Reporting Crimes

Message / Question

hello dr dave , do christians have an obligation to "dob" our fellow brothers and sisters in christian to the police ?

Response

Christians are meant to be good citizens and there are instances where the law requires all citizens to report matters to the authorities. For example, if you are in an occupation that mandates you to report suspected child abuse, then you should make the report regardless of whether the abuser may be a fellow Christian. Likewise, we are all required by law to report a crime that we may witness and such a report should be made again, regardless of whether the person committing the crime may be a fellow Christian. Are there exceptions? Yes, there may well be – for example, I would not consider that a Christian would have been obliged to report the presence of Jews in Hitler’s Germany – in fact, it was often Christians who intentionally broke the law by hiding Jewish people in their homes. The general principle is this – we obey the law of the land unless that law opposes God’s law.