No. You are not the first Christian to be unhappy with a government. I doubt if the church during the first three hundred years of its existence was happy with the Roman government, an autocratic, imperial, and totalitarian empire with political power concentrated in the hands of a few. Still, then and now, we are to respect our government officials and the offices that they hold even when we disagree with them (see Rom. 13:7; 1 Peter 2:17). According to 1 Timothy 2:1–3, God commands us to pray for our government and its officials during our prayer meetings. Nero was the emperor of the Roman Empire when Paul penned these words. Surely we can offer prayers on behalf of our government today!

Paul gives us several reasons in Romans 13:1–7 why every Christian should submit to the government: (1) human government/civil authority, regardless of its forms and philosophical base, is a divine institution (v. 1b); (2) God ultimately has appointed all existing governments, putting in place the people who hold offices in those governments, regardless of how they arrived in power—we can admit there is mystery here that we don’t fully understand (v. 1c ); (3) disobedience to the government is disobeying God Himself, as long as that government is not commanding us to do something contrary to God’s Word (v. 2); (4) those who disobey will suffer the consequences (v. 2b); (5) governments are the Lord’s means to maintain law and order in a society (vv. 3–4); and (6) conscience—we submit to our government not just to avoid painful consequences, but out of conscience before the Lord (v. 5).

The principles of Romans 13:1–7 inform my response to your question. Unlike the Christians living in the first-century Roman empire, Christians in the United States live in a free and democratic society. Consequently we have a number of means to petition our government for a redress of grievances. Your expression, “Taking to the streets,” is not clear.

If, however, you mean by “taking to the streets“ public and nonviolent protests, it appears to me that Christians may be involved in such protests in our cultural context. Our Constitution guarantees the right to peaceably assemble, and so these protests do not automatically violate the law. Not all Christian thinkers will agree with me at this point. Nonetheless, peaceful nonviolent protests are one expression of responsible and informed citizenship in a free and democratic society.

The purpose of peaceful and respectful protest is to dramatize and draw attention to a sinful or evil practice that is embedded in laws and government decisions such as abortion on demand, unjust laws that oppress the poor and the needy, unjust wars, etc. Christians involved in protests should be Christ-like in their words and actions, acting in Christ’s name because God’s honor is at stake and people are being hurt, and not merely because they are unhappy with the government. Also please get the appropriate permits and be nice to the police who will be present to protect you and the other protesters.

Before I respond, I need to define civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey a government’s unjust laws and demands. Just because a practice is legal does not make it moral or ethical before God.

When a government passes laws that are against God and His Word, we are obligated before the Lord to disobey those particular laws—not as a political statement, but as a matter of conscience, submitting ourselves to God’s higher Law (see Ex. 1:10–22; Dan. 3:1–30; Acts 5:27–29).

I also want all of my readers to realize that civil disobedience is a serious and sometimes costly decision (Rev. 6:9, 20:4). A good number of Christians across the globe are in jail or have become martyrs because being a Christian or even just talking to someone about Jesus in their context is a crime, a form of civil disobedience. Even in our own country, it was a dangerous and risky step for Rosa Parks not to give up her seat on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. In Holland, during World War II Corrie ten Boom and her family were involved in civil disobedience, sheltering and protecting Jews instead of turning them over to the Nazi authorities. Corrie and her family paid dearly for their obedience to Jesus! Their “crime” was discovered, and they were sent to the infamous Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück where Corrie’s sister Betsie died.

Civil disobedience is not an expression of a Christian’s displeasure with a government, but a courageous, often costly, step of faith and obedience to Christ! If you have not done so already, I encourage you to prayerfully read The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom.