Christians and the Law

Something I have been thinking about lately is how much we as Christians are to keep separated from the Law. I understand Romans 12 in saying that we are to respect the government and obey the laws put in place, but do we keep them at an arms distance? My tendancy is to think the political government yes. From how I understand it, most conservative groups of Christianity do not participate in elections unless they deem a particular issue to affect their ability to practice their religion as they deem necessary.

Now, switching to the "law" or police. Do we involve them in such as reporting a crime? I understand not suing another person as the Bible specifically talks about not suing others in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 as we are to forgive one another and reconcile the issue by ourselves. Some will say in 1 Corinthians 6 Paul is simply referring to issues within the Church but others will say it spreads to all issues within a Christian's life. I think to determine that, we need to pray about it and follow us where God is leading us on that.

So back to my question which I am doing a good job at going away from tonight :) Should we report crimes to the police? In some cases I do believe it would be right to report the crime. Reporting is different than pressing charges. But reporting a crime could help protect other people from the same thing. It could also protect us from fraudulent charges if our identity was stolen. I have some Conservative Mennonite friends who do not normally go to the police and they would not sue anyone no matter the circumstance, that being said, there was an occurance earlier this year where they did suggest that something be reported to the police and let the police do with the information as they please in order to protect other potential victims from the same person. Now I understand that most likely we will not all agree on this. I did a bit of researching before posting on this topic and could not find any situations in the Bible that I could connect to reporting a crime. I welcome any scripture that others may have that would either support or go against reporting a crime as I am not that confident with knowing and understanding the Bible.

Blessings in Christ,