Lessons in Christian resistance theory (2): Civil disobedience

The following brief analysis belongs to a commentary on the Fifth Commandment, offered by J. Douma in The Ten Commandments: Manual for the Christian Life (pages 204-205).

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/204/Civil Disobedience

The subject of civil disobedience is not very old. We have written elsewhere about the matter as well [Politieke verantwoordelijkheid, 177—93], so that again a brief summary will suffice.

We understand the phrase civil disobedience to refer to publicly visible conduct that consciously violates the law in order to change a law or government regulation by means of what is intended to be nonviolent compulsion.

This form of violating the law does not occur in secret (for example, by means of tax evasion), but bears a public character. It applies the force of moral compulsion. Civil disobedience is different from a protest march; it can take the form of sit-ins, blockades, and the like. The intention is non-violent acts, since otherwise it would not be civil disobedience any longer, but sabotage, guerrilla resistance, or revolution.

How must we evaluate civil disobedience? In practice, it rarely succeeds in remaining nonviolent, even though that is how it starts. Even if it occurs without violence, civil disobedience can nevertheless contain a very refined form of violence. For example, boycotting a chain of stores can put merchants out of business. Perhaps they might prefer a good beating rather than this form of attack.

Another objection against civil disobedience is that it undermines parliamentary democracy. People go around their elected representatives to extort decisions. What “the people” want is played off against what the lawmakers are (or are not) doing.

A Christian must stay far away from such activities. For this kind of behavior has little in common with the good style required from us toward /205/ those in authority. Each of us has the right and the duty to use every legal means at our disposal (assembly, protect marches, petitions, exercising influence upon and through our elected representatives, and the like) in order to fight against regulations and laws that we consider unjust. But we take the law into our own hands when we walk outside the fence of the law and try to force our will upon others.

Disobedience to the government can be necessary; but civil disobedience, in terms of both its definition and its well-known practice, looks entirely different from the disobedience commanded for Christians in extreme situations.

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From The Ten Commandments: Manual for the Christian Life, by J. Douma (Philippsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1996), 204—205.