Making Rightful Use of Your Citizenship

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS
volume 23, number 14, April 4, 2024

But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison, and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out,” Acts 16:37

In the 1970s Poland’s Communist government raised food prices while wages were stagnant. This and other stresses led to protests in 1976 and a subsequent government crackdown on dissent. In response to this government action, several groups, including Roman Catholic bishops, began to form underground networks to monitor and oppose the government’s actions. Labor unions formed an important part of this network. The Polish economy was in serious trouble. In 1979, its economy shrank by two percent for the first time since World War II, and foreign debt reached around $18 billion by 1980.

The trade union Solidarity emerged on August 31, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard when the Communist government of Poland signed the agreement allowing for its existence. On September 17 of that year, over twenty Inter-factory Founding Committees of independent trade unions merged at the congress into one national organization called Solidarity. Lech Wałęsa, a courageous dock worker in Gdansk with keen political instincts, along with others, formed a broad anti-Soviet social movement ranging from people associated with the Catholic Church to members of the anti-Soviet left. Polish nationalism, together with pro-American nationalism and support from President Ronald Reagan, played an important part in the development of Solidarity in the 1980s. However, in September 1981 the government attempted to destroy the union with martial law and several years of repression, but the increased notoriety of Solidarity emboldened the average working man and the government had no choice but to start negotiating with the union.

Even after decades of religious and civil repression by the atheistic communist regime the people of Poland remained very committed to Roman Catholicism. Pope John Paul II, a citizen of Poland, visited his country in 1979  and hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the streets to hear him and this energized the people even more to seek democracy. There is no question that the strong Roman Catholic presence in Poland played a major role is dismantling communism in that country and the rest of Eastern Europe.

In 2017, Solidarity backed a proposal to implement blue laws to prohibit Sunday shopping, a move supported by Polish bishops. A 2018 Polish law banning almost all trade on Sundays has taken effect with large supermarkets and most other retailers closed for the first time since the 1990s. Abortion, except in the case of rape or incest and the endangered life of the mother is illegal in Poland. 

While we may disagree strongly with the details of the Roman Catholic system of doctrine, we cannot dismiss the fact that the religious nature of the Polish people was a major reason for the fall of communism in Poland. 

Meanwhile in the East German city of Leipzig, protests against the Communist regime of East Germany began in 1982. Leipzig was a city with great history where Martin Luther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Sebastian Bach (the choir master at St. Thomas Reformed Church), and Felix Mendelssohn all lived at one time or another. The Peaceful Revolution, a movement of civil disobedience without violence, began and was largely conducted at the downtown St. Nicholas Reformed Church. People walked with lit candles in their hands, using the other hand to shield the wind from extinguishing the light and to show the police that the demonstrators were not carrying weapons. Growing crowds of people gathered nightly to pray and then walk the streets in defiance of totalitarianism. Expecting an armed insurrection, the Communist leaders were so greatly dumbfounded by the peaceful tone of the protests that they simply allowed them to continue. Finally on October 9 1989, two days after the communists celebrated their forty year control over Eastern Europe, thousands of people walked with candles, praying and shouting slogans such as “We are the people.” Within a few weeks the Berlin Wall was opened for East Berliners to cross into the west and Germany was once again united. And within two years the Soviet Union fell apart and the former satellites became their own independent countries. 

Is is right, proper, and Biblical for Christians to demonstrate against their own governments? While is is certainly true that Christ is king over all the earth, and that all nations are to submit to Him, it is also true that God has set the boundaries and habitations for the people of the world (Acts 17:26). So, while all followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are citizens of His kingdom we are also citizens of our own respective nations and with our citizenship we all should enjoy certain rights, first of all ordained by God but secondly affirmed and protected by the civil magistrate under which we live. On several occasions the Apostle Paul made use of his Roman citizenship when it suited him. In the passage listed earlier Paul found himself in trouble with the authorities in Philippi. False charges were brought against Paul and Silas who had cast demons from a young servant girl and her owners were angry because her usefulness to them had been compromised. They beat Paul and Silas, imprisoned them, and then sought to release them the next day. Paul said, “No way,” (Acts 16:37). 

On another occasion, after Paul’s defense, he was about to be beaten when he asked the commander, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” (Acts 22:25).  When the commander understood the situation he immediately refused to go through with the beating. 

So every believer of every country should have the right to demonstrate against and to resist unfair and unjust policies or actions of his or her government. For example, U.S. pastors, elders, and church members, during the Pandemic, should have resisted the government’s mask mandates and refusal to allow people to gather for public worship. Our individual rights, including our right to assemble peacefully and the First Amendment right to free speech and the worship of God as we see fit should always be protected by the federal, state, and local governments under which we live. Failure by the civil magistrate to perform her duties should always be resisted, relying upon our earthly citizenship as the foundation for our resistance.