One of Chuck Colson's leading theological advisors and co-architect of the Manhattan Declaration, Dr. Timothy George, joins Mr. Colson in explaining the Christian duty of civil disobedience under certain circumstances. Mr. Colson also highly recommends you read T.M. Moore's, "When Not To Obey: A study on civil disobedience" and the other important resources listed below the video to learn more about this important subject.
Re point 1 from Don DeVan: I would join such a boycott. But, while we must be willing to accept that we may thereby be punished, that doesn't mean we must submit to punishment without a fight. Therefore, I would add to point 1 that we need to establish two defenses. First, we need a cadre of lawyers willing to defend us in court, even if we can't afford the bills. Second, we need a massive public education effort on the topic of jury nullification to improve our chances in court.
Rise and rise again, until lambs become lions.
"Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." -- Colossians 4:5-6 ...This is not 1776, when America was permeated with Biblical moral virtue. America is currently permeated with "progressive political correctness," which requires relinquishing Biblical moral virtue. In order to restore the Republic as our Christian Founders intended, requires the core Biblical foundation which was the motivating factor in how America's Founders confronted EVERY issue, whether social, fiscal, national, and international. In order to restore the "American Way of Life" for our descendants, American citizens, those who are also citizens of the Kingdom of God, must begin to honor and obey their Lord's call to become the Salt & Light they are called to be as “ambassadors” for their King, by preaching not only John 3:16, but what Jesus admonished in the same breath through verse 21. Many are also only “preaching” 1 Timothy 2 but not 2 Timothy 4. The indicators of this revival will be America's overall stance on establishing the boundaries for how “Rights” are to be “entitled,” according to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" (I.E. Abortion & Marriage). No more taxes, no more spending, no more bailouts, no more cronyism, no more Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, no more government stimulus debt, no more TARP, no more forced redistribution of wealth, no more unrighteous liberalism, no more socialism. Democrats & RINO's are a threat to freedom, individual liberties, our health care, our national security, our market place economy. No more bribes, no more transparency lies, no more deceptive catch phrases that mean just the opposite, like "Fairness Doctrine" and "investing," which are carefully crafted contradictions of terms that dupe "We the sheeple" into relinquishing the freedoms and Rights of "We the people." ... "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." --Thomas Paine ..."It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains." --Patrick Henry, Founding Father ..."If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." --Thomas Jefferson ..."Make yourself sheep, and the wolves will eat you." --Ben Franklin ..."History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster." --General MacArthur
Reply to Lloyd on difference of freedom of religion and freedom of worship. Freedom of religion is when you are able to practice your religion openly in all areas of your life. an example of not having freedom of religion is when a secular university can tell Christians that they must accept all view points in their leadership roles even those that are contrary to their core beliefs. Another example is having a university expel you from the school because of your Christian beliefs because they do not conform to the world belief system. These two examples have just made news in the past few weeks. Freedom of worship is that these Christians are free to worship God at their church and other accepted places of worship. In other words freedom of religion is the freedom to follow your religious beliefs without the fear of government or others interference.
Re. the first point in Don Devan's "attack plan", the boycott of federal tax funding of abortion, there have been attempts to do this very thing. Please visit http://prolifestrike.org. (Google "pro life strike"). If interested, use the signup page there to join the effort. Unfortunately, this site has gotten very little attention to date. But if this Chuck Colson forum or The Manhattan Declaration were to promote it, or launch a similar site, the numbers would probably be there, and the groundwork that Mr. Devan seeks could become a reality.
Is out christian stand to be made on the cause of justice? Or is it be made on the proclamation of the gospel, and the gospel alone? The mandate to help the poor, to "visit orphans and widows in their distress" is one we must take seriously. But if we're going to disobey the governing authorities, where will we draw the line on issues upon which we will stand? Several have been called out in the Manhattan project, but where do we stop? My understanding of the NT is that the apostles and early martyrs of the faith were martyred because they preached the gospel, a gospel that addressed the sinful condition of man and his need for redemption! Perhaps this is an oversimplification, but I fear we are spending an enormous amount of resources to gain political victories, admittedly victories that will save lives, but nonetheless political victories, and where in it all is the proclamation of the message? I agree with much of what is said in the declaration, but would sign more willingly if it declared the gospel, not just referred to it.
The civil government, as all of life, stands under the Law of God. In this fallen world God has given us certain offices to protect us from the chaos which is the natural result of that falleness. But when any office commands that which is contrary to the Word of God, those who hold that office abrogate their authority and they are not to be obeyed. And that includes the state.
21 JUL 10, I'm even newer to the blog and have a question: Can someone help me understand the significant difference between freedom of religion (practically) and freedom of worship (in practice)?
LDC of Lakewood, CO
I submit that the call to civil disobedience should be careful, thoughtful, measured, and avoided unless absolutely necessary. (See my ealier post.) The mentality that if that we need to move past Civil Disobedience and already talk about "providing new guards for our future scurity," maybe taken out of context, may not only not right the ship but sink it. The unrest in our country needs leaders who guide the masses through the angst by way of right thinking first, hence this website and other, so reckless action is not provoked and unleashed. Review the hesitency of John Adams in Boston as well as his other compatriates in Philadephia before we move too fast and too far. For Followers of Christ, our first goal and mission is changed hearts, not the removal of princes. Our civil duties follow from that overarching call.
