Ask a Bible college Student

[GUBU]

Why?

Is respect on discount these days? Or do you by any chance go by the biblical quote of everyone in authority is there because god wills it? If so, tell me why Stalin or Mao or Pol Pot aren't deserving of the same kind of respect.

I'd say when they were in power they did deserve the respect of the people they were ruling over. That doesn't mean we agree with them. It doesn't mean we obey them if they tell us to do something outright wrong. But our attitude towards them should be that of respect. Just like that teacher growing up that you couldn't stand, you still didn't disobey them when they told you to quiet down and listen, or call them by their first name. You don't like them, but you respect their position.

So from that position I'm going to have to assume that you'd have been ok operating the gas chambers in Auschwitz if Hitler ordered you to.

You know after WW2 most countries passed laws and regulations to combat the unquestioning obedience to authority you espouse. For examle in the US armed forces it is a crime to obey an illegal order from a superior, and an honourable conduct to disobey and actively frustrate one.