De-Weaponizing Romans 13

For the poor-winners, the brokenhearted and the bewildered.

[ Photo Credit: Bernie Benton - October 21, 1967. Vietnam War Protester George Harris putting a wildflower into the barrel of a rifle held by a soldier]

I promised myself I wouldn’t write about the recent US election. Frankly, I’m tired of it all and unsure if the frenzied energy and attention are helping or hindering. But still, I will brush up against the US election results without actually writing about it.

In this instance, folks who tend to lean to the right on the political spectrum (yes, the left does it too) are engaging in the biblical malfeasance of Proof Texting, specifically referencing Romans 13:1-2 ( I reference up to verse 4 for effect) as divine support for the win of the President-elect. Based on Romans 13, they reason that the President-elect won was because God wanted him there.

Romans 13 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval, ⁴ for it is God’s agent for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the agent of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.”

Well, the bible says it that settles it. It’s all on God. Right?!

Cool your bright yellow hi-lighter! Let’s look again.

Some Context

Paul is writing this letter from prison. Folks aren’t generally imprisoned for being good, docile, and obedient citizens. Paul was in jail because he challenged the tyrannically-enforced status quo by actively claiming that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar.

Likewise, there’s this guy Jesus, and he managed to annoy both the Empire and religious powers - guilty of no crime but crucified, the very symbol of the coercive power and cruelty of the Empire. Again, good, docile, and obedient citizens aren’t crucified by the authorities.

So if both Paul and Jesus (and a whole host of holy heroes) didn’t play nice with the authorities … What is Paul trying to say in Romans 13? ‘Cause it’s sure not about God ordaining the President-elect or being good obedient Canadians, Americans, or consumers, Democrats or Republicans.

It’s certainly not about divine will and God’s participation in or condoning injustice, exploitation, greed, violence/war, racism, sexism, queer-phobia, genocide, or scapegoating others.

God is never the source of evil. Ever.

So what’s up?

To start, we need to stop imposing our political paradigms onto the bible and, specifically, the context in which Paul writes. Left and Right, Liberals, Progressives, Conservatives, and Libertarians, as we understand them, weren’t a thing back then.

Paul was writing to probably 5-6 small churches in Rome (57-58 C.E.). The epicentre of the Roman Empire when it was enjoying the near pinnacle of power. The Empire was expanding and well organized. For the privileged, there were some benefits from living in the Empire, like peace secured by their unmatched might and structures that serviced it. There were also many downsides - in exchange for the peace, one’s loyalty and obedience to Caesar and the Empire. For many folks, those without pedigree or privilege were kept in their place, too, as living grease for the gears of the Empire. History tells us of the vicious and unimaginable cruelty of the various Caesars and their administrations. To resist was futile or, in common parlance, F’around and find out.

You’ll remember Paul (formerly Saul) was a Jew’s Jew, an expert in Jewish traditions. So, Paul’s worldview was ordered around the stories of exile and captivity under the control of both benevolent and cruel authorities. The Jews believed that when the people disobeyed God, they were punished with captivity. Jewish folks held that God desired order; even order enforced by a tyrant was better than anarchy and chaos.¹

They believed that the order provided/imposed by the authorities was God’s will to stop the world from sliding back into chaos.² Paul’s admonition in Romans 13 does not legitimize Caesar or the brutality of the Empire (or abusive pastors, theologies or denominational structures). Remember, the Jews believed God personally held these authorities accountable for their leadership - good or bad. It’s not the divine approval of a specific system of order. Rather, it is an affirmation of order over chaos.

Both Jesus and Paul championed the Kindom of God and resisted the Empire's unloving, cruel and unjust policies; their work was Love reordering the immature order of the Empire, which undoubtedly was a shot across the bow of Caesar. And though it certainly cost them both dearly, it wasn’t in conflict with Romans 13.

A Few Problems

Let's consider the swath of bad leaders throughout history. Consider the immense suffering and carnage inflicted on the powerless by these leaders.

Problem #1 -If ALL authorities (especially the nasty ones) are of god’s specific choosing, then god is complicit in a whole host of atrocities, human suffering and devastation. This god is evil. This is not the Abba of Jesus.

Problem #2 -From my perspective, the "all authorities are from god" is often a power play by the powerful and their supporters, played like a divine trump card to validate their power over and the abuse of those with less (no) power.

Problem #3 -the "all authorities are from god" seems like a copout - a way to sound pious without looking in the mirror to recognize our complicity in the rise of such authorities and injustice. A religious passivity that abdicates our spiritual and civic responsibility for our actions and inactions.

“Until we make the unconscious conscious, they will direct our lives, and we will call it fate.”³

So where is God in this?

I think God is always at work, but there is a difference between God ordaining authorities who commit harmful acts/policies as a part of the divine will/plan and God at work in the mess to squeeze the most overall well-being possible out of situations God never wanted in the first place.

Regardless of whether the “Authorities” are benevolent, banal, or cruel, God is at work calling, inspiring, and empowering us to love well. For Jesus, Loving well looks like laying down your lives for your friends, neighbour-love, radical forgiveness, and loving your enemy by doing good to them.

For Jesus, Love looks like uplifting the poor, the brokenhearted, the powerless. Welcoming and feeding those who are hungry for the feast of God (but never got invited), the dreamers, idealists, the hopeful and those who work for peace - and all those who give their life-blood energy working towards this grand idea of the Kindom of Love (even when they are called heretics, unrealistic, unpatriotic and naive).⁴

Together, we co-create with God-who-is-Love by acting intentionally in a sympathetic response to others (including God) to promote overall well-being.⁵ For this what Love does.

Romans 13 was never intended to be used by the Empire/power to religiously bully people into acquiescing and participating in cruel, ungodly leadership, policies or systems. And it sure as h-e-double-hockey-sticks was never intended to provide divine legitimacy to any so-called political messiah and their political agenda.

As followers of the Jesus Way, we continue as co-creators with the God-who-is-Love by working to reorder the immature and far too often cruel order of the Empire with the Kindom of Love.

Sola Caritas,

Michael

1. Paul. In Fresh Perspective, N.T. Wright. Fortress Press. 2005

2. Genesis tells the story of Creation - God bringing order to chaos. Order, Logos (organizing principle), and evolving complexity are important themes in Judaism.

3. This quote jives with Jungian ideas but is not a direct quote, though often offered as such.

4. alluding to the Beatitudes

5. Love definition courtesy of Thomas Jay Oord.