Religion and Treachery

  Among the religious, it is common to hold that God’s laws trump State laws in case of conflict. This is a view endorsed by St. Augustine; it is behind the famous conflict between Henry II and Thomas Beckett; Martin Luther King’s letter from the Birmingham jail relies on it; and the ultra-orthodox in Israel live by it. I'll call this the Augustine Rule. Suppose we live in a sovereign nation that is a liberal democracy: representative government, independent judicial system, various guarantees of rights, and protection from harm both internal and external; an implied consent of the citizens to state actions of this sovereign nation. What is the political relation between a believer, his God, and his liberal democratic state? Suppose a believer consents to obeying both. Using Augustine's terminology, he consents to the laws of the Heavenly City and to the laws of the Earthly City. This is a kind of political-metaphysical dual citizenship. If there is conflict between "the laws of God" and "the laws of the state", what should the believer do? If he abides by the Augustine Rule, he will disobey the laws of the state. But then the believer really doesn't have dual citizenship. His duty, when push comes to shove, is to the Heavenly City. This sounds like treason to the Earthly City. Suppose the believer has only one civic commitment: to the liberal democracy in which he abides. What about God's law? Perhaps the believer can treat God as a terrible and powerful force that compels him to resist state laws. But then God is a sort of foreign power who has managed to hold sway over a sovereign nation. God is like Britain seizing India and imposing British rule over local law.