To non-Orthodox folk here - I address Orthodox people, and don't care to engage with disagreement with non-Orthodox here. (Heck, I don't want to do disagreement in TAW at all, really.) Unless I know you're an Orthodox member, I'm not going to respond to disagreement, so if you are a relatively new member, and we haven't been introduced, please identify your faith status if you want any response. (We used to have faith icons...)
To Greg - Chesterton is a heckuva lot closer to (ie, more in agreement with) the Orthodox fathers than some modern Orthodox. If what he says chimes with and illuminates their consensus, I will quote it, because it is true.
"8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
Philippians 4:8
But I suppose referring to a Scriptural exhortation will be seen as "Protestant Sola Scriptura personal exegesis"...
I think the real issue is whether we should ever take any political action in the world or not. Whether only passive resistance to evil is acceptable or active resistance with force. I am solidly on the side of appropriate force and against passivity-only. There are too many saints and cases in Church history of good use of force, and sufficient precedent that rebukes universal Tolstoyan-type pacifism for me to accept my own mother's pacifism. That may not be given, Orthodox Christians may not agree. I am well aware of the pacifist side of the Tradition of the Church, and think St Maximilian as admirable as St George or St Nicholas.
And using force IS a political statement. So it is bootless for anyone to complain of making political statements.
I understand the idea behind those who think "secular rule" best, and see a dichotomy of either rabid theocracy or laissez-faire secularism. For my part, I see the necessity of having a dominant world view governing society, and that it be the right one, and that it should have mechanisms tolerating and granting peace, dignity and freedom to those that do not share that view. Secularism ultimately and inevitably discards that tolerance, as it is doing now. America has lasted as long as it has because it long had a dominant world view that was actually right on the most important things, and yet tolerated those that disagreed. But that kind of "secularism" only worked because most people acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord, and no longer works for us because they don't.
George Washington rightly said in his Farewell Address: "You cannot maintain national morality in exclusion of the religious principle."
Now there is hardly anything that will completely exclude Christian principles from public life more rapidly than for all Christians to passively resign from their posts when challenged. I happen to love my children and think that staving off the American Sodom, making it less so to the limited extent that we can for when they grow up, to be better than just resigning. Sometimes we HAVE to resign ourselves to our fate, to the will of God, and of wicked men. But not always. We were put into this world to act, to make a difference, not just to save ourselves. Yes, absolutely, we need to acquire the Holy Spirit and I admit that I am no St Seraphim, and fail to rise to his level. But I don't think that means I should turn from what is happening in the world. I think it is right to stand up and say "No, we will not obey wicked laws". Fr PH Reardon did one very right thing that was in his power (and didn't walk away from his job in doing so). This poor, and by now miserable non-Orthodox sinner (who is not chief, who we ought to be seeing as better than ourselves) in Kentucky did another very right thing that was in her power.
The Orthodox pacifist, who only resigns, is not wrong for resigning. Resigning in this case would not have been wrong. But it is certainly the less bold step, the less bold witness. And the Orthodox fighter, as long as he fights carefully and honorably, is not wrong for refusing to comply with wicked laws and orders, and to accept imprisonment.