John Burton pulls out all the NAR cards to declare that Dr. David Dao is at fault for the United Airlines debacle and he doesn't mind abusing the Bible to make his point.

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Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. -- Romans 13: 1-4 (ESV)

http://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/32408-the-united-airlines-chaos-unmasks-how-the-devil-has-duped-society

It is so disheartening to watch Christians, well intended or otherwise, misuse the Bible to prop up their own political or personal views of societal occurrences. The Bible is the final revealed will of God unto His people. It is not meant to be weaponized against those very people to cull them into carnal submission. The above link is to an article found on Charisma Magazine's website, so I guess I should expect that it would promote people who either do not understand the Bible or do not care about abusing it. That the man who wrote this article, John Burton, is proud to list himself as a Director of one of IHOP's primary internships reveals that I really should not be surprised. The International House of Prayer is a notorious cesspool of new age Christianity, false signs and lying wonders, and the New Apostolic Reformation's dominionist agenda including the heretical Seven Mountains Mandate. This teaching is that Christians must conquer the seven cultural mountains of this world in order to facilitate the second coming of Jesus Christ. One of those mountains is government and as such, the NAR crowd is very much lock step with the Republican Party in this country, even though they could care less about the cause of Christ and the Gospel.

This brings us to last week's big societal conversation, Dr. David Dao. This was the man who was forcibly dragged off the United Airlines flight so they could seat some of their own employees. In the process of this forcible removal, he suffered the loss of two front teeth. Right away the blogosphere blew up. Outrage on social media exploded from people shocked and disgusted by the way this 69 year old doctor was treated. Not surprisingly, the other side soon exploded as well. Now let me be clear. As Christians we are entitled to have our opinion as much as the next guy. The issue is when that opinion becomes unchristian in its message and delivery or if we try to misuse the Bible to pretend God is saying what we are saying. John Burton crossed both lines. Let us reason together.

Burton starts off the article by setting up what is known as false equivalencies. He tells about how one of his recent flights was delayed due to a fake bomb threat and the second he oddly never discusses what was wrong. The inference is simply well "stuff happens." Except that is not really the point is it? A potential bomb threat is simply not comparable to a company dragging someone down the aisle of an airplane to make room for one of their own employees. I understand why Burton tries this at the start. David Dao's situation is incredibly painful to watch so Burton is trying to "normalize" it. The effort was painfully transparent however. Burton now makes his premise known:

David Dao should have obeyed the directive to walk off the plane. I have to admit, I am disturbed at the number of Christians who are knee-jerk reacting against United Airlines and in favor of the unruly passenger. While the police may have possibly employed regrettable actions, the airline was acting within their rights, just as they do many times a day in similar situations. -- John Burton

Let's dispel some of the subterfuge Burton is laying on us here. David Dao was not "an unruly passenger." He was a correctly booked, boarded, and behaving passenger who was offered an incentive to leave, which he refused. The airline then tried to bully him into leaving and he stood his ground and said no. Then he was dragged from his seat like we were in some authoritarian third world dictatorship and thrown off so an employee could take his seat. All to have people like John Burton then try and label him "unruly." You can side with the company. You have that right. You do not have the right to lie, and in this instance bear false witness, in order to prop up your side. Burton is also being dishonest by referring to the people who dragged him off the plane as "police." They were in fact most definitely NOT police. They are the unarmed aviation police. They carry no weight of the government as they are employees of the airport. Burton is trying desperately to set up the bible twisting he is about to engage in:

Submission to authority is an elementary level truth for believers. David Dao and every one of the nearly 1 billion air travelers in the United States agree to very clear, non-negotiable terms when they buy their ticket. The Contract of Carriage allows airlines to remove and rebook passengers. Complaining, refusing to comply and rejecting the directives of our authorities is ungodly behavior. Period. David may or may not be a believer, but Christians, you should know better.

Do all things without murmuring and disputing, that you may be blameless and harmless, sons of God, without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world (Phil. 2:14-15). -- John Burton

Let us again deal with those pesky little facts. David Dao does not appear to be a believer. So throwing the Bible at him doesn't make any sense. Secondly, the only argument that people like John Burton has is the contract argument. You know, the fine details written in legalese that no one, including John Burton, ever reads. However, I am relatively certain that the contract does not call for the removal of your two front teeth should you not adhere to the contract stipulations. The real problem however is in abusing the Bible to pretend that Chicago Airport Rent-a-Cops are who God was writing about when He had Paul write his letter to the Romans. They are not "authorities" beloved. They are employees. Let us deal with the Scriptural issues.

