Thursday, November 1, 2012
Legitimacy of religious civil disobedience
In my paper I intend to examine, evaluate, and either defend or refute the legitimacy of acts of civil disobedience in the name of religion, by utilizing documents like the Manhattan Declaration, and reviewing religious acts of civil disobedience in contemporary politic. The purpose of my paper is to explore the parameters of civil disobedience and determine what factors require a change in terms.
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I think that would make for a very interesting paper. It would be interesting to see how religion can adequately serve as a catalyst for CD, especially considering the possibility that some aspects of religious doctrine can be applicable to non-practitioners, and the opposite. I think a case study approach may prove helpful as well, for some societies are compromised of enough, or not enough, religiously affiliated peoples, that CD through these means could be construed as a popular or very unpopular movement.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dominick, valuable idea with the case study. Thank you!
DeleteAre you talking about civil disobedience in the name of only religion or civil disobedience in the name of religion and the morals we derive from it? I don't see how a person could adequately defend civil disobedience with only religious purpose. If a law is truly unjustifiable and thus must be opposed with civil disobedience, the injustice must be apparent based on reason and morality. It seems to me, you could engage in civil disobedience against racism because a)you believe God created all persons equal; and b) you rationally realize there is no difference in person-hood merely because of skin color. But you could not be civilly disobedient if you were arguing only with "a".
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what religion would be without the morals that are associated with it, but I guess I understand the separation you are making in which case, I am talking about CD in regards to those morals and not just for the sake of religion itself.
DeleteYou might be right, Joel, that religion would be diminished bereft of its moral teachings. Morality, however, seems to do just fine without religion, and as Nicole says that's what even a religious CD-er has to appeal to in dealing with those outside her faith community.
ReplyDeleteYou might look at the Operation Rescue anti-abortion actions of a few years ago, for a limiting (and perhaps disturbing) case of CD-like tactics applied coercively by a religious group...