Is religion a justification for civil disobedience?

I was reading an article about The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' effort to civilly defy on a massive scale, the Obama administration's forceful hand in requiring religious institutions to pay for contraceptive methods and abortion clinics, ( http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/7/state-sanctioned-anti-christianity/ ) and I started wondering about the importance of motivation in regards to acts of civil disobedience.  Is this still civil disobedience in the same respect that protesting a park being torn down for a parking lot?  In the sense that it is a community concern in both situations, I suppose the issues are the same, but in the case of religion, especially considering our society's aim for separation of church and state, I am always nervous to compare it on the same scale.

The Implications of Conscience

After a bit of perusing on the internet, it seems that a fair and basic definition of the word 'conscience' is a judgment by which a person distinguishes right from wrong.  Unfortunately this definition leaves me wondering what the parameters of having a conscience are. 

Some questions:

• Does eveyone have a conscience?
• Does having a conscience imply that one does the right thing?
• If in fact one has a conscience, can he or she consciously act against it, if so how/why?
• Is a conscience a universally present characteristic or can you be conscientious on one matter, but without a conscience on another?

In the reading by Thoreau, he writes : "The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think is right."  This implies that his having a conscience necessarily leads to his adherence to it.  Is this really the case he is trying to make?

Right or Responsibility

Do the citizens of a just society have the right or the duty to be civilly disobedient?

It seems to me that a prerequisite of having a "just" society would be that the citizens have the right to be civilly disobedient, however is it an obligation of the citizens to disobey the laws once deemed just, in order to further develop the society? 

Perhaps it's both.

Who I am

My name is Joel Siskin and I am a SENIOR Phil. Major here at MCLA.  I've been a student of philosophy, officially since Freshman year, but have always had an interest in the discipline.  I look forward to delving into the concept of Civil Disobedience and admit I know very little about it's history or the characters of it's history.  After studying abroad in Israel last semester I am happy to be back at MCLA and hope to participate and  help facilitate meaningful discussion on this topic.