The Philippians verses do indeed instruct Christians to do things without murmuring and disputing. To not bring disrepute, if you will, to the name you now bear. One could argue that writing an article as a Christian leader, taking clear sides against a whole swath of the unbelieving world is exactly what Paul is trying to get at here. Siding with the corporation over the human being while proudly displaying your mantle of Christianity hits a lot closer to this passage than a 69 year old unbeliever who just wanted to go home. To be honest though, even if Dao was Christian these verses would not apply. I suppose if David Dao was shouting that he was a Christian as he was being pummeled into submission maybe that would get it closer but as it stands now, this is not a good usage of these verses. Even if he had been completely obedient, no one would have had a clue about if he was a Christian or not.

The other major point here is that Burton's assertion that submission to authorities is an elementary truth is a juvenile statement that does not understand the gravity contained within these verses. He so misunderstands them that he assigns corporate authorities the same privileges as governmental ones. The point God was making here is not that we have to obey anyone who gives us a directive based upon a corporate policy and to think so is ludicrous. The key verses today contain the majority of the context Burton is overlooking. Are we now subject to the authority of an airline? Did God "institute" the Chicago Airline Police? By refusing to give up a seat we rightly paid for and was boarded for so that an employee can take our seat are we incurring the wrath of God and His judgment? Are these aviation police servants of God and avengers carrying out God's wrath on wrongdoers? Heck, David Dao was not even a wrongdoer in this scenario! The answer to all of these questions is obviously no. The Airline police do not even carry guns, let alone "the sword."

Then there are the deeper questions Christians still grapple with today regarding these verses. What about ungodly authority? Under the simplistic reading of John Burton, the colonists were wrong for rebelling against England. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was wrong for conspiring against Hitler. What about Paul refusing to obey the various authorities in the Book of Acts? What about Peter refusing to obey the Sanhedrin in preaching the Gospel? What about the three Hebrew boys refusing the direct order of King Nebuchadnezzar? To read Romans 13 and declare definitively that all refusal of authority is ungodly is patently false and silly. I suppose then that Mr. Burton supports abortion since that is the law of the land and the governing authority on that issue? So one could then make the argument that the line is drawn for behaviors that run contrary to Scripture. The Hebrew boys knew they could not bow down to other gods so they rightly refused. Peter knew the Gospel took precedent over the whims of man. Baked into that rationale however is standing up to what you know is wrong and runs contrary to God. Bonhoeffer knew that Hitler was wrong. The colonists knew that the King was wrong. While the scale is certainly much smaller, the airline was wrong. If your only argument is that they placed in their contract the right to be wrong, you have no argument at all. Either way, Romans 13 is not as simple as Mr. Burton is portraying it to be.

Burton then returns to drawing false equivalencies. He speaks about how he had a trip to Canada where both flights were delayed and he was grumpy. Yes Mr. Burton but you were not asked to deplane after being properly boarded and then had your teeth knocked out. Another flight he mentions was canceled and he missed his daughter's birthday. Terrible story but this has nothing to do with what happened to Mr. Dao. David Dao's flight was not cancelled. If it were and he become irate and refused to deplane then I would agree 100% with what Mr. Burton is selling. That is not what happened here however. Burton continues:

Yes, the man in Chicago who refused to deplane was extremely in the wrong. It's our job as lights in a dark world to smile and reveal the life and love of Jesus in challenging and unfair situations and not grumble and demand that our rights be met. -- John Burton

Burton continues to label Dao a Christian when there has been no evidence of this fact. Secondly, Christians also stand up for what is right and what is just. That too is bringing light to a darkened world. In the mind of John Burton a Christian simply rolls over for anyone and anything in any situation. Somehow I think that misses the true mark of the Bible and how we are to be light in this dark age. If there were someone who needed to board that plane like someone with a disability or a serviceman coming home to be reunited with his family, then I think we are light by offering to give up our seat. Do not lose sight of this beloved. This airline made the mistake of boarding people and then trying to throw people off the plane so their employees could take the flight. It is not unbiblical to think that a company should be better organized than that. Even the pathetic example Burton gave of witnessing another flight where people were asked to give up their seats occurred in the airport, not after people have already been boarded. John Burton goes on for some length along the exact same skewed view of thinking and Bible twisting. Here are just some of the low lights:

