Sometimes You Should Break the Law

Monopoly by Leah Gardner

As long as laws have existed, people have been breaking them. In Christian tradition, the belief that Adam and Eve broke God’s law in the Garden of Eden demonstrates just how age-old disobedience to the law has been. Generally, it is taught that breaking the law is bad. Children are put in a time-out, and adults are put in jail for disobedience. However, the writings of famous advocates such as Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" make the argument that there is a time when it is actually correct to break the law. When civil law counters an individual’s moral law, one should revolt and follow their moral convictions for the sake of enacting change to civil provisions. 

Civil disobedience has been a form of protest all throughout history. In the Persian Empire, Esther disobeys laws regarding respect for the king in order to fulfill her moral conviction about the safety of Jewish citizens (Esther 4:16). In Ancient Rome, Jesus Christ broke the Jewish religious laws regarding the Sabbath by gathering food and healing people on a day of rest (Matthew 12:1-8). In the 1850s, abolitionists broke the Fugitive Slave Laws to create the Underground Railroad. In the 1950s, Rosa Parks broke segregation laws by refusing to move out of her seat on a segregated bus. In the modern era, students are protesting standardized testing by organizing school-wide walk-outs. Civil disobedience is an important piece of democratic government, as it gives the people a voice against injustice. Even in the modern age, civil disobedience is both a practical tool and a necessary asset.

In Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience,” he makes the differentiation between civil and moral law. He suggests that a civil society should not have “majorities. . . decide virtually right and wrong, but conscience," arguing that morality is a personal issue that stems from individual internal convictions, not the direction of the law. According to Thoreau, it is not by legal standards that a person decides right from wrong, but by personal moral conviction. He also suggests that, should the law be in contradiction to a person’s individual moral convictions, civil disobedience should ensue as a method to amend unjust laws. He goes so far as to state that people, especially in a democracy, even have a “right of revolution. . . and to resist the government” when laws are unjust, reflecting the same revolutionary ideas expressed in documents like the Declaration of Independence. 

A current social issue that has created mass civil disobedience on both sides is that of abortion. Both pro-life and pro-choice advocates have demonstrated strikes, protests, and other forms of disobedience for the sake of emphasizing their personal moral convictions over civil laws. Women across the United States are taking action to defend their personal beliefs and challenge laws they disagree with by participating in marches and protests. Pro-life advocates are frequently found outside of abortion and pregnancy clinics, and while their standing, praying, or conversing is not against the law, it can be considered civil disobedience, since it challenges legal standards that these women have moral opposition to. 

Civil disobedience is a necessary part of a functioning democracy. As a Christian, I believe that actions of civil disobedience are even Biblical, as Acts 5:29 states that “we must obey God rather than man." We are called outright to respect our leaders and the law (Matthew 22:15-22), but above that, we are called to respect God and His law, and where those two contradict, God's law always takes priority. I think a lot of people are scared to act in civil disobedience because they don’t want to seem rude or unkind, but acting on your beliefs is usually nothing but brave and mature, so long as you do it in a respectful and Christ-honoring way. I agree with Thoreau. Without civil disobedience, people become submissive and unconvicted, and lack the ability to have a strong voice for reform in society. We are called not only by conscience, but by Scripture to be bold and make change.