Nation

By Jeff Sirmons
TheSequitur.com Contributor
March 31, 2006
[Image - Warner Brothers]

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- On Saturday night, I saw a movie of disobedience and revolution, and on Sunday morning, at the Chiefland, Fla., First Baptist Church, I heard a sermon about how there is peace in obedience.

I was confused because both the movie and the sermon make a good point, and it is difficult to reconcile the two.

V for Vendetta, the movie I saw, preached that people shouldn’t be afraid of their governments, but that governments should be afraid of the people.  To emphasize this point, V, the protagonist, blew up the parliament, a building that ironically symbolized a totalitarian British state.

V, who simply would not identify himself in any other way, rebelled against a government that was much like Hitler’s Nazi government.  If America were to abandon its basic freedoms and become a nation like that V rebelled against, I, a journalist, would naturally be one of the first to disobey.

But on the other side, as the sermon went, there is peace in obedience.  The example Pastor Brian gave was exceeding the speed limit.  

When you speed and see a cop, you slow down and immediately become religious by praying that the cop doesn’t come after you. But, if you don’t speed, you breeze right by the cop, perhaps hoping that he catches that punk college kid who’s going 80 in a 55.

A fearless life is one led without breaking any rules or laws because if you follow every order, you have nothing to fear.

The sermon was, of course, applied to religion — obey God’s commands and you’ll live a fearless, stress-free life.  But does this philosophy apply to the world — obey all rules created by humans?

A religious person should disobey rules only that contradict God’s word.  But this still leaves a massive gray area, which includes balancing First Amendment rights with Patriot Act constraints.

To my knowledge the Bible doesn’t offer any direct contradiction to either our First Amendment rights or the Patriot Act.

But I’d fight for my First Amendment rights, yet I also oppose the Patriot Act.  The first  is the fundamental reason why America is the leader of free countries, and the second is  why we’re becoming more like countries dominated by fear.

But would I actually break the law in opposition of the Patriot Act?  If it abridges the First Amendment or our right to privacy, I probably would if there were no legal ways to protest the Patriot Act.

But that would make me an outright rebel.

Ironically, though, I have no fear of protesting the Patriot Act, even if the Patriot Act starts outlawing protests.  Believe it, this can happen.
 
Sometimes, fearlessness is required to break rules that violate fundamental rights.