Romans 13 and our Constitution

Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

In our system of government we are subject to the laws that governing authorities implement. We are subject to laws and not to men. It is a gross error to consider this passage as a mandate to submit to the agenda and policy preferences of a president or other leaders that are mere proposals. We have no biblical obligation to pray that policies that we do not agree with become law, even if such laws do not violate Christian ethics. Only when policies become law do we have any obligation to submit.

In our system of three equal branches of government the legislative branch is responsible for passing laws, and a Christian satisfies this passage by opposing or being for any bill that comes before congress as long as it does not violate the Law of Christ. Our Christian framers designed our system because they knew that power corrupts, and they wanted to divide power as much as possible. This verse does not bind American Christians to praying for the agenda of a president to be successfully implemented. Since Congress is an equal branch with the executive branch, Christians have ever right to pray that congressional representatives who oppose the president’s agenda will be successful. The bottom line of such a prayer would be that a president’s policy agenda proposals would fail to be enacted as law. This does not violate anything that Christians are called to do in Romans 13. In our system we submit to laws and not to men!

Even after agendas become law, Christians have the freedom to work to get such laws reversed even while they are peacefully submitting to them. They do this by lobbying their representatives and voting for and against people who agree with their ideology. This is called liberty and it is the system of government that our Christian forefathers fought and died to implement. We are under no biblical obligation to refrain from legally opposing and working to reverse laws we oppose. Perhaps we would under a king, but under our constitution we are given legal rights to petition and change laws that we do not like!

I am perplexed that even conservative Christian clergy think it is our mandate to joyfully submit to and pray for the agenda of the Obama administration to be successfully implemented into law, even where it is against our personal beliefs. I wish they would consider Romans 13 in context with our constitution rather than in context with a monarchy.