injustice or immorality, and leave it at that. Or should we do more? Should we take action to resist the government?
Christians will come to different conclusions about the right way to respond. Paul taught the Corinthians that they were free to eat food which had been sacrificed to idols, but not to use their freedom to cause another believer to stumble (1 Cor. 8:9-13). We need to be careful not to make protest (or choosing not to protest) the defining mark of Christian obedience. We may decide to protest the government with a clear conscience, but others may come to different conclusions, and they still remain our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Some would argue that since we have a Christian duty to obey our leaders, resistance would be inappropriate. Others would respond that non-action communicates something just as clearly as action does. As Christian author J. John notes, “In a culture where only those who shout are heard, any failure to protest may be presumed consent or approval.” We need to be careful about sins of omission – failure to do what is right – as well as sins of commission, those things we do that are wrong.
The writer Henry David Thoreau, in his book On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, criticises those who do nothing in the face of injustice:
“There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who… sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing… They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
As Christians we hold in balance our duty to obey the law with a duty to act where we see wrong being done. It is not always easy or clear how to navigate these two duties.
Do we see examples of protest demonstrated in the Bible? Not precisely, but the government and society of the ancient world wasn’t a place where protest would be terribly effective. J. John writes:
“No ancient government claimed to represent individuals in the way our modern Western democracies do, so protests made little impact and publicly protesting against the policies of Rome or Assyria was fairly pointless unless you wanted an immediate, public and brief encounter with the lions in the amphitheatre.”
Nevertheless, we do see Biblical figures resisting and even disobeying earthly authorities. One of the clearest instances of this is early on the book of Acts. Peter and John heal a beggar at the temple gate which brings them in conflict with the religious authorities. They are arrested and brought before the Jewish legal council, the Sanhedrin. After they defend themselves, we read:
Then [the Sanhedrin] called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
The apostles are clear: when the commands of God and the commands of human authorities are in opposition, God always wins. It is right to listen to God rather than government. For Peter and John (and the rest of the Christians in the first century) that meant speaking about Jesus even if this meant breaking the law.
There is, therefore, a Christian precedent to protest and even disobedience. But this grounded in the two greatest commandments: to love God, and to love our neighbour (Matthew 22:37-39).
We see protest motivated by love for God modelled by Jesus himself. We read in John chapter two:
In the temple courts [Jesus] found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Jesus protests the marketplace and moneychangers set up in the temple courts, going as far as disrupting their activities. The motivation for his action is rooted in love for his Father. What is going on does not honour God nor does it respect what he has said. The disciples recognise this as zeal for the Lord and his house, as spoken about by David in Psalm 69.
Christian protest should also be motivated by love for our neighbour. A desire to protest the government should not stem from selfish gain but from a longing for justice and righteousness for those in need. Protest for the Christian is an opportunity to be a voice for the voiceless and an influence for those on the margins. Christian protest attempts to live out the words of Proverbs 31:
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
How then should we decide whether to protest or not? When is an issue serious enough to warrant taking action?
Here again Christians will differ in good conscience about the point where defiant action should be taken. The Bible calls us to speak and act in the face of injustice and immorality, but does not spell out the details in each and every situation. It is our role as Christians to think, pray, discuss and discern what God’s will is, and to respect Christians who come to a different conclusion than we do.
Some issues seem to demand a clear response from Christians, such as the injustice of racial segregation and discrimination in apartheid South Africa or the civil rights movement in America. Other issues are much less clear cut. There are issues of poverty in our country today. Will protesting achieve a fair and effective solution for those in need, or are there other actions that would be more productive?
Returning to Babylon in the sixth century BC, we see Daniel and his friends wrestling with these same questions. As they live in a foreign land with a pagan government, when should they go along with the culture and when should they take a stand and disobey? Daniel chose to participate with the state’s education, training and service. But he took a stand when it came to food (Daniel 1) and prayer (Daniel 6).
Where people are being oppressed or unfairly treated, or God’s honour is at stake, Christians should act. But whether this action is in the form of protest or not, and what expression that protest might take, will depend on our culture, government and personal influence.
What does protest look like?
