Romans 13

first thing first, let's talk about the background or historical settings when Paul said these things. The background is a persecuted church, they were being persecuted because they're somewhat trying to establish their own kingdom (of god), we could imagine that back then they're starting to think of refusing to pay tax, and other civil responsibilities. These things irked Roman government and this brought out the said persecution.

It seemed that Paul sent this letter for three purposes:
1. cooling down the rage of a persecuted church (Romans 12:17 put that even clearer).
2. changing that church's mindset a bit on the concept of kingdom of God itself (you should keep on paying taxes, dummies!)
3. telling the church that instead of focusing on your rage, your refusal to pay taxes, etc.. channel that instead on doing what Christians are supposed to do.. and the end of days is near anyway (Romans 13:8-14).

It seemed to us, that the whole Romans 13 should be put into this context, and as such we don't think it has anything to do with bad government, good government, "if our government is really evil, does this mean that we are not allowed to struggle against it no matter what?" and such things. It's just not in the current context.