What We Can Learn About Civil Disobedience from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

What We Can Learn About Civil Disobedience from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

by Rachel Lesher What is too much for the federal government to ask of us? We may find a surprisingly relevant lesson on civil disobedience in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Daniel 3 offers remarkable relevant parallels between King Nebuchadnezzar and today’s political leaders. King Nebuchadnezzar at one moment proclaimed loyalty to the God of Israel and in the next created a massive statue for all people and nations to bow down to and worship (Daniel 3:7). In today’s world, the language of religion and national allegiance are all too often linked together in a confusingly messy relationship. Although it is not often that this love-hate relationship between politicians and religious claims is as overtly obvious as in King Nebuchadnezzar’s case, it is nonetheless an issue that present-day Christians must navigate.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, described as Jews who had been “appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon,” refused to participate in the king’s idolatrous command to the people. Their disobedience enraged Nebuchadnezzar, and they were offered one last chance to worship his creation or be thrown into a furnace. The three bold men did not back down. They declared to the king that if their God wanted to save them, he would. But in case God chose not to save them, they left this last message with the king: “Be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods…” (Daniel 3:18).

As the story goes, the three men were saved from the fire, and the king later went mad.

The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego has been watered down and romanticized by many North American Christians. For many children (and adults) hearing this story, there is never a hint that the actions of the three men, who worked in government yet refused to obey the king, were at all radical or political. Though we often retell this story in hopes that we may be as brave in a similar situation, rarely do we hear this story as a lesson for discerning disobedience when we may find ourselves asked to act in a way that is outside our values and conscience. Not only were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bold, they were able to discern when a leader had asked that which could not be given.

As Christians following in the way of Jesus, we must wrestle with questions of obedience and allegiance. What does it mean to follow Jesus when our governments demand total allegiance? When Jesus demands that we love our enemies and our leaders demand that we kill them, whom do we obey? Do we really understand the political statement that Jesus is Lord? As Tripp York writes in Third Way Allegiance, “it is difficult for

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Christians to realize that our loyalties are being stretched thin. Unfortunately, the church is so often co-opted by the project of the state that we are no longer capable of offering a prophetic witness to the peaceable kingdom.” How will we discern when it is time to say, “Be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods…”?

Radical examples of faith throughout the Bible remind us of folks who bravely stand up to power in today’s world. Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee and the women of Liberia are one such example. In the midst of a civil war provoked by former warlord President Charles Taylor and his army of child soldiers, the women of Liberia united to protest the violence and war in their country. “In the past, we were silent. But after being killed, raped, dehumanized, and infected with diseases, and watching our children and families destroyed, war has taught us that the future lies in saying no to violence and yes to peace,” leader Leymah Gbowee recounts.

Day after day, the women held peaceful protests along the road to the President’s mansion, chanting, singing, praying, and holding signs that read “The women of Liberia want peace now!” For two weeks the women returned to the roadside to proclaim their opposition to the war, until one day they were invited to make a statement in front of President Taylor and members of the Senate. “We are now taking this stand, to secure the future of our children,” Gbowee read, “because we believe, as custodians of society, tomorrow our children will ask us, ‘Mama, what was your role during the crisis?’ And we will have an answer.”

At that meeting, Taylor agreed to attend peace talks with warring groups to try to reach a ceasefire. The peace talks began, Taylor was thrown out, and upon his return to Liberia, a war reignited; but he was brought back to the talks and the women barricaded the hall until an agreement was reached.

With the help of the International Committee, a comprehensive peace agreement was signed two weeks later. The Liberian women’s bold, nonviolent protest led to the end of decades of civil war in their country, and paved the way for the first woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, to be elected a year later.

Stories like this challenge my ideas of what a faithful response to unjust government powers might look like. It is hard for me to imagine taking such a lengthy and risky stance in protest of my government, president, or a war. There are many more courageous examples of persons who stand up to the powers-that-be, but I imagine I’m not the only one who hesitates in the face of such radical action. However, just because some of us aren’t sure we’re ready to do the most radical type of protest doesn’t mean that we’re not able to do anything. Indira Gandhi writes, “Have a bias toward action— let’s see something happen now…break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.”

Perhaps your way of protesting defense spending will be to withhold some of your taxes in peaceful resistance. Learn more about tax resistance and ESA’s support of the Peace

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Tax Fund. Others may choose to advocate for economic justice or advocate for just immigration policies. For all of us, it likely requires us to talk with friends, neighbors, our churches, and local officials about justice and injustice and the small steps we can take to effect change. Break your plan into small steps, and take the first step today.

Rachel Lesher is an MTS Student at Palmer Seminary of Eastern University, with a concentration in Faith and Public Policy. She is also a Sider Scholar. In her spare time, Rachel enjoys gardening and blogging.

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