What the New Testament Says
About Obeying Our Government

Find Out Where Paul Came Up with the Idea that Christians Should Submit to Our "Rulers?"

I am astonished by how some of my Christian "friends" have decided that their moral compass is so good that they can advocate and push other Christians to break the law.
We are experiencing a time of serious division within Christian circles. Some Christians think the moral high ground demands that they hide illegal immigrants; encourage or participate in blocking the vehicles of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) personnel from doing their job. Then when someone dies...they blame the government.

Read my Patheos article on what our history AND biblical text says about respecting our government.

Reader Comments
1. I'm not sure if you mean to or not, but you seem like you're implying that we only have to submit to political authority. Also that we only have to publicly submit to authority. Both of those implications are unbiblical, so I would like some clarification on your point.

2. Honestly, my greatest issue about the article is the timing. As I said, I encounter these arguments about submission to authority ONLY when that person's own party is in power. When you look at the Biden administration, there was zero, and I mean zero, submission towards Biden's administration in the overall conservative Christian community. Let's go Brandon. "I did that" stickers. A general refusal to accept the 2020 election results. Jan 6. A plot to kidnap Michigan's governor. The attack on the Pelosi family.

I completely reject political violence, and continue to readily condemn the rioting following the 2016 elections, the assassination attempts on Trump, the murder of Charlie Kirk, etc. But one thing I do not see from the Christian Right is the same condemnation when their side commits the violence, or even the lack of submitting. I simply cannot trust when a Conservative speaks about Biblical submission now, when there was no talk of that during the Biden administration.

Also, every prophet up to and including John the Baptist spoke out against political authorities of the day. Submission has never meant public acceptance of what that person does in office. Trump even said Thursday that if the people at the midterm convention didn't vote, they were going to hell. Please tell me HOW you can publicly submit to a statement like that.

My response to this reader is below.

This is the kind of conversation that we all need to have right now. Part of what drives me to write articles is the space to develop an argument and support it. That is much more beneficial than throwing bombs back and forth.

You started your comments with "I'm not sure...but you seem like you're implying." Why not ask me a direct question? Effective dialogue and listening to the other side is more productive when you simply ask the other person questions. When you say I implied that we ONLY have to submit to political authority it brings 5-6 other things/concepts (maybe more) that would have to be addressed. Then you said I implied "that we only have to publicly submit to authority." Wow.

I think my article was pretty clear.
I had a very specific biblical principle I wanted to point out. I do not typically "imply" things. I say what I intend to say. Asking me for more context is certainly a good way to engage, but assuming that I implied other concepts leads to all kinds of tangents that I did NOT address. Patheos recommends 1,500 words, so I cannot address every issue. To address all the things you thought I implied would have taken me 4,000 words.

I am happy to offer clarification. I will begin by responding to the rest of your comments. It appears to me that "political violence" has increased over the last 10 years. I think this is a complicated problem with multiple causes. I think a significant cause of this violence comes from our political rhetoric...on both sides, although I do think the Left/Dems use far more aggressive language and symbols. (the Kathy Griffin photo is the worst, but there was also the 2017 Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar. The Caesar character was meant to look like Trump so his assassination mocked the killing of President Trump (you can see a gruesome photo of this play here). Our "free" speech (both sides) has become highly charged. Then there is the Johnny Depp comments about assasinating Trump (several other Hollywood stars have make similar comments). Yet NOBODY was arrested and charged for any of these comments/actions. These haters use monikers like "Nazi, fascist, 'No more Kings'." If the Trump Admin was truly functioning under these concepts many folks would be in prison or executed by now.

This is the kind hypocrisy that bothers me. Obama was treated with kid gloves while all sorts of nasty things are said about Trump. I never heard my fellow Christians saying/writing such comments about Obama. He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize...can somebody tell why? He used Lois Lerner (IRS) to go after conservative political groups. He made negative comments about law enforcement during highly charged criminal and social upheaval before all the evidence was brought to bear. AG Holder openly proclaimed that he was "President Obama's wingman" which suggests that he was there to do the bidding of POTUS. I didn't hear any of my Christian "friends" publicly denouncing the use of Obama with a halo [Google search: "magazine covers of obama with a halo"]. You will not find any other President depicted with a halo (See the example above next to the severed head of Trump - this is the kind of obvious double standard judging that I am responding to...yet nobody cried "Democratic Nationalist Christians!"

