Authority, Power, and Submission

When I was in elementary school, I went to a Christian release-time program at 2:00 every Friday afternoon. As you might expect, we learned sang songs, played games, did crafts, and had other sorts of elementary school fun. Here’s something you might not expect, however. In that program, we sang several songs about obedience. I remember two that we sang nearly every week. One had the lyrics “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.” The other taught us both to spell and to submit. “O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E,” we sang.

What surprises me most is how little it surprised me to sing these songs. My most cynical inclinations tempt me to wonder if I was being indoctrinated into an unfair submission. You see, as a child I never questioned authority. Now I seem to have nothing but questions: What is authority? Who should have it? Should we really wield power over each other? Why should I let anyone tell me what to do?

Traditionally, in Western society, the notion of authority implies hierarchical power or influence of some kind exercised over another to enforce or encourage obedience or submission to a behavior. However, authority does not always have to mean hierarchical influence. The Oxford English Dictionary includes three definitions of authority among others.

Authority, from the OED:
1. Power or right to enforce obedience; moral or legal supremacy; the right to command, or give an ultimate decision.
4. Power to influence the conduct and actions of others; personal or practical influence.
5. Power over, or title to influence, the opinions of others; authoritative opinion; weight of judgement or opinion, intellectual influence.

We see all three of these definitions competing for control in contemporary society daily. We see the authority of the law to command us to take certain actions and enforce our obedience. We see the authority our friends and family have to influence us practically to make personal decisions about both trivial and serious issues; more than likely we have influence in their lives as well. Those of us who are university students see the appeal daily to the authoritative opinions and intellectual influence of others in the work of our professors and instructors and the scholars they require us to read and understand as experts in our fields of study. We too, are striving to become experts who share mutual authority in academic disciplines. This is all to say that authority does not hold only one type of power in our lives -- it is not always the governmental, the dictatorial, the oppressive and controlling. Authority can also be mutually conferred, and, in that sense, is probably a natural part of daily existence.

Even as I write to you now, I know that I attempt to wield a certain amount of authority, though I hope it is of the benevolent and mutual kind. I desire to influence the way that you think about authority. I do not require that you agree with my opinion. In fact, your doing so entirely would lead to poor discussion and limited growth for us all. But I do in fact hope that you think about authority in perhaps a new way or think about it analytically for the first time. I wish that you should be changed by my work in some way and therein lies my own appeal to be authoritative towards you. You do not have to agree to be changed, however.

Just as you can choose any reaction you wish to my blog -- abandon reading it, adopt its assertions as your own, choose to discuss and in doing so change my opinion, you can choose several reactions to any authority in your life. You may rebel, you may challenge, you may question, you may accept, you may submit, you may love, you may understand, and respect and obey while disagreeing.

Thinking theologically, Christian submission to authority should be divided into at least two categories which have some degree of relationship with each other: submission to God and submission to fellow men and women.

Though this blog focuses on the submission of human beings to each other, an important point should be made about the submission to God. Submission to God is the primary Biblical task designated to one who follows the way and teaching of Jesus. After all, how can you follow someone whom you would not obey? When faced with the mandate to stop teaching in the temple about Christ, the apostles refused to obey.

The story is told in Acts 5 of what happens when the apostles are caught breaking the mandate given them by the religious authorities of their time:

Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!”

Christian submission to other people cannot be divorced from the notion of following God first and foremost. The story above relates that the Christian notion of submission to authority relies upon the fact that authority not disagree with the ways of God, which the Christian must first and foremost follow. Ephesians 5:21 encourages, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Submission to other people in the Christian sense derives directly from a knowledge of submission of our own personal desires in order to follow a better set of actions and values -- those taught by Jesus Christ in the Bible.

The Biblical position on submission to men in authority is that we should submit to our governments and obey those leading us in our churches. Romans 13:1-3 mandates,

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.

Rebellion, then, for a Christian, seems to be a non-option. Hebrews 13:17 continues the theme, exhorting, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Obedience rather than rebellion seems to be mutually beneficial. Obey and then those governing will have an easier job, and therefore govern better and without discipline, thus making your obedience a delight.

Let me say this: Obeying and submission can be wonderful. Learning and growing from those with more knowledge and authority than you have because of their experiences or outside work can benefit you. Life can’t just always be “Damn the man, save the Empire,” much as many in the world wish it could be.

