Imperfection and the Omnipresence and Inescapability of Human Sin

Every so often I divert my attention back to the French Revolution. It asks one of those questions that has never been answered to my satisfaction. As good Christians, we are supposed to uphold and obey government, but what happens when the government is a mere tool which the powerful use to abuse and take advantage of the weak? What happens when a government's justice is become rancid and corrupt, when there is no justice? What happens when there is no means for peaceable reformation? Should good men sit there and watch as their fellows are trampled?

I have heard the revolution is always a sin. Is it not also a sin to watch your neighbor defrauded of his life and property? And what if he is defrauded in the name of the law? What if government is rigged to allow some men to rape, defraud, and murder without tasting the consequences? Such was the case with the French. The peasants only had one answer for that oligarchy of worms.

Don't get me wrong. The murder of the French aristocrats was an abomination of the worst sort; it was savagery. This is the sad price of having noble ideals hijacked by a blood-lusted mob. I have to wonder if revolution is ever possible without this kind of display. Ours was much more civilized by far. However, it is hard to compare because our tyrants--who were not so bad--were a long voyage off, out of the reach of the bloody mob, necessarily meaning the mob was out of their reach as well. Bloodshed on the same level was impossible.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I might be wrong in how I perceive the situation, to me it has always seemed a part of the imperfection that we live in, but such cases leave us with two choices. We either rebel against the evil and try to reform things in a just manner. Or we watch and allow ourselves to be party to corruption and hope it doesn't turn its eyes on us. There is no third choice, closing your eyes is just another way of watching.

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