Corona and Civil Disobedience

Fear of death, fear of virus and just like that, we give the government power over us. Power bordering on martial law; to lock us in our houses; close our schools, keep us from working. We whisper, “It could never happen here,” as the Mayor of New York says he will permanently close houses of worship if they don’t comply with social distancing. Or consider this headline from the New York Times, "Pandemic Tempts Leaders to Seize Sweeping Powers." Where’s the line? Do I make a stand? Corona’s got me thinking conscience.

Time to hammer out a rubric for acts of conscience. What actions require a response? Do I engage in civil disobedience? If so, when? The overarching biblical principal is that ‘every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.’ In most issues I obey the law. I protest but I don’t break it. Yet there are distinct situations where I defy.

These are the summits I stand on, the hills I’ll die on. This past December Wang YI, head of one of China’s largest unregistered churches was sentenced to nine years in prison. The crime, in his words, “The goal of disobedience is not to change the world but to testify about another world…The Bible teaches us that, in all matters relating to the gospel and human conscience, we must obey God and not men. For this reason, spiritual disobedience and bodily suffering are both ways we testify to another eternal world and to another glorious King.” Men may make God illegal but there are higher laws. 

Every person is created in the image of God. This makes all humans valuable and gives value to those considered “less than valuable (including the unborn).” If a law encroaches on their life, liberty or pursuit of happiness it is a bad law. In such cases breaking the law to save another; or to make a point is a good thing. “An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” 

These are the parameters which guide my steps. Your guidelines may end up different. To often we make determinations based on fear and feeling. This is a good season for thinking through what you believe. What’s my grid? We’re inside now. Is there a time to step out, step in, step up? 

The Social Implications of Covid 19

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

You reached out to touch me, You reached out to touch me -

I said it's too true; You and me we know too much!---Mark Heard

Satan spoke to God about Job, “Touch all that he has; he will surely curse you to your face.” Did Satan have a similar conversation with God concerning Corona and the human race? We are faced with the same choice as Job; Curse God and die; or worship and bless Him. Corona is a curse in its social implications as well as its physiological ones.

I’m old school. I shake hands to greet; shake hands as thanks. No more. It’s a world where manners hardly matter and phones destroy interaction. Now we “socially distance.” Isn’t that what we’ve been doing all along? Now it’s sanctioned as safe. Avoidance good, community bad. 

For our "good" we are seeing the government ‘recommend’ business closures and small group assemblies. They even encourage the shutting down of brew-pubs and wineries noting that they are non-essential (at a time when they seem most essential!). The hand of government is strengthened to coerce. What next? What becomes illegal for our own ‘safety?’ Mandatory vaccines? Gun laws? Religious gatherings? How much power is to much power?

And always, the fear. Corona robs us of control. What can we control? We can stockpile stuff! Ahh, now we’re in control. Which brings us back to Job. If your kids die, your riches go and your health perishes; what’s left? God is left. “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord.” 

Let us not be those who cower at the whisper of Corona. As the world moves toward isolation we will move into community---cautiously optimistic. As we submit to authority let us move forward with consciences wise and wary. Finally give God your fear, “casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.” I was sitting on catastrophe's knee, I was expecting Armageddon to come…You reach out to soothe me, you reach out to soothe me; you and me we know too much.