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.