“We must obey God rather than men!” Acts 5:29

On the morning of March 16, 1968, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson and two other soldiers flew their helicopter on a reconnaissance mission over My Lai, Vietnam. To their horror, US soldiers—desensitized to the wrath of war—were gunning down unarmed civilians leaving hundreds of dead or dying Vietnamese in a ditch. Outraged and without hesitation, Thompson sought to halt this massacre by landing his chopper in front of the US soldiers who were advancing on a small group of frantically fleeing civilians. He was prepared to shoot any American who prevented him from rescuing the surviving civilians, risking court martial or being shot as a traitor for disobeying an order to butcher villagers.

In war it is easy to become desensitized to horror. But, making right decisions reflect the maturity of one’s spiritual fruit of goodness, especially when tested as a lone ranger or when the loss of career or life is likely. To help face moral dilemmas we must ask if man’s order violates God’s, such as, “Did the needless directive of slaughtering civilians conflict with Scripture?” Clearly, believers are to obey their government (1 Peter 2:13-17), yet to the point where God’s commands conflict with those of authority. Then, Apostles Peter and John would advocate noncompliance to that human authority because they serve a Higher Court who defines goodness (Acts 5). Supposing you were in Hugh Thompson’s boots with unfavorable consequences, whose orders would you obey?

“Doing the right thing is more important than doing things right.” – Peter Drucker