Christian faith and civil disobedience: compatible?
An article by ST political editor Chua Lee Hoong prodded me into some thinking. Chua Lee Hoong, who used to work in the intelligence service, pondered over the squandered potential of Dr. Chee Soon Juan. I can relate to her description of the disappointment of the electorate over Dr Chee’s methods. I too have felt this disappointment. The drift was that had Dr Chee taken the path that Mr Chiam, and Mr Low and Ms Sylvia Lim had taken, he would have been more acceptable and effective. But looking at the three caged lions, whose speeches were often truncated or given little space in our national news media, what loss of civil liberties have they highlighted in the last decade? Have they managed to get us to think?
But of greater interest to me is Ms Chua’s mention about Dr Chee’s claim that his Christian faith guides him. She writes:
Not that I think Chee will care about this. He marches, at least in his own mind, to a different beat. “My Christian faith guides me, and it is a faith that compels me to fight for justice and to treat my fellow men and women with compassion,” he said in court last week.
Back in 1993, he also cited his Christian faith when talking about his 10-day hunger trike:”I am a Christian. I came into this hunger strike under the Lord’s guidance and am leaving it the same way. My life is not mine to take.”
The question though is whether mainstream Christians will accept his pattern of behaviour as being particularly Chritian.
He claims to fight for justice but the way he fights has been lamentable.
A few questions came to mind, as I reflected on this. One, would mainstream Christians accept his pattern of behaviour? Two, can a Christian’s faith lead a person to acts of civil disobedience?
I am not theologian nor have I hard evidence, but to the first question, I think the majority of mainstream evangelical Christianity would not find his behaviour acceptable. The Roman Catholics however are perhaps more enlightened in this respect and they just may be more sympathetic. My feeling is that as products of decades of socio-engineering, not to talk about our Confucian roots and upbringing, the mainstream Christians feel embarassed by his mention of the Christian faith in his explanation of what motivates him. Even the enslaved Israelites resisted Moses when he sought to lead them because they have been conditioned by Pharonic Egypt for 400 years. I don’t think it would be true of mainstream Christians in USA or Australia or South Africa or Philippines. They would see it in a different light, as they had gone through periods of suffering under oppressive and unjust laws and governance to the extent that their deprivation of civil liberties were painfully and deeply felt.
Is Christianity and civil disobedience compatible? Can a Christian’s faith lead one to acts of civil disobedience? Have you heard of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr of the American Civil Rights Movement ? or of Archbishop Desmond Tutu who acted against the apartheid South African government? or Cardinal Sin of the Philippines who rallied the Catholic population against Marcos? Ask each of them if their Christian faith led them to do what they did and they will unequivocally say Yes. Was Dr Chee led by the Lord? Many won’t even countenance him being mentioned beside the other luminaries, but is there not even a tiny possibility that he may be led by the Lord? Is he a Samson, genuinely called, but messing it up along the way?
PS: Civil Disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary tactics of nonviolent resistance. In its most nonviolent form (known as ahimsa or satyagraha) it could be said that it is compassion in the form of respectful disagreement.
Civil disobedience is one of the many ways people have rebelled against unfair laws. It has been used in many well-documented nonviolent resistance movements in India (Gandhi’s social welfare campaigns and campaigns for independence from the British Empire), in South Africa in the fight against apartheid, in the American Civil Rights Movement, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ stand against the Nazis (1929-1945), and in peace movements worldwide. One of its earliest massive implementations was by Egyptians against the British occupation in the nonviolent 1919 Revolution. (Wikipedia)
37 comments June 9th, 2008
