The Bible in American Law and Politics. John R. Vile
city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown” (King 1963).
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Responding to those who urged him to “wait,” he cited the aphorism that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” He further sought to tie civil disobedience to the principles embodied both in the Declaration of Independence and in Scripture. With St. Augustine, King observed that “an unjust law is no law at all.” Drawing on St. Thomas Aquinas, King said that human laws that were not rooted “in eternal and natural law” called for disobedience (King 1963). Drawing from the biblical book of Daniel, he further cited “the refusal of Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved,” as well as “early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire” (King 1963).
King believed that laws mandating segregation were wrong and represented the unjust will of the majority forcing themselves on a racial minority. Rejecting the accusation that he was an extremist, King contrasted his own nonviolent approach, which he grounded on the New Testament and on the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, with the militant national of Elijah Muhammad and his movement:
Was not Jesus an extremist in love?—“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice?—“Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream” [Amos 5:24]. Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ?—“I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus” [Galatians 6:17]. Was not Martin Luther an extremist?—“Here I stand; I can do not other so help me God.” Was not John Bunyan an extremist?—“I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience.” Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist?—“This nation cannot survive half-slave and half free.” Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist?—“We hold these truths to be self-evidence, that all men are created equal.” (King 1963)
In the 1960s, a number of individuals who opposed being drafted into the armed forces did so on the basis that because the war was unjust, it would be immoral for them to serve. Many received inspiration from William Sloane Coffin Jr. (1924–2006), who was the chaplain at Yale University and who was himself brought to trial for encouraging draft resistance (Goldstein 2004, 183–224). Coffin especially liked to quote Amos 5:24, indicating that it was the “preacher’s job to call for justice to roll down like mighty waters. The politician’s job was to work out the irrigation system” (Goldstein 2004, 222).
See also King, Martin Luther, Jr.; Natural Law; Puritans; Quakers
For Reference and Further Reading
Allen, Barbara. 2000. “Martin Luther King’s Civil Disobedience and the American Covenant tradition.” Publius 30 (Autumn): 71–113.
Areshinze, Giorgi. 2016. Democratic Religion from Locke to Obama: Faith and the Civil Life of Democracy. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Blankley, Bethany. 2012. “The Biblical Civil Disobedience Mandate.” HuffPost. February 6 [updated April 7, 2012]. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biblical-civil-disobedience-mandate_b_1249785.
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Goldstein, Warren. 2004. William Sloane Coffin Jr.: A Holy Impatience. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. August 1963. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf.
Perry, Lewis. 2013. Civil Disobedience: An American Tradition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Waskow, Arthur O. n.d. “Civil Disobedience in the Bible.” https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/civil-disobedience-in-the-bible/.
Clark, Champ
Champ Clark (1850–1921) was a member of the House of Representatives from Missouri who served from 1897 to 1921 and was Speaker of the House from 1911 to 1919. Born in Kentucky, Clark earned his undergraduate degree from Bethany College, which had been founded by Alexander Campbell, who founded the Disciples of Christ, which Clark joined. Clark studied law at the University of Cincinnati. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1912 but lost to Woodrow Wilson and later opposed Wilson’s call for U.S. entry into World War I.
Clark was widely known for his oratory, and for many years held the record for the longest speech ever given before Congress. Umphrey Lee observed that Clark “was proud of the statement that he quoted the Bible oftener and more accurately than any other man in Congress” (1935, 19). Similarly, Clark’s biographer observes that “Champ Clark is the most competent and thorough Bible student in public life to-day. His speeches, orations, and lectures are replete with accurate and apropos bible quotations” (Webb 1912, 22).
Champ told his biographer that his father wanted him to read the Bible, but that when Champ refused, he bought him a “vest-pocket volume” with the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, and Washington’s Farewell Address, and said, “My son, as you will not read your Bible, here is the next best book; study it” (Webb 1912, 23). Later refusing to give in to his son’s desire to read novels, but indulging his interest in histories and biographies, his father provided him with a copy of William Wirt’s Life of Patrick Henry. Enamored with Henry’s speech at St. John’s Church, Clark was especially mesmerized by the words, “The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong [Ecclesiastes 9:11].” Telling his father how enamored he was with these words, Clark said that his father responded, “My son, King Solomon, and not Patrick Henry, wrote that sentence that you admire so much. Read your Bible as eagerly as you do your histories and biographies, and you will find hundreds of others fully as magnificent” (Webb 1912, 24). Clark reported that “I took him at his word, and have been reading the Bible ever since, which constantly increasing profit and delight. To say nothing of its religious value, it is the best book in the world to quote from. Whatever knowledge I have of it dates from the day that my father placed William Wirt’s ‘Life of Patrick Henry’ in my hands” (Webb 1912, 24–25).
See also Henry, Patrick; Wilson, Woodrow
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For Reference and Further Reading
Lee, Umphrey. 1935. “The English Bible and American Public Men.” Christian Education 19 (October): 18–21.
Webb, W. L. 1912. Champ Clark. New York: Neale Publishing Company.
Climate Change
There is a rising scientific consensus that the earth is warming as a result of the increased burning of fossil fuels, which is increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There is further widespread scientific agreement that this gas traps radiation in the atmosphere, creating global warming; that