An essay which debates whether Christians can justify civil disobedience as taught under the 'Christian Moral Action' topic under OCR A Leve RS H573/03 Developments in Christian Thought, referencing the teachings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Can Christians justify civil disobedience?
It can be argued that Christians can justify civil disobedience on the
grounds that the duty to follow Jesus and God’s will overrides all
worldly duties. Jesus claims that he is “the way, the truth and the life”
in the Bible, and thus striving to obtain the truth and ultimate
knowledge of Christianity and God’s will through Jesus justifies
going to extreme lengths such as disobeying the state. Bonhoeffer
rejected the Nazi ideology he was living under at the time and spoke
against it, claiming it was indoctrinating people into believing that
Hitler was the ultimate figure to which all people should follow, but
Bonhoeffer asserted that Jesus was the only source of authority which
mattered in people’s lives, hence civil disobedience is justified in
allowing people to carry out their faith and enact their duty to
whomever they feel they hold, which for Bonhoeffer (and most
Christians) is Jesus.
However, it could be argued that the lengths to which some people
may go to carry out their duty would lead them to follow apparent
goods rather than real goods. Bonhoeffer was part of a plot to
assassinate Hitler (which would be seen as being civilly disobedient)
in the hope that the war (and persecution of Jews & indoctrination of
Christians) would end early – hence being a real good. However, we
cannot be certain that our actions are truly good, as if Hitler had been
assassinated, then the war may have been prolonged, which means
that Christians in Germany would have still been indoctrinated and
unable to properly carry out their faith and duty to Jesus and God’s
will – which would not have been a real good. Hence, I think that
Christians cannot justify civil disobedience since we cannot truly be
sure that going against the state will lead to the best outcome- either
for faith or for people, as seen in Bonhoeffer’s attempt to assassinate
Hitler.
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