Recently, there have been a number of well-meaning, though misguided, conservatives who are advocating filling in the Census with false information. Justin Taylor explains why that shouldn’t be an option for Christians:
Some conservatives—for example, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, a professing evangelical—are suggesting that people not fill out the Census coming in the mail, or at least not to answer certain questions (e.g., on your race). Others are suggesting that some answers be falsified (e.g., checking “Native American” because you were born in America).
The reason is that the government will use racial information for purposes of reapportioning congressional seats as a result (which is true).
But even if you don’t like how this information will be used, Christians in particular should remember that it’s a violation of federal law to leave answers blank or to provide false answers. Even if you think the law is crummy, it does not require you to break any Scriptural laws, and therefore it would be a violation of Scripture to break this law.
March 12th, 2010 | 4:45 pm
Sounds to me like a typically glib and unctuous line Obama would use at those occasional times he finds religion to be useful : “Jesus wants YOU to fill out your census forms!”
March 12th, 2010 | 5:01 pm
Give me a break. If the government does something stupid, and something they have no right to do, I’m supposed to just do it if it doesn’t explicitly require me to commit a sin? Nonsense. What about natural law, consent of the governed, etc.?
That being said, filling out the census form is no big deal, as far as I’m concerned.
March 13th, 2010 | 10:57 pm
Maybe — except that judicially speaking, the president and the congress are not the sovereign authorities of our state. The American people are, and our fundamental written law is the constitution. Our representatives aren’t Caesar; we are.
If the congress or the president act against the constitution (and therefore against the will of the people as embodied in that document), then I don’t see that we have any religious obligation to obey them, any more than a Christian would have an obligation to follow a rebel pretender to a sovereign throne.
So the question that matters to me is not whether we would be violating the statutes imposed by the government, but whether those statutes are constitutional. If they are, then yes, we have an obligation to follow them. If not, then we don’t.
March 14th, 2010 | 2:15 am
And to clarify: I do think that the census, as currently conducted, is constitutional, so we do have an obligation to answer it fully and honestly.
I’m just very suspicious of arguments that are based upon a hasty identification of the federal government with the biblically-described authorities, without a sufficient recognition of the differences in sovereignty between our constitutional republic and a monarchy or other polity that assigns sovereignty to a specific ruler or office holder.
March 15th, 2010 | 7:42 pm
Very sad, this is not a law, it is not constitutional, you have it all wrong, we are to comply with the government but this is not a law, they have adapted the “counting” to their own use. It is only a “big brother” act. Shame on you for pointing a finger at someone who is willing to stand for righteousness. Get the facts right and stop leading Christians with incorrect information.
March 16th, 2010 | 12:49 pm
What if, on the question of race, I check “other” and write in “American”? That sounds reasonable. I am very much against the racial categories that have been determined for us (the argument could be made how they only serve to promote racial bias/stereotyping). Would that be an “honest” or “Christian” enough answer for the author of this post, or not?
Are your ancestors from the Caucasus? Are you very white, or some other shade? Why then should you lie and answer that you are? (Likewise for other broad categories.)
March 27th, 2010 | 12:29 pm
We didn’t lie on ours. We just didn’t fill it in and sent along a cover letter giving the only information that is authorized by the Constitution – the address and the number of people living here.
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