Would you break the law?

Have you ever been on a protest march?

I’m not a natural protester, although there have been a couple of occasions when I joined a climate march. Most recently (before the pandemic) it was in support of a youth climate march in Cambridge. It ended on King’s Parade where many of the marchers lay down on the lawn in front of King’s College. I confess that my respect for authority was such that I kept off the grass.

I clearly wouldn’t be good recruiting material for an outfit like Insulate Britain. They are a splinter group of Extinction Rebellion (XR), which has also organised disruptive protests; most notably blocking roads and the underground in central London. Apparently Insulate Britain thinks that XR’s protests are not sufficiently radical.

What should Christians make of protest groups like these? Bible passages such as Romans 13: 1-7 and 1 Peter 2: 13-14 command us to be subject to the governing authorities. But what are the limits to that authority? There are notable examples in the Bible of people who chose to obey God rather than human authorities: the Hebrew midwives (Exodus 1); Daniel; Peter and John when forbidden to preach (Acts 4).

Throughout history there have been many others who have defied the authorities, whether on explicitly Christian grounds (such as the Protestant reformers) or not. In the modern era you might think of people like Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragettes, or Rosa Parks who famously sat on the bus and became an icon of the US Civil Rights movement.

We should evaluate any kind of protest movement prayerfully and with the Bible in one hand. Here are three questions to ask.

Is the cause worthy? As far as Insulate Britain goes, who wouldn’t agree that it’s a good thing to make sure that everyone’s home is properly insulated? Britain’s homes are some of the oldest and coldest in Europe, and it would not only save carbon but help people in fuel poverty. Government action has been painfully slow, so I’m 100% with them on this one.

What are the motives of the protesters? What is their underlying worldview? Here we get into deeper water. Take XR. Although we might sympathise with some of their values (such as non-violence), others are decidedly questionable, such as the view that they have a duty to disobey the system. Still, you might reasonably conclude that XR are acceptable ‘co-belligerents’ (as Francis Schaeffer put it) if the cause is worthy, particularly to support a specific issue such as action on climate change.

Finally, what is their method? Is this the best or only way to protest? Who gets harmed? In a democracy there are many ways to make your voice heard. Disrupting the lives of thousands of people may grab the headlines, but may also harm people who have no say in the issues at stake and alienate people who you want to be on your side. That’s why I would personally draw the line at the protest tactics used by XR and Insulate Britain.

Perhaps it’s too easy, in my law-abiding view of the world, to critique protestors, so I finish with a challenge to myself. Do I show the same passion, commitment and willingness to get out of my comfort zone on the issues that are close to my heart? Maybe that’s what we all need to do to show proper care for all of Creation.