The Foundational American View of Romans 13

About this episode

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 219 The United States of America was founded on a very particular view of the people's right relationship to government authority that can be, and was, summarized by the famous phrase, "Resistance against tyrants is obedience to God." But, many have wondered, even in our present day, what about the injunctions of Paul's famous Romans 13, which demands we obey our civil authorities, for they are ordained by God for our good through that role? This crucial question loomed very large through the Covid-19 abuses and has ever since, including in the American churches. The definitively American answer to the question was given as a sermon (https://lc.org/PDFs/A%20Discourse%20Concerning%20Unlimited%20Submission%20and%20Non-Resistance%20to%20the%20Higher%20Powers%20-%20Jonathan%20Mayhew%20-%201750.pdf) in Massachusetts Colony in 1750, however, by a fiery young Congregationalist named Jonathan Mayhew, and this sermon laid bedrock under what would become the United States. "A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers," he called it. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay rea