Sunday, March 25, 2007

I Pledge Allegiance?

Derek Webb wrote a song whose chorus goes:

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it's to a king & a kingdom

Wow. Here's a question for you: Where is your first allegiance? Is it to your state, your country, your political movement, or your God? Our first allegiance as Christians should be to God and his kingdom. This song ties in nicely with what Francis Schaeffer wrote in The Christian Manifesto:

"God has ordained the state as a
delegated authority; it is not autonomous. The state is to be an agent of justice, to restrain evil by punishing the wrongdoer, and to protect the good in society. When it does the reverse, it has no proper authority. It is then a usurped authority and as such it becomes lawless and is tyranny."

This brings us to an interesting turning point: if the government legislates evil, what should Christians do? This is not an abstract possibility: as the bill on homosexuality under debate in England shows, Western democratic governments are not afraid to limit the rights of Christians. If a similar bill was passed in America, would Christians be brave enough to continue to denounce homosexuality as sin? What if it was made illegal to evangelize? Would Christians continue to spread the Word of God? In both of these examples, it would be necessary to use civil disobedience so we don't disobey God. So my answer to my first question would be: disobey, flee, and--if necessary--turn and fight. If the government uses my tax money to sponsor embryonic stem-cell research or to keep an abortion clinic going, I shouldn't pay my taxes. This is just my theory: feel free to correct me and play the devil's advocate.

1 comment:

Andrew said...

Good post man...
yeah, it's kind of scary though because our nation may be becoming a lawless tyrannical nation...

Tim