A recent stabbing of a Member of Parliament whilst conducting a surgery for constituents has highlighted the need for security for those who service in public office. Yet if security is tightened then freedom of access to those who hold public office by others has to be curtailed.
How highly do we we regard those who hold public office such as Members of Parliament, Judges, Magistrates and the Clergy? Can John Calvin, the sixteenth century Protestant Reformer give us any hints as to how we should regard those in public office?
He believes that a “system compounded of aristocracy and democracy far excels all others” and “man’s weakness” causes “it to be safer for a number of men to exercise government so that each one can help, teach and admonish the other” (Institutes 4, 20,8). We might question how our Parliamentary Democracy achieves this end but the idea of it is that it should. Hence Members of Parliament should be able to be approached by the citizens they serve. If we consider the state authorities then Calvin believes that it is God who puts them in place, even those who do not honour Him. Thus a “Magistrate cannot be resisted without God being resisted at the same time” (Institutes 4, 20, 23-25).
If citizens deliberately go against the state authorities that are established by God then God will act against them. “Those who rule for public benefit are true patterns and evidence of His beneficience and those who rule unjustly and incompetently have been raised up by Him to punish the wickedness of the people” (Institutes 4, 20, 23-25). This would seem to be harsh teaching, but it does come with a warning to those do not govern according to God’s will and “dishonestly betray the freedom of the people” will meet with rebuke for the correction of “unbridled despotism is the Lord’s to avenge” (Institutes 4, 20,31).
How do you balance your views of the exercise of public office with a desire to expose those who are violating their God given right to rule? Does recognition of the power of God to forgive those who seek Him mean you can rest these earthly concerns with God alone?
