Trespassing for Dear Life is a small booklet (under 50 pages) written by Gary North. The context of the booklet is a pro-life organization's (at the time called Operation Rescue, now Operation Save America) practice of trespassing, of blocking entrances to abortion clinics, which was apparently dividing the Christian community (p. 23).
North wrote the little booklet to challenge the assumption that it's always wrong for Christians to break a civil law, in this case, trespass laws (p. 4). In other words, he deals with the dilemma of conflicting, lawful voices of authority (God vs. state).
North begins by stating that once Christians have accepted God's law as valid for all areas of life including abortion, the question becomes one of division of labor: "Christians must decide which unjust laws to obey and which to disobey, since no one can fight every aspect of civil injustice at one time. We are creatures. No one has sufficient time or resources to fight every possible battle." (p. 5) Once this decision has been made, Christians must decide either to disobey a civil law and, thereby establish a judicial test case, or obey the civil law in the interim while working to change or abolish it through political means.
Next, a very helpful list of stages of resistance as outlined in the Bible are discussed. North describes these forms of resistance as "righteous protests against civil authority" (p. 8) that are on a progressive gradient of intensity, the use of which may be dependent on time and circumstances. Here is the list:
1. Verbal protest and civil obedience: the protester obeys an immoral law but warns the civil magistrate that it is wrong and should be repealed (2 Samuel 24.3-4).
2. Verbal protest and civil disobedience: the same as stage 1 except the protester disobeys the immoral law and voluntarily endures the ensuing punishment (Daniel 3).
3. Verbal protest and rebellion: the same as stage 2 except the protester does not voluntarily endure the ensuing punishment. Instead, s/he leaves the geographical jurisdiction of the civil authority (1 Kings 17).
4. Civil disobedience through deception: the same as stage 3 except the protester does not leave the geographical jurisdiction of the civil authority. Instead, s/he uses deception to "deflect the evil consequences of the law" (p. 9) (Exodus 1; Joshua 2).
5. Intervention of a group of protesters: a united group of protesters tells a government they will not allow it to bring sanctions against an immoral law (1 Samuel 14.43-46).
6. God-anointed protester warns people and challenges them to rebel against the civil authority (1 Kings 18.40).
7. Lower magistrates revolt against central government: after a series of official protests, lower magistrates revolt against an unlawful central government (1 Kings 12.19).
In fairness, some Christians would respond that these stages of protest are not taught or condoned in the Bible, only described as a part of a historical narrative. To this, North would respond:
"There is no indication in the Bible that any of these acts was morally or judicially improper, and in most cases, God granted visible positive sanctions as rewards for such action. Anyone who says that resistance and even revolution (rebellion) are not morally and judicially justified in the Bible has to ignore or deny a great deal of Scripture..." (p. 10)
North goes on to delineate the purpose of government and argues for the right of revolution against unlawful government, which is really a means of renouncing jurisdiction when one is unable to relocate geographically to another jurisdiction. However, North makes one very important qualification about revolution: "This right is lawful only when conducted by lesser magistrates who have been raised up by God to challenge immoral rulers." (p. 15) When civil disobedience involves violence, it must have the support of public officials whereas civil obedience that does not involve violence (e.g., deception) does not require any such support according to North.
A considerable length of North's booklet is taken up with a number of arguments that Christians used to denounce Operation Rescue's non-violent protests (e.g., abortion laws are not compulsory, biblical law is not valid in secular states, laws are irrelevant for preventing abortion). With his characteristic insight, North dismantles the poor reasoning behind these arguments.
Overall, Trespassing for Dear Life is a decent primer on the complex issue of how Christians are to respond to conflicting, lawful voices of authority. I suspect, however, that those who see no relevance of biblical law for society and/or those who think lying/revolution are always wrong will find little ground for agreement here.
For those seeking a fuller treatment on the subject, North published a book-length examination of Operation Rescue, When Justice is Aborted.
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A decent primer on the complex issue of how Christians are to respond to conflicting, lawful voices of authority
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2010