There are different degrees of resistance to government, and protesting can fall into one of three broad categories: Demonstration, disruption and disobedience.
Demonstration is probably what we first think of as protest. A march with placards and signs, a rally with speakers and chants, people gathered outside parliament or another significant location, trying to get the attention of those in charge.
Disruption is the next step up from demonstration, causing problems as a way to get your cause noticed. This isn’t exactly breaking the law, but does affect others. You might think of farmers driving slowly in their tractor and blocking roads to protest government subsidies, or protesters for ‘Just Stop Oil’ disrupting play at a sporting event.
Disobedience is a further escalation of protest to the point of breaking the law. Some people might break the law in various ways to get their voice heard, such as protesters throwing paint or soup at property and artwork. Others would advocate breaking only the laws that they deem as unjust.
This form of protest seems to clash most strongly with the command to obey the authorities that we see in Bible passages such as Romans 13. Yet Christians have argued for this kind of targeted civil disobedience for causes such as the civil rights protests in the United States. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. explains his use of such tactics:
In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
Christian principles for protest
Where laws go against God’s commands, and where injustice is inflicted against those who are powerless, Christians should speak out. The examples of Jesus, Peter and John show us that protest by demonstration, disruption and even disobedience may be a course of action that Christians can take.
When thinking about the potential of protest, here are three Christian principles that can guide our decisions. Christian protest should be:
1. Considered
Protest for Christians should not be a knee-jerk reaction. It is important to take time to consider whether this is the best option, and what kind of protest would be most appropriate. This is not an excuse for procrastination – delay is not a virtue when the issue is urgent; it is a desire not to rush to judgement.
In particular, we should take time to ensure we know the truth about the situation. Is our movement to protest based on facts or opinion? Have we understood what is going on before we set off on a march?
Dr Carl Ellis, Professor of Theology and Culture at Reformed Theological Seminary, notes:
“The Christian activist, if he or she is consistent, will take the time to ascertain and sort out the facts. The Christian may not be the first voice heard but will be the strongest voice heard — a prophetic voice.”
2. Loving
Christian protest should always be loving in its approach. Jesus may have disrupted and driven out the moneychangers in the temple, but he also told his followers: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Peter disobeyed the authorities but he also wrote: “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called” (1 Peter 3:9).
To be loving, Christian protest should be non-violent. There is no Biblical justification to be violent toward those we oppose, and plenty of commands to be loving toward our enemies. Protests can be loud, assertive and potentially disruptive but never violent.
More than that, Christian protest should not be hateful. In the heat of the moment in a protest march, surrounded by those who think like us, we must resist the temptation to demonise or diminish those we disagree with. We can disagree, and protest our disagreement, but in a way that respects those we protest as people who are precious to God. As Dr. Carl Ellis notes: “Be angry if you must. But focus that anger primarily on the grievance itself, not necessarily on the people behind the grievance.”
3. Purposeful
Christian protest, and any protest that is effective, should be purposeful. There should be an aim in mind behind any action. We should not protest for the sake of protesting, but have a clear reason for doing so and a clear outcome for which we are advocating. Protest should aim to achieve something loving for our neighbour and something honouring to God.
In prison for non-violent protest, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote to the Christian leaders in Birmingham, Alabama. They had concerns and reservations about the civil rights protests, and Dr. King patiently addresses them. He explains the purpose of their protests in this way:
“Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”
Dr. King’s protests have a clear aim: to bring the issue to the surface in such a way that negotiation is possible. Protesting a political problem should aim to bring things to a political solution.
Conclusion
Christians have disagreed about the need for protest, and the right approach and timing to protest the government. But there is a Biblical directive to protest, and even disobey, when love for God or neighbour is at stake.
The three friends in Babylon – Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego – faced a choice: obey the king or obey God. They chose to obey God instead of the government even though the consequences could be dire:
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Read on in Daniel chapter three and you will find that God does rescue the friends from the fiery furnace. But they were willing to disobey even if that meant death. Their allegiance was to God, and then to the king. When God and government come into conflict, we have different ways we can respond in protest. But we bow the knee before the Lord of the Universe before we pledge allegiance to the leaders of the land.