On Romans 13 and its aftermath

If I were given permission from God to excise one passage from the Bible, I think I might have to go for Romans 13:1-7. That's the part where Paul tells the Roman Christians to submit to the government, "for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God." This is one of those passages that almost never gets invoked except to defend the status quo, and usually the status quo at its worst. It goes on to say that the government "is God's servant to execute wrath on the evildoer." The idea that government exists to restrain evil was central to the political thought of St. Augustine (who at is better moments, is a theological favorite of mine), who as a prominent bishop in North Africa, appealed to the Roman authorities to put an end to the Donatist schism. This passage was obliquely invoked by Rick Warren to lend credence to back up Sean Hannity's wish that the American government should assassinate the president of Iran. Warren's interpretation is just ridiculous, since by this Romans 13 logic, Ahmadinejad would also be an authority instituted by God. I also heard this passage invoked or alluded to a few times back in 2003-4 against those who actively opposed or spoke out against the war. Again, that made no sense at all, especially when the governing authority is a democracy. Thankfully, the national mood seems to have changed since then.

So what does this passage mean and what, if anything, is it good for? Clearly Paul believes that government has a legitimate role in human affairs. And he says that this role is to restrain evil, and that as long as one does no evil, one should have nothing to fear from the government. But let us take a step back and note that the government he is talking about is the Roman Empire, and that Paul himself would break its laws and die at its hand. And surely neither Paul nor any other Christian would consider Paul's crimes evil. So we are told to obey the law by a man who openly broke the law. As Roman persecution of Christians continued (it was probably never as widespread as the stories we tell in Sunday school would make it out to be, but it was never unheard of either), a later New Testament author would give somewhat more nuanced advice: "Now who will harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord" (1 Peter 3:13-15a). Peter (or whoever wrote this letter, it doesn't really matter) also considers imperial authority to be derived from God, but it can still do evil and hinder good, and the Christian must resist the evil and do the good even when this will be punished by the government. So it is clear that in calling the government the servant of God, neither Paul nor Peter is giving it a blank check.

In fact, bearing in mind that Paul was writing about an empire that was hostile to Christianity, one might go so far as to say that to attribute the existence of imperial authority to God isn't even to say that it is a good thing. If you were to read other treatments of governments in the Bible, you might get the impression that God only allows them to exist in order to let evil run its course. I'm thinking of Revelation, the second half of Daniel, the first chapter of Habakkuk, and maybe a few others. Governments may be part of God's design, but we run the risk of blatant idolatry when we identify them as the whole of God's design. And perhaps most importantly, it should be noted that Paul makes no distinction between "good" and "evil" government. As I noted above, nationalistic Americans should be very wary of quoting this verse, because it applies just as much to tyrants and communists as to presidents and parliaments. And we'll see if they keep spewing out this government is God's servant crap now that we have a progressive Democrat in office. I hope they don't, and that they don't resume it when their party is back in power.

But there's a liberal version this idolatry too, and that is to identify any political agenda with God's design. We've cried foul for the last eight years as we watched conservatives do this. Let's be sure not to make the same mistake ourselves. Our party currently has an electoral mandate, but not necessarily a divine mandate. Our government may be able to restrain some evil, and it's good that they're thinking about evils like poverty and climate change now instead of just people we don't like (even people we don't like for good reasons). But demagoguery is bad no matter who's doing it. So don't start!