Christian civil disobedience.

     There are many examples of civil disobedience over the years.  Depending on your point of view you to may have participated.  Some would say that civil disobedience was a sin from a Christian standpoint.  After all we are told to obey the authorities and to turn the other cheek.  Then there are those who would say that there is a Christian mandate to be involved in civil disobedience.  Peter and John are the first New Testament example after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  They informed the religious authorities that they needed to obey God rather than man.  Part of the dilemma we pose is not only the definition of civil disobedience but also its application to our world.  Does civil disobedience need to be seen as good or evil?  If you or I participate in civil disobedience are we doing any less than the will of God?  Just offering the possibility opens our minds to a question of not where we stand but to what degree will we defend our stand. 
     Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor during WWII who opposed Hitler and his march to eliminate all but the "superior" race of people.  His activities caught the attention of Hitler and he fled Germany several times.  He was imprisoned, isolated, assaulted and other sufferings at the hand of a very evil man.  His final act of civil disobedience was to make a plan with others to kill Hitler.  He and his cohorts were caught before they could pull off the plan and Bonhoeffer was executed.  Was he on a mission from God?  Was taking this stand what the Scripture teaches?  Is Christian civil disobedience right or wrong?  It was civil disobedience that began our countries quest to find freedom from a tyrannical government.  Many lost their lives so that you and I could live a free life today.  The Revolutionary War happened because Christian people stood up and said "No!"  I could go on with example after example and even trace civil disobedience from Genesis to Revelation.  I think you get the drift.
     Christians today are faced with this difficult subject and more difficult decision more than ever before in history.  We use the term tolerance and intolerance to draw the parameters.  Neither word fully defines the dilemma posed within the Christians mind.  From one end of the spectrum to the other we find conservatives to liberals.  Some would use the word "flaming" before each of those words for the extreme of the extreme.  How much of what we think, say and do is REALLY an example of what we believe the Scripture teaches?  Juxtaposing Jesus' Sermon on the Mount with his deliverance of civil disobedience (I haven't forgotten this is the subject!) by chasing those in the temple out with a whip shouldn't confuse us.  They are both necessary in order to understand just how we are to live the true Christian life. 
     The Sermon on the Mount was not a law.  "Love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul and mind." was a law.  The Sermon on the Mount wasn't civil disobedience.  Chasing the money changers out of the house of God was.  Here is the dilemma that really is the crux of the matter.  The one is how we are to focus our lives.  The other is how we are to apply that life.  Jesus took civil disobedience to many different levels when he talked with the Samaritan woman at the well, forgave sins, healed the sick on the Sabbath, and many other acts which were forbidden not by God but by the law of man.  The early church were not pacifists and neither should we be today.  The early church weren't excusing themselves from what was right and neither should we do so today.  We are not some small child standing on a kitchen chair adamantly stating we will not eat our peas.  That is not civil disobedience.  We are a people called by the living God to stand for God no matter what the cost.  We are told by Scripture to discipline ourselves and to bring our bodies and minds under the control of the Holy Spirit so that "in that day" we can and will stand for God. 
     Being Christian according to Scripture is to love God and love our fellow man.  Like our need to instruct and direct our children, we are called to instruct and direct our world from God's point of view.  Convictions to the contrary are not what God implores us to do.  The goings on in the world today are NOT about me and my comfort.  Would I be willing to die for God by being civilly disobedient?  Yes.  Would you?