by Pastor Daniel Thompson
I have often wrestled with the subject of civil disobedience, as I am sure many of you have. I am seeking to gain more understanding according to the Lord's thoughts instead of my own. It is an important issue and one that each of us should consider in relation to the fight against the killing of innocent children in our country. My intent is not to promote a personal or particular position but simply to provide some thoughts from others that support civil disobedience knowing that it is the more difficult and controversial position.
"What is your position on civil disobedience in the prevention of abortions?"
"Life magazine asked me that question a few years ago, and I prepared the following statement. After World War II, German citizens living around Nazi extermination camps were required to visit the facilities to witness the atrocities they had permitted to occur. Though it was technically legal to kill Jews and other political prisoners the citizens were blamed for not breaking the law in deference to a higher moral code. This is the way we feel about the slaughter of 35 million unborn children. Some of them, only days before normal delivery would have occurred, are being burned to death by a salt solution. Others are delivered except for the head and then their brains are sucked out with a high-powered device. This is a moral outrage that transcends the law that sanitizes the killing. We are law-abiding people and do not advocate violence or obscene and disrespectful behavior, but be sure, we will follow that higher moral code nonviolently to rescue innocent defenseless babies. And someday, the moral issues involved here will be as clear to the world as the Nazi holocaust is today" --Dr. James Dobson
The following are excerpts from a letter written to fellow clergymen from the Birmingham City Jail just prior to the end of legal segregation:
"You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. One may ask, "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: There are just and there are unjust laws. I would agree with Saint Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all." Now what is the difference between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law and the law of God. And unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. And law that degrades human personality is unjust.
"One who breaks an unjust law must do it openly, loving and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over it's injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for the law" --Dr. Martin Luther King
"...so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish." --Esther
"...be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up" --Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego
I will close with a quote from a sermon delivered by Dr. D. James Kennedy when he asked his congregation the following question:
"What were you doing during the American Holocaust?"
Thank you again for your devotion and service on behalf of the Lord's interests.
Because of Him,
Pastor Daniel Thompson