God’s Law Versus Man’s Law

What happens when the teaching of the Bible--to feed the hungry and house the homeless--clashes with the laws of modern government, which sometimes prohibit those acts, as happened with the Rev. Wiley S. Drake in Buena Park? The Times Orange County asked local pastors to discuss the dilemma of following both the laws of God and man.

The Rev. Norbert Oesch, 57, pastor, St. John’s Lutheran Church in Orange: “The first thing is we are to honor the laws of the land, insofar as that it is possible, and to the clearest extent we can. That is very clear in Romans 13 where St. Paul says that all authority comes from God. There are exceptions and that is when the laws of the land would command us to violate the higher laws of God. And so there have been many times from the beginning where godly people say [to the government], ‘I cannot obey you.’ You must obey God rather than man. . . .

“In America, one challenges the law by breaking it and going to court to challenge it. However, the person must be willing to take the consequences and that happens to be in line with the way our own system of government is set up. Any citizen can. What I pray is that out of this comes better law, if necessary, and greater cooperation between churches, the business community and government that shows mercy and justice balanced.”

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Father Kenneth Krause, 61, pastor, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, a Roman Catholic church in Newport Beach: “I think the city and the county have the right to determine policy. . . . I wish we could get together and maybe have some kind of shelter that is staffed and maintained by the city and churches so that we’d have a place to send folks that is clean and safe. . . .

“The other side of the coin is we use so much money on different things, we should really consider money for housing, or at least overnight shelter, for transients.

“I think we can say we should follow the biblical mandate and there is a time and place and way to do it. I am giving the Catholic church credit; going back centuries we built hospitals, we built shelters and we built homes. We took prostitutes off the street. Today is no exception.

“You have to give [Drake] credit. His motive sure seems right. His reasons and his heart are certainly in the right place. If those two [the city and Drake] can get together, they will accomplish something.”

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The Rev. Kathryn McCullough, 54, pastor at the Mission Church, a nondenominational Christian church in Lake Forest, city councilwoman in Lake Forest and director of the Adopt-a-Neighbor food bank in Mission Viejo: “I believe that we have an obligation as men and women of God, especially clergymen, that we have to obey God’s law and then man’s law. If we feel man’s law is in the way, we have policies in place to change the law, to make new laws. As a Christian I don’t believe that I am a good example for other Christians unless I am a good neighbor. You cannot speak for Pastor Drake. You can challenge the law and you can make new law, even the Constitution. If we don’t believe man’s law, then there are places we can change it.

“You [also] have to be respectful of your neighbors, that’s part of God’s word also. If you’re going to do it, you have to make sure you’re not offensive to your neighbors, and yes God told us to feed the poor, the prisoners. I have taken people into my own home. You just have to make sure you’re in the right place and check your motives and ask God if you are in the right place. As a Christian I am supposed to make an impact on people’s lives.”