Thursday, September 27, 2012
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.
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I have been thinking about a similar question, and I think that you can pursue any cause with the tactics of Civil Disobedience, whether it is truly just or not. You could create a Civil Disobedient movement in support of segregation if you wanted, even though the cause is unjust. I think things like that don't happen much because those in support of harmful belief systems are more inclined to take harmful actions. I believe Bedau mentions the difficulty in defining the parameters of just Civil Disobedience because of this fact.
ReplyDeleteSo, I think if a religious group feels that something unjust has occurred against them, separation of church and state has no bearing on whether or not they can respond to the state in a civilly disobedient matter or not. I think a religious motivation can lead to a civl disobedient action. However, just because the action is civilly disobedient doesn't mean that the cause is just.
But maybe we will decide in class that in order for something to be truly civil disobedient, it's cause must be just?
I think the justification/motivation that a party can plausibly use to be civilly disobedient, is the basis of my question. Can the justness of an action be determined via religious parameters? Or, are the values and determinations of a religious group, in regards to motivating civil disobedience, null and void in the eyes of the law?
DeleteIf a passionate war-loathing tax payer chooses to disobey his/her government by not paying taxes which will supoport an ongoing, that is a person with a direct responsibility to the government choosing to disobey. On the other hand, if a religious group feels that a local government's decision to hand out condoms at a high school is a violation of their beliefs, is it comparably justifiable for the religious group to take action?
Technically, this might be Civil Disobedience, in that theoretically, it is principled law-breaking. The article talks about them accepting the jail consequences of not paying taxes, though it mentions nothing about telling officials beforehand the reasons for their refusal to pay their taxes, something we have mentioned being necessary for acts of Civil Disobedience.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I might want to point out that this group actually has their facts wrong, and so their "principled law-breaking" may not be so principled. The healthcare reform law does not require legitimate non-profit religious institutions (charities and houses of worship for instance) to provide insurance that covers contraception; it requires that for-profit institutions like hospitals and universities provide options in insurance policies for their employees to have contraception covered at no expense to the employer. Furthermore, religiously-affiliated institutions have an extra year to comply, and at the end of it, they can still request exemption. Also NO ONE is required to provide access to abortion because it is against the law to use federal funds for abortion due to the Hyde ammendment. This group should probably know better what they are protesting before they decide to disobey the law.
Please turn off your word verification.
DeleteI think civil disobedience is acceptable, no matter what the cause, as long as it is done "properly." We discussed this in class, especially after reading the Crito. I think the one thing that we all agreed upon (as far as Socrates' shortcomings) was that he failed to extend a gesture of goodwill to his fellow athenians. Part of properly executing civil disobedience, as we stipulated in class, involves the disobedient party to make clear that their issue is with the government, and not with the people.
ReplyDeleteI would say that in this regard, religious causes may rub bystanders the wrong way, and in this way, I can see why you may think that it (religion) may not mix with proper civil disobedience. I would say that there are probably examples that can prove and disprove a claim for the acceptableness of religion in civil disobedience.
I think that it's really tricky to invoke religion with civil disobedience because not everyone shares your beliefs. If you're going to act civilly disobediently you must have reason and morality on your side and then it doesn't matter which religion you're in favor of.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I think religion is a really poor excuse to do anything and you should always rationally assess whatever course of action you decide to take.
Is it the same as a park being torn down for a parking lot? Probably not. Is religion, in itself. a justification for civil disobedience? Probably not. But the cause that religious is fighting for is certainly justification for civil disobedience.
ReplyDeleteThey believe that they are being wronged by the law and therefore they have the right to question it. The church, being separate from the state, does not necessarily have less say than the average citizen.
Please turn off word verification.
DeleteWhere is the separation between religion itself and the cause that religion is fighting for?
DeleteWhy wouldn't the church have less say than a citizen in a society where the two are deemed separate? A government is warned to fear its people not it's religions. An citizen who also participates in religious practices surely has the same rights as an aetheistic citizen, but the entity of a church or synagogue itself should have less or at least different rights than a citizen.
It does seem to me that whatever the religious justification, in order to be justified generally an act of CD would need to be bolstered by a non-religious account, speaking to those who don't share the religious commitments.
ReplyDeleteI would agree, I don't think it's civil disobedience strictly based on religious views that may or may not be shared by those in power. It wouldn't necessarily sway those who don't share similar religious convictions.
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