Interposition in Hartford, Wisconsin
Today in Hartford, Wisconsin people gathered in hopeful response to the fact the Wisconsin Supreme Court would soon make an announcement opening the State of Wisconsin. Thus far, no such announcement has been made by the High Court. Nonetheless, people gathered to protest the fact that the state is, and has been, closed down. As I spoke to people in the crowd I found residents gathered there, sharing with me the same personal tragedies which are being repeated in Hartford as I found to be the case in Madison, in West Bend, areas represented around the State … and certainly in Milwaukee as well.
Businesses – especially small businesses – are in shambles. Everywhere people testify the governor of the state and media have turned a deaf ear. Most agree the Covid virus should be addressed to the extent that those in greatest danger – the elderly and those with compromised immune systems – are in the greatest danger. There is no lack of sympathy for the tiny number of individuals who have suffered.
But, our Governor has repeatedly turned a deaf ear to the suffering of the many all throughout the state. As we heard today from several state representatives, the Governor continues to refuse to work with the state legislature, has been impatient of constitutional process, marginalizing the large segment of our population’s businesses and interests “nonessential.” He has repeatedly broken his sworn oath as the Governor of the state, exercising power unilaterally and far beyond any “balance of power” as must be exercised in a constitutionally framed government.
Tim Michalak, Mayor of Hartford, Wisconsin, Interposes for His City…and for the Rest of Us!
“Interposition of the Lesser Magistrates” is the historic doctrine that birthed our nation. Put simply, it was a doctrine taught by the churches in early America whose pulpits instructed the people of the era that there is an orderly method for resisting renegade officers 1) who violate their oath of office, 2) ignore constitutional processes, and 3) move forward to damage their constituency. The Mayor of Hartford, Wisconsin, Tim Michalak, had enough of the Governor’s disobedience to the Wisconsin State Constitution. As a result he defiantly opened the city!
By doing so, he was protecting his constituency… while creating an example for the rest of us! The fact that he is one of the first to do so statewide sets a clarion call to the rest of the “lesser magistrates” all throughout Wisconsin who continue to allow their constituency to be damaged… and in many cases the ruin is already irreversible.
Our forefathers learned from the pulpits of the era, that God demands those who rule in office do so “justly.” In the era of 1776, when King George and Parliament exceeded their authority and violated the Charters of the colonial governments, repeatedly infringing upon the rights peaceful and free people as expressed in the English Bill of Rights (1789), pulpits and the people demanded lesser magistrates take their stand in opposition to the acts of the King and Parliament.
In our constitutionally framed government, EVERY officer in government takes an oath of office to the constitution of the district, state, county, city, in which he or she exercises authority, as well as the Constitution of our nation. This includes police and military officers and personnel as well. The point is, every one of the officers is oath bound, therefore none may lightly presume to take the law to their own hands, violate the rights of the people of this land… and do so because “they’ve been ordered to do so.”
Obeying a Superior Officer of Government is NO Excuse for Violating the Constitution
In our constitutionally bound system, obeying a superior officer of the government as a reason for undertaking that which is unlawful, is nonetheless a crime. U.S. Lieut. William Calley Jr. was an American war criminal, who as an army officer, was convicted by court-martial of murdering 22 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. He claimed he was ordered to do so by a superior officer. That excuse didn’t work then, and it shouldn’t work now. He was court-martialed even though his act took place on foreign soil. Nonetheless, he represented the people, government and Constitution of the United States in his actions and was held responsible for his war crimes.
In a constitutionally framed government, NO ONE is above the law, especially those in office. Scripture teaches us that taking an oath of office increases the Sanctions against the oath breaker… and has nothing to do with somehow increasing the “truth value” of the oath, a point Jesus make clear in Matthew 5.
This is the historic biblical doctrine of Interposition – “standing in the gap” for those who cannot stand for themselves, ( in our case, people deemed “nonessential”) that allows honest citizens to stand behind duly constituted authority to resist tyranny, while at the same time keeping the countryside from running to exasperation and anarchy.
The crowd responded enthusiastically to the public admonition that we cannot be a people standing for only our own personal interests. People must stand one for another… a true expression of “loving thy neighbor as thyself.”
Wayne C. Sedlak Pastor Reformation Hope Church, Brookfield WI
