| God’s Word Trumped Offensive Civil Law |
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| Opinion - Columns | |||
| Written by Grady Atwater | |||
| Wednesday, 25 March 2009 08:00 | |||
The Rev. Samuel Adair believed God’s word trumped morally offensive civil law, and he delivered a sermon in Lafayette, Ohio, between 1849 and 1854 that offers a window into his view of civil disobedience. He chose as his Bible text I Peter 2: 13-17, with verses 13 and 14 stating “Submit yourselves unto every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them who do well.” Most abolitionists were devout Christians, so the moral quandary presented by the Biblical command to obey civil authority was a sticky wicket when it came to the legally sanctioned proslavery government’s laws from 1854 to 1858. Adair addressed the issue and quoted Acts 5: 29 which states “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’ Adair stated that “No human enactment can be binding — can create any obligation — which violates God’s moral law, or the rights of conscience. No human government has a right to command what God forbids, nor to forbid what God requires. And when they do [and] we obey them we obey man rather than God. We risk His wrath rather than the wrath of the state.” Adair was still preaching in Lafayette Ohio, at the time of the passage of the Fugitive Slave law of 1850, which made it legally binding for all Americans to aid slave-hunters in their efforts to return slaves to their owners. Commenting on this law, Adair declared “Such is precisely the attitude in which we are placed in relation to the late act passed by our national legislature. They have assumed to themselves a seat above God’s, have legislated against his law. Have perverted the ordinance [and] design of government from a protection of the rights of the strong against the weak. They have trampled under foot justice [and] humanity – set God [and] his law at defiance, in rejecting all authority above their own, or in claiming that God must sanction what ever they may do, because they are a human government.” Adair brought this belief about proslavery laws to Osawatomie and believed that he was doing God’s will when he refused to recognize the legitimacy of the legally elected proslavery government from 1854 to 1858. Adair would not compromise on his Christian conviction that slavery was a sin and uttered a firm statement at the end of his sermon that “They command us not to show mercy to the poor — forbid us to feed the hungry [and] clothe the naked; [and] shall we obey? He who does, obeys man — wicked men rather than God. Reason, conscience, humanity [and] God on one side commanding, on the other side some ambitious wicked men.” Adair stood strong on their belief that slavery was a sin, and that he was bound to God’s higher law and not the laws of the proslavery government.
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