We aren't only to submit to authority that is fair or right. We don't turn our submission on and off based on our own analysis of the situation. Regardless of whether David Dao was treated properly or not, he disobeyed a clear and direct order. He was wrong, no matter how important he believed himself to be. Entitlement must go. Humility and submission to authority must find its way into our independent, narcissistic culture. As I said above, I'm stunned at the Christians who are instant in their defense and outright celebration of David's clear indiscretion. In today's society, it seems it's the authority that's always the villain. Corporations, pastors, police officers, parents and others are held in suspicion at best and rebelled against without apology at worst. Airlines absolutely have the right to remove people for any reason. Refusal to comply is against the law. That simply cannot be argued. We are required, per Scripture, to obey. Our supposed "rights" are not more important than our responsibility to submit. -- John Burton

For the sake of time I will try to be brief. It is stunning that Burton does not think right and wrong matter when submitting to authority. Under this bizarre standard the very country he now worships was established based upon rebellion against God and therefore is under His wrath. You cannot have it both ways. Secondly, this is not "entitlement." United Airlines is a company. They sold something Mr. Dao bought and they have responsibilities as well. It is beyond ironic that while Mr. Burton berates Christians for siding with what is right; United Airlines has already apologized and admitted they were wrong. Perhaps the most frightening and revealing statement made by Mr. Burton is found when he lists corporations on par with pastors, police, and parents. Wow. That is not Biblical not Christian. The actual word for it is fascist. Lastly from this section, it is not against the law. If it were, Mr. Dao would have been charged with a crime. Burton is conflating a law about complying with deplaning for legitimate reasons. The law that was broken however is that even in deplaning an individual; it can never be done forcibly. Let me conclude by reviewing four of the final statements made by Burton:

It doesn't matter if United Airlines was wrong (though I personally do not think they were), David's reaction was unacceptable. The airline had the right to do what they did. They had no obligation to explain themselves. They along with the lawmakers write the rules. -- John Burton

It is painfully obvious in the corporatocracy that John Burton desires to live in that United Airlines did nothing wrong. He so values the non human entity of the corporation that he has put them on the same par as lawmakers! The airline had NO right to do what they did and they already have admitted it. They now will be sued for it and guess what Mr. Burton? They will lose that too. We do not live in Stalin's Russia.

Christians are being tortured, raped and murdered as martyrs all over the world, and we think someone being required to vacate a seat on an airplane is a violation of human rights? We'd have to be sick to think such a thing! -- John Burton

The only sicko who thought of this was John Burton. No one compared something as trivial as a plane fare to martyrs. But we are also big boys and girls who can walk and chew gum at the same time. Nice try Burton.

We never speak against or elevate our own opinions above God's established authority. Pastors, prophets, apostles, politicians, policemen, bosses, etc. We humbly support them, unless, and only unless, they were to cause us to violate a clear Scriptural truth. That's it.

And we finally come to it. The false authority paradigm is what is behind all of this and that is not surprising since it is the core of NAR teaching. The notion that we never speak out is completely unbiblical. Paul once rightly rebuked Peter. I might add here that it is not lofting our own opinion above the one in authority but rather God's opinion. We are called to test everything, do the work of a Berean and rebuke what is false. That is all fully supported in Scripture. It is false beliefs such as these espoused by John Burton that holds unimaginable numbers of people captive to false teachers in false churches. Out of all the wrongness in this article by John Burton, I tried to save the worst for last:

We presume God is most interested in right vs. wrong. He is not. He's interested in our response, our reaction.

Says no bible verse anywhere. Beloved, God is most assuredly interested in right versus wrong. I do not understand how someone can read the Bible and not realize that. This is a worldly argument wrapped up in skewed humanistic and carnal thinking. God is a God of justice beloved. Should David Dao have walked off that plane? Certainly it would have made things easier but it would not have made them right. John Burton seems quite an adherent to NAR thinking and as such, he has raised the corporation to the same level as pastors who run the church, police who protect the citizenry, and kings who rule the land. Never mind that his blessed corporation actually tried to lie at first and claim that Mr. Dao was belligerent and disruptive until oops; that darn video came out. Yet the Burtons of the world do not care about that. The sad thing is they use their Christian media platform to eviscerate the Word of God and pretend that God does not care about justice. If you want to believe that Mr. Dao was wrong, or petulant, or should have just complied you have every right to and we can agree to disagree in an agreeable manner. Just do not pretend for one second that the Bible supports that position or that Romans 13 was written so that thousands of years later we would know to bow to the governing will of the Chicago Aviation Police.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- April 23, 2017

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.