Last week we established that we are obligated to resist civil law or positive laws if they go contrary to God’s or what is termed natural law. This week we will look at how we can as Christians exercise that right to resist.

“Recognising that natural law is the basis for and places limits on positive law means admitting that it is legitimate to resist authority should it violate in a serious or repeated manner the essential principles of natural law.

Saint Thomas Aquinas writes that ‘one is obliged to obey ... insofar as it is required by the order of justice’. Natural law is therefore the basis of the right to resistance.”

The message here is clear. We must be clear why we want to object to the civil laws and policies of the land. The only legitimate basis is that these laws are contrary to God’s laws and result in social injustices. It cannot be for our own personal reasons, which are not grounded in an understanding of God’s word.

“There can be many different concrete ways this right may be exercised; there are also many different ends that may be pursued. Resistance to authority is meant to attest to the validity of a different way of looking at things, whether the intent is to achieve partial change, for example, modifying certain laws, or to fight for a radical change in the situation.”

“The Church's social doctrine indicates the criteria for exercising the right to resistance: ‘Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the following conditions are met:
1) there is certain, grave and prolonged violation of fundamental rights,
 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted,
3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders,
4) there is well-founded hope of success; and
5) it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution’.

Recourse to arms is seen as an extreme remedy for putting an end to a ‘manifest, long-standing tyranny which would do great damage to fundamental personal rights and dangerous harm to the common good of the country’.

The gravity of the danger that recourse to violence entails today makes it preferable in any case that passive resistance be practised, which is ‘a way more conformable to moral principles and having no less prospects for success’.”

One practical way of resisting things that go against moral order is through advocacy. Advocacy does not always have to be confrontational it can include negotiations, compromise, persuasion, collaboration, diplomacy and support, all dependent on the situation in which we are called to object or impact on authority.

While we are aware that in repressive political environments, advocacy initiatives are severely limited (the risks are great and the consequences can be fatal), in democratic environments such as ours we have a larger space in which to initiate action.

This emphasises the need for us to promote a political environment in which we can participate, in which basic human rights can be exercised and which will facilitate citizens organising themselves into groups which pursue the common good outside of the formal apparatus of the state.

What we Christians should do is ensure that our advocacy strategies have clear aims and objectives when seeking to resist policies. We must be clear on what we want to achieve. We must undertake systematic research into the issue.

Our action must be guided by the Church’s teaching. We must also seek to understand the opposing view and come up with proposals in support of our beliefs. We need to know which government agencies, civil society and Church congregations we should lobby, and which individuals we should talk to. 

We must also be willing to form networks and coalitions which support our view, as well as make use of the tools available to us such as the print and electronic media.

In light of the times we live in, where it is exceedingly difficult to keep state policies and laws in line with God’s natural law, we need:

Leadership: strong individuals who passionately believe in the cause and can argue the case for change, both within the organisation and externally to the press and electronic media

Creative skills: to mount campaigns that capture the public imagination; only when the messages are clear can the organisation build a strong constituency of people who support the cause both politically and financially

Political intelligence: Campaigning organisations need managers who can make judgements about changes that are achievable and who can then galvanise people into action around that change

Management: proper structures to ensure that advocacy campaigns can be run for the duration required ensuring there are sufficient resources.

Next week we take this discussion further by looking at inflicting punishment.

Persons interested in purchasing the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, can contact the Justice Desk, Archbishop’s House at 622-6680. Also on sale at the Justice Desk is Responses to 101 Questions on Catholic Social Teaching.