However, questions arise when considering authority that, to me, indicate we should proceed with caution in claiming authority for ourselves or validating that of another, especially within the church. Many from high church traditions and conservative evangelical protestant traditions come to the table with an understanding of church leadership as mandates and hierarchy that we can’t question or influence because they come from God or the authority God has conferred on an individual to teach us. Here are some questions though. Has God appointed and ordained all those who govern churches today? In that case, what determines those who are appointed? What qualities do they have that we who have not been appointed do not have? Do all who have the title of minister deserve our unqualified respect and obedience? Surely we are not required to obey in the face of oppression and pain. But who is to draw the line of when oppression and mistreatment is intolerable and when it is simply a by-product of a fallen human nature? We mistreat each other daily without even realizing the power of our actions.

Our beliefs about authority are often shaped by our personal experiences as much as our rational ability to create a philosophy about leadership and power. Those in authority over us -- our parents, teachers, pastors, other spiritual leaders, mentors, political leaders, local governors -- have perhaps been the greatest influence in caring for us, protecting us, endowing us with values, love, faith, trust, and goodness. Those in authority may have been the best influences in our lives as they raised us to become who we are today. When that is the case, we must be thankful for those who have treated us so well and given us so much of themselves. It surely is not easy to do so because human beings are often very selfish by nature. However, more of us seem to remember the moments we’ve had with authority that make us less capable as individuals of healthy trust and growth. People in authority have disappointed us, mistreated us, hurt us, misjudged us, refused to trust us mutually, perhaps even oppressed us with their irresponsible use of power. These are the moments that lead us to mistrust and rebellion.

I would like to say that this never happens in the church, that only secular authorities bully or wield power inappropriately, refuse to acknowledge the talents and gifts of those “under” them in order to maintain their own position. I can’t say it. I have been in too many groups where the power of prayer and accountability has been manipulated, intentionally or unintentionally, into confused relationships of power. I do not discredit the power of prayer or accountability, I only acknowledge the brokenness of mankind and our inability to wholly treat each other well, especially in certain leadership structures.

In a blog I read this morning, I found a notion of authority that I could relate to. Brother Maynard (not his real name) says:

A week or so ago, I told someone that I could sum up 16 years of experience in a particular c church in this way: “No, I don’t have a problem with authority. You have a problem with control.” Hope that helps set the stage… the place I came from was pretty big on the notion of “spiritual authority,” by which I mean big… based on an understanding I couldn’t stand by…. Far from wanting to outline the problem and stop at a hopeless end, we tossed around ideas of what accountability, authority, and servant leadership should look like, and how it should work…. I postulated that authority was in many ways not something given by God to men who ruled over others as is commonly supposed, rather it is simply given by one person to another. Radical, yes. I wouldn’t suggest that God is completely uninvolved in the process, as he dispenses leadership gifts. People choose leaders to whom they will “submit” and they have the freedom to revoke that choice. If they don’t, they might end up stock-piling munitions and drinking magic Kool-Aid in the desert somewhere; not everyone chooses wisely. The main point here is that this kind of authority is never absolute, and with an eye to past abuses, it’s worth pointing out that one cannot legitimately appeal to a heirarchical structure leading from God down through their leadership and so exert their will upon another individual. Remember, the pyramid is inverted, and leaders are to be servants, not “lording it over” others. It’s the individual who decides if the leader has any “authority” over them or not. (You can check out the rest of his thoughts on authority and leadership at his blog Subversive Influence http://www.subversiveinfluence.com/wordpress/?p=874).

To summarize, Brother Maynard suggests that authority is derived from the willingness of an individual to follow and obey another. If no one chooses to obey you, you have no authority. While I believe that God plays a greater role in the determining of authority than Maynard does, in that God blesses those who follow Him and allows them influence that they may benevolently use, the notion of conferred authority appeals to me and seems to be best derived from lived experience.

The Flaming Lips have a song called “The Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song.” I’m going to leave an excerpt from their lyrics as a final challenge, to speak from their own authority, and not my own.

If you could blow up the world
With the flick of a switch
Would you do it?
(Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah)
If you could make everybody poor
Just so you could be rich
Would you do it?
(Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah)

And so we cannot know ourselves
Or what we'd really do

With all your power
With all your power
With all your power
What would you do?

Are you crazy?
It's a very dangerous thing to do
Exactly what you want
Because you cannot know yourself,
Or what you'd really do

With all your power
With all your power
With all your power
What would you do?



Questions to consider:
1. Whom do you allow to have authority in your life, and why?
2. Who has been one of the best authority figures you have had in your life? Why? Who has been the worst? Why?
3. Do you believe that authority can be conferred divinely by God? Or do you believe that authority is earned?
4. Are there ways to organize leadership in a church that are not based in hierarchy? Is hierarchy Biblically ordained? What are its benefits? Weaknesses?
5. Are there limits to obedience? What are they? From where do you derive the authority to disobey?
6. Let’s dream a little. What would an ideal power relationship look like? What can you do to the best of your ability to make your relationships look like your ideal vision, as much as it depends on you?