Wednesday, February 06, 2008

What is authority? What is obedience?

  • Authority is an interpretation of power.
  • Authorities--persons, laws, customs--arise from our judgments about power. We decide together as a group which persons hold final responsibility in this organization, which of these ancient writings are the Word of God, which of these directives have the force of law.

  • Obedience is our response to these decisions.
  • Obedience is the voluntary accomodation of myself in the face of a larger good.
  • Where willing obedience is refused, authority is an empty claim.
  • But willing obedience is mature only in response to legitimate authority.

  • To set aside my own purposes or seriously modify my behavior for something less than legitimate authority is servility or simply cowardice.
  • The reputations of authority and obedience rise and fall together.
  • Neither authority nor obedience is good in itself. Each becomes legitimate by its connections with the larger good.

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