As COVID stubbornly refuses to pass into the rear-view mirror of American life, resistance to measures intended to hasten its departure has understandably increased. With September 15th marking a year and a half since the Trump administration announced a lockdown for “two weeks to slow the spread,” Americans have grown weary of the seemingly never-ending restrictions on daily life. The vanguard of this resistance has been the Evangelical Right, charging those who wish to impose mask or vaccine requirements as tyrants and haters of freedom.
At Grove City College, this has manifested itself in a sizable number of the student populace who reacted to the school’s recent mask mandate. Many students have bristled at the restrictions imposed upon them, with rumors of protests and mass disobedience of COVID guidelines. Putting aside the question of the efficacy of the school’s policy, there is a fundamental question each student considering dissident activity must consider: When is “principled disobedience” to legitimate authority justified?
To consider this question, it is best to start where many in the Evangelical Right would agree ought to be the cornerstone of all knowledge and wisdom: the Bible. Unfortunately for those sympathetic to broad disobedience, the Bible speaks much more of the virtues of submission and obedience than it does the value of rebellion. In James’ letter to the early Christian churches, he writes, “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.” How this submissiveness relates to one’s actions is fleshed out in other New Testament passages.
Hebrews 13:17 says, “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account.” Paul in Romans 13 calls on Christians to submit to governmental authority, as God has established those in power himself. It is hard to say that the Roman government and its relentless persecution of Christians posed a greater threat to liberty and human rights than a situational mask mandate.
Based on these verses, the case for disobedience seems impossible to make. Yet there are specific instances when principled disobedience does seem to be acceptable. When Pharaoh commanded the Israelite midwives to kill all newborn Jewish boys in Exodus 1, they disobeyed his command, and, when questioned about their disobedience, they lied to him. Rather than receiving discipline from God for their disobedience, they were rewarded by God with families and children. Daniel 6:10 accounts how directly after a law was passed forbidding prayer to anyone or anything other than the Babylonian king, Daniel disobeyed by praying three times a day. God rewarded Daniel for his act of dissent and protected him from his intended punishment at the jaws of the lions in the den.
How does one synthesize the approval for disobedience in these anecdotes with the approval for submission that is emphasized so often in the New Testament? The Bible does not give us any simple and definitive answer, but from the examples it provides as “good disobedience,” a clear pattern emerges. Justified dissidence is disobedience of any law or requirement that seeks to require one to sin or prevent one from serving God. Outside of circumstances where authorities attempt to enforce laws or commands such as these, the Bible is silent in support of disobedience, principled or otherwise.
Where does that leave those considering anti-mask rebellion? They are left with the choice of whether their political principles are more important to them than their religious ones. The urge to rebel against the slightest infringement on liberty runs deep in the bloodstream of the American consciousness, especially the American right, but that urge cannot supersede the wisdom of the Bible. There is nothing wrong with disagreement with authority, and there are proper avenues for expressing those things. But in matters as ultimately trivial as mask policy, to refuse to obey would be unbiblical.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the Cogitare Magazine’s position.
