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OTTAWA, May 31, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), an Ottawa-based alliance of 32 Protestant, evangelical churches and colleges, has endorsed civil disobedience against abortion and other moral evils as a justifiable Christian response under certain circumstances. In a discussion paper released May 29 the fellowship says civil disobedience, “can be a legitimate Christian calling” according to reason and biblical teachings. Defined as “a conscientious, public, non-violent act contrary to the law,” the paper lists illegal picketing and demonstration, assisting illegal refugees, picketing abortion clinics and trespassing on defence or military sites as acceptable forms of civil disobedience.

“A readiness to undertake civil disobedience constitutes a part of giving unqualified primary allegiance to God,” writes the document’s author John Redekop, a professor of history and political science at Trinity Western University in British Columbia. “As Christians, we cannot assume that we will at all times and in all circumstances be able to obey our government,” Redekop says. “Governments may impose laws that would require us to disobey God if we complied … breaking the law of the land is always serious, but it is not always wrong,” he states.

Janet Epp Buckingham, legal counsel for the EFC, says the discussion paper comes as a result of affiliated churches members increasing involvement in illegal protests and questioning inside their churches whether civil disobedience is a moral and proper Christian activity. “We are seeing civil disobedience as something members of our community are starting to think about using to highlight certain issues,” Dr. Buckingham says. Linda Gibbons, Canada’s most arrested and jailed prolife protester, is an Evangelical Protestant.

For more see the National Post at:  https://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010531/578209.html

For the actual discussion paper:  https://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/resources/resource_viewer.asp?Resource_ID=106