Refusal
How does scripture inform your resistance to injustice today?
Titus 3:1
Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work.
No.
Last night I walked a labyrinth with a recovery friend. During a conversation after our walk, I shared that I did not read the Bible for several years. He asked why and I said, “Because I didn’t like what it said.” We laughed hard as the Bible is my sacred text and a foundation of my call to service. But as Karl Barth offered, “I take the Bible too seriously to take it literally.”
I am thankful for teachers that taught me to examine scripture for the systems of oppression in which they were written. I am thankful for the experience and revelation of Jesus Christ as liberator. I am grateful for a spiritual experience that gives me the fruits of the Holy Spirit and the power to use them to stand with those our systems oppress.
I refuse to collude with or obey rulers and authorities of this time.
I joyfully resist. I do so in Jesus’ name.
How does scripture inform your resistance to injustice today?
—Dax Franklin-Hicks
Not all authority should be resisted or refused, even if it is majority rules and winner-take-all, rather than consensus. Sometimes leader actions and rules are net good despite imperfections of justice. Scripture advises careful discernment, as some injustices are far worse than others.
For example, are tariffs on Canadian tar sand oils and old growth tundra lumber bad compared to far cleaner US natural gas, and fast growing pine tree farms in US south absorbing carbon for storage in lumber?
Religions and faithful need to look beyond divisive fearmongering politics (on both sides) daily amplified by our media chasing profits by winding us up, often creating excessive anxiety. Best to simply turn off radio/TV/web video, focus on reading headlines (often misleading clickbait), and some in depth reporting on key issues from a wide variety of news (esp. religious) to get a decent approximation of the whole truth.