In recent years, nonviolent action has gained global attention owing to the so-called Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the U.S., the MST Movement in Brazil, the Zapatista Movement in Mexico, and the BDS Movement in Israel/Palestine. Several studies demonstrate that movements that maintain nonviolent discipline have higher rates of success than movements that turn to armed struggle. The ability to maintain nonviolent discipline is crucial to achieving success because violent methods tend to undermine popular support of contentious movements and provide a pretext for states to use violence to prevent harm andestablish law and order. Recent research has also shown that nonviolent movements are much more likely to succeed when state elites and/or security forces defect. It is well known that religious actors have played important roles in several nonviolent campaigns, such as the Indian Independence Movement, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, the People Power Movement in the Philippines, and the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement, but the impact of religion on nonviolent discipline and defection has not been adequately addressed in previous research. In this paper, I examine nonviolent discipline and defection in terms of obedience and disobedience. Drawing on contemporary nonviolence research and psychological studies of obedience/disobedience, I argue that religion can, and sometimes does, facilitate obedience to nonviolent principles and disobedience to state authorities.