Again, my article was clearly about not breaking the law while protesting AND how we speak in public about our government officials more than it was on "submission." It was about "illegal" protesting, not ALL protests. There was no implying...the main image at the top of the article clearly speaks to this direction.

Standing on the sidewalk with posters is usually quite legal. Blocking law enforcement vehicles by standing on the road to keep officers from doing their job is illegal. Christians should not engage in illegal protest, nor should they offer support to those who use illegal tactics. We are supposed to obey the law. Some commenters have equated ICE officials arresting "citizens" and deporting people as equal to hiding Jews from Hitler in Germany. This is a ridiculous comparison: They were working Jews to death in slave encampments while keeping them on a starvation diet...and burning Jews alive in gas chambers! These comparisons are outrageous. Like almost ALL other nations with laws about who can enter their nation, we should do the same. Immigrants are not stupid - they know they are breaking our laws to enter our nation without various documentation.

I also clearly mentioned that in the USA we live with a tension: we have the Bill of Rights baked into our politics, but the biblical text clearly calls for Christians to refrain from slander against our government and officials. Calling our governmental officers/departments "Nazis" or "Facists" leads people to be more willing to engage in illegal activity and/or violence.

You did not support your comment on "there was zero, and I mean zero, submission towards Biden's administration in the overall conservative Christian community." But I will go ahead and comment on the examples you used. I was completely against closing down churches - forcing churches to close, yet allowing various businesses to stay open made no sense. Your position in previous comments indicates that you would agree me with on this point.

"Let's Go Brandon" (as you know) started at football stadiums as "F Joe Biden." I agree that was crude, but are you blaming or accusing Christians of this behavior? It is difficult to know what percentage of the crowds were truly Christian.
1. "Let's Go Brandon" (as you know) started with a reporter not wanting to acknowledge what the crowd was really chanting (during the interview of the winner at the Talladega 500).
2. THAT entire interaction was hysterical. I hope you can appreciate the humor of this. From that point forward crowds stopped dropping the "F bomb" and used "Let's Go Brandon." Christians probably joined in with that chant since they did not have to use the "F" bomb. It became more about being funny in protest, than being truly hateful.

IF you are using this as an example of Christians showing a lack of submission I think that is weak. A lack of honor...yes. BUT my article makes it clear that the biblical text does not support even that behavior.
I had to look up what "I did that" stickers means. We will have to disagree if you list that as public slander. AND I never heard of those stickers causing violence. There was also a measure of comedy in those stickers. Meanwhile I am familiar with several videos where angry Leftist/Dems go "Karen" if they catch somebody wearing a Trump/MAGA hat: knocking the hat off; slapping the MAGA person, etc. My article shows that the biblical text commands Christians to abstain from public slander/dishonoring our President. My audience is not aimed at the 30-35M "good ol' boy" Trump supporters. Many of these claim to be Christian - none of us KNOW whether they have true faith. If so, then my article IS directed at them as well.

You "cannot trust when a Conservative speaks about Biblical submission now." That is the biblical text commanding it, not me. Again, submission was only a minor part of that article. Obeying the law and not slandering the government "ruler" were also in the texts cited. Bringing up examples where MAGA people did not submit does not negate the biblical text. The 2020 election. My opinion on J6 is that when it is far enough in the rearview mirror it will become clear just like "Crossfire Hurricane," the Hunder Biden laptop and the 51 intelligence officers who were not just wrong on the Russian collusion, but were in on it. Our government has an interesting way of hiding information until statutes of limitation have run.

The entire J6 was a scam. How many hours of the 44,000 hours of video have you watched? When these videos were FINALLY made public I watched about 40 hours of video - I watched at 2x speed and stopped/slowed down when something really interested came up. The facts are more clear now:
1. There were MANY CIA undercover agents there fomenting illegal activity. And there were individuals guilty of violence and/or vandalism.
2. Capital police clearly moved barriers out of the way while waving protesters INTO areas that should have been protected.
3. Capital police clearly opened doors into the Capitol buildings AND waved protesters INTO the buildings!
IF our government was guilty of these slanderous labels ALL of these protesters would be killed or dragged into prison and not given habius corpus...like what the Biden DOJ did with many of the J6 protesters.