“As I see it, only God can be all-powerful without danger, because his wisdom and justice are always equal to his power. Thus there is no authority on earth so inherently worthy of respect, or invested with a right so sacred, that I would want to let it act without oversight or rule without impediment.”
So said Alexis de Tocqueville in 'Democracy in America' (1831), a book I am now overdue in reading for the first time, and which I hope to finish up this weekend.
Now consider this statement and its sentiment from nearly two centuries ago, and imagine if in any of all possible universes you can imagine its echo from the big names in mainstream Evangelical Christianity in America listed in this excellent article by Megan Basham at The Daily Wire and its brief synopsis by Joel Abbott and Not The Bee.
In summary of the summary, the likes of Ed Stetzer, Russell Moore, Joe Carter, N.T. Wright, Tim Keller, Rick Warren, and David French conspired with former NIH director Francis Collins to lecture American Christians early on in this pandemic about the responsibility before God which good Christians had to unquestioningly obey the settled science.
We all saw the effects, yet it is stunning to see the deliberateness and coordination between Collins and Big Eva notables to marginalize, stigmatize, and rebuke under the guise of Christian humility and obedience any efforts at accountability for those wielding authority in highly questionable ways, or making claims which have since turned out to be dubious at best.
The mainstream American Evanjelly talking point has been that Romans 13 requires that Christians submit to governing authority. Yet what is not talked about in any depth is whether all persons claiming authority have sufficient lawful authority to be mandating and requiring all that they do, or whether in our system of government the checks and balances laid out in our Constitution depend on our ability and willingness as the People to be one of the layers of multi-factor authentication when it comes to the legitimacy of commands and penalties.
In short, Romans 13 tells us that governing authority ultimately comes from God and is a minister of God to reward those who do good and punish those who do evil.
Yet a shallow treatment of the passage summarizing it as nothing more than a blank check to whosoever would claim to be an authority, admitting them to our blind and placid acquiescence and obedience is actually a dereliction of duty - particularly when the real rebels are those exceeding their authority and decrying any notion of accountability through the system of checks and balances inherent to our Constitution and form of government.
Not only can Christians have a good testimony when correcting or rebuking governing authorities who reward those who do evil and punish those who do good - it is hard to imagine how American Christians in particular could have a good testimony any other way except by providing that oversight and impediment which de Tocqueville wrote so eloquently about nearly two centuries ago.
Yet just as he says in Democracy in America, “Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.”