THE FREEDOM MANIFESTO
I read an article in Politico on the agenda of MoveOn.org, which explains their new agenda, now that the most liberal politician in our history has been elected President. Got me thinking of what it would look like if the "right" would - hypothetically speaking, of course - develop a plan to resist MoveOn, Obama and the age of huge (not just big) government. These people at MoveOn did not wait for politicians in Washington to step up to their agenda - they stepped up to the politicians and said "you are going to do this, or else." We Christians and Conservatives, likewise cannot continue to howl and fuss at liberals who do not fight for the Founding Principles upon which our nation was founded. If MoveOn and the Daily Kos can do it, so can we. And we must. The attack plan below to restore Constitutional government, is just a start but should include:
1.Establish the groundwork for a boycott of the federal income tax. If you no longer feel the federal government is operating within the confines of the Constitution, you have a moral obligation to become a conscientious objector and simply say NO to the payment of taxes to Washington. Does the Constitution give the Feds the right to bail out labor unions and give non-citizens rights and benefits? If you feel that by doing so, our sovereignty, Constitution and Bill of Rights are null and void then so is any responsibility you may have had for taxes under the 16th Amendment. 2. Begin a vigorous campaign to urge the public to home-school and/or send their children to private schools, with or without vouchers. Then begin a major program to build a private, non-union school system. This is the only way we will crack the huge union dominated government school bureaucracy. 3. Begin to use the legal system to fight big government. If the ACLU can do it, why can't we? We must begin to bring suit on every issue that threatens our nation's original freedoms and traditions. 4. We begin a systematic march on the media, especially television. TV is the medium through which the liberal agenda is being implemented. The left learned long ago that a picture is worth a thousand words and the best example of this is the pictures of bodies of dead soldiers they broadcast every time we are in a war they do not approve of (usually when a Republican is leading it!). Holding pro-America, Republican rallies at local TV stations would be a great start - especially if the liberals re-implement the "Fairness" Doctrine. 5. Boycott employers who advertise on far left liberal media outlets like NBC. No patriotic American should buy a General Electric household product as long as Matthews, Olbermann and their ilk are permitted to spew their anti-Republican, anti-American hatred. 6. Expose the controlling roll that unions play in growing a totalitarian media/government complex. 7. Establish an underground network of physicians and health care providers that will fight to preserve private sector medicine. 8. Establish Committees of Correspondence and Safety to provide communications and security - just as our Founding Fathers did. 9. Join the NRA as we have just as much right to carry guns under the 2nd Amendment as the media does to carry cameras under the 1st Amendment. 10. Demand adherence to the 9th and 10th Amendments of the Constitution and promote and support state sovereignty efforts. 11. Tell your health care providers that they do NOT have your permission to enter your private medical information in a Federal data base as required in the recently passed (and unconstitutional) so called Stimulus law. 12. Give every American citizen two million dollars, deposited in a bank of their choice, in conjunction with the elimination of Social Security and all federal welfare programs such as WIC, S-CHIP, Medicare, Medicaid, HUD, etc. Shut them all down 13. Repeal the 17th Amendment and last but certainly not least: 14. Repeal the law that makes government employee unions legal.
These are just a few of the actions that are necessary to first stop and then roll back the liberal juggernaut that threatens our basic freedoms and liberty. In our Declaration of Independence, our Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. It is not too late for us to make that same commitment; in fact it is just in time.
THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. – Thomas Paine, The Crisis, December 23, 1776
“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” - Thomas Jefferson
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” – James Madison
I think you make a good point from history about courageous men and women from the 1600's to Martin Luther King who have stood for eternal and natural law in the threat of persecution and loss of life. I am new to the site, so i have missed the ealier posts and videos, but i think we need regular reminders enumerated, as in the Declaration of Independence, what the offenses are. The reason not just the right for Civil Disobedience needs to be broadcast regularly like a beacon of light through the haze of retoric; against the subtle and monumental attacks on our historical freedoms and philosophies that the country is rooted in. And may it never come to the place where this courage and resolve that is required of us, be turned to civil diobedience. There is growing unrest in our country, that at this point retoric is preferred over actions of revolt. St. Paul reminds Timothy and the church to Pray for the kings and all those in authority, that we may live peacful and quite liven in all godliness and holiness, this is good. This is good, and is the goal.
Dr. George is correct as far as he goes, saying that the Christian's obligation is to God first and man only after. However, he does not go far enough.
What he omits is that the American social contract rests on the same point: we, the people, owe our obedience first to God and only second to the government, and when the government attempts to remove the liberties of the people, it has no authority at all. An earlier Declaration with greater authority than the Manhattan Declaration observes that when any form of government, including ours, assaults the rights of a free people, it is their right to alter or abolish that government.
I appreciate the call to civil disobedience, and I'm willing to cooperate with that call for a time. However, perhaps we should be preparing for a more decisive sort of action. What God calls for in our era is not martyrs, but champions of liberty. If civil disobedience does not right the ship of state, we should be ready to provide new guards for our future security.
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