If you were a christian and follow the rules of christian to the letter and those rules conflicted with the law in your country, would you break the law to fulfil the rules of your faith?
2006-09-17 02:01:17 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Hi
I am a passionate Atheist, as previous answers may have hinted! But I was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness, a very fundie Xtian sect, and they were very clear on this. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesars, but god's things unto god, which they took as; the default position is obey the law of the land, do your best to be a model citizen, but if any law conflicts with our own teachings, ignore it, and go to prison if you have to.
An example of their implementation of this is the case of pedophiles within their organization. They have interpreted a passage of scripture to mean that no witness should testify against another in a court of law, so they shield offenders and try to deal with it within the congregation. Another example is how they behaved in Nazi Germany. They are very proud of the fact that many of them ended up in concentration camps for denying the Nazi's, but what they don't say is that once in there they were considered model prisoners for their compliance and willingness to snitch on other prisoners, especially Jews - Hoess, the comandant of Auschwitz, singles them out for praise in his memoirs. Himmler was so impressed he planned to make the JW faith the official religion of the conquered territories of Russia, because it bred such compliance with authority.
(Of course, if you challenge a JW about this, they go deeper in denial than an Egyptian Skin Diver, but the documentary evidence is all out there!)
2006-09-17 02:14:25 · answer #1 · answered by Avondrow 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some things in the bible can not be interpreted to the letter, because let us not forget how long ago it was written, but the meaning of the passage should still be lived by. I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about, perhaps you could give an example? Anyway, I had the impression that Christianity and the law were fairly similar really, Islam and western law however might not be, just like Christianity and Sharia law. I would not want to live somewhere were I could not live out my faith, thankfully that is not a problem in western countries.
2006-09-17 09:04:53 · answer #2 · answered by Chris 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
In today's society, "christian", is too vague of a term to describe a religion, and the bible is subject to many interpretations, just as any other religious document, therefore it would be impossible to follow any of them to the "letter". This being said, you would never really know if the law of the land was really in conflict with the beliefs of Christianity.
2006-09-17 09:16:56 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jesus broke the rules of his society to care for the sick, treating them on the Sabbath, which was against the rules.
He also tried unsuccessfully to show that religion is not about rules, obeying rules no matter whether the rules are from religion or governments.
Christianity does not have any rules. Those who say that Christianity has rules are not Christians but people who are using Christianity for their own benefit. There are no rules of faith to break.
2006-09-17 09:09:14 · answer #4 · answered by Alan Turing 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
God's rule comes first then the law of man but we are not to go and break the law under the guise of religion we are to obey and respect the laws of the land short of commitiing a sin
2006-09-17 09:05:26 · answer #5 · answered by jk poet 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In a democratic country, laws are mean for one from committing a sin, how could it be against the teachings of any religion, unless the place is governed by a dictator where the laws are for one selfish gains.
2006-09-17 09:38:31 · answer #6 · answered by cybtrker 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
depends upon what the circumstances are. which country and what are the differences in the Christian Belief System and the law ? generally speaking would say I would obey the laws of the country in which I was in simply because " when in Rome do as the Romans do "
2006-09-17 09:09:20 · answer #7 · answered by Marvin R 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If those laws came in conflict with the 10 commandments, probably. Our laws are generally based on the 10 commandments
2006-09-17 09:06:02 · answer #8 · answered by rapturefuture 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No. I'm not a Christian, but Jesus said to obey the laws of the land.
2006-09-17 09:28:55 · answer #9 · answered by AuroraDawn 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God tells Christians to "follow the laws of the land"...
But there is divine law ~ moral law ~ civil law
Civil law will be followed unless it grossly conflicts with the first two...
2006-09-17 09:10:51 · answer #10 · answered by heresyhunter@sbcglobal.net 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