A landmark court case in the UK recently saw five radical climate activists jailed for up to five years for their role in organising the blocking of a major motorway to protest against fossil fuels. The sentences have been criticised by many, including the UN, as excessive given the peaceful nature of the protest and the cause behind it, but are the result of years of escalation by climate activists which has led the government to pass tougher, harsher laws criminalising disruptive but peaceful protest. But how should Christians approach law-breaking for what is supposedly a good cause? What does Jesus’s famous words about ‘render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s’ mean in our 21st century context? Is it ever right for believers to deliberately break the law? And, should we in the church be concerned about ever more draconian and vaguely-worded laws which allow the police to clamp down more harshly on civil disobedience?

 

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