In John 6 Jesus faced an existential dilemma. After feeding the 5,000 people with five barley loaves and two pieces of fish, people had seen enough (John 6:14-15).
“After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.”
Since sin entered our world, people have been fascinated with shiny objects that they can worship. Amazingly, people willingly sacrifice their rights, just to have another human with frailties and weaknesses just like their own rule over them.
Lord Acton writing to Bishop Creighton about the dangers of papal authority wrote, “Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.”
In 1754 BCE with the introduction of Hammurabi’s Code, societies recognized that justice would not be equal. Those with money and prestige would be governed by different justice than the poor. Those who adhered to Hammurabi’s code accepted the reality of unequal justice.
On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the last of the original 13 colonies to ratify the US Constitution creating a new nation dedicated to the idea of equality and justice. The 55 white men who met in Philadelphia to hammer out that document, debated several governmental ideas. There was talk of making General George Washington king. He was the new shinny object. In 1782 as the Revolutionary War was concluding, General Lewis Nicola wrote a letter to George Washington stating, “”Some people have so connected the ideas of tyranny and monarchy as to find it very difficult to separate them, it may therefore be requisite to give the head of such a constitution as I propose, some title apparently more moderate, but if all other things were once adjusted I believe strong arguments might be produced for admitting the title of king, which I conceive would be attended with some material advantages.”
In response, Washington wrote “No incident in the course of the war in me triggers painful feelings as your message, that such ideas are circulating in the army, as you expressed it… if you have any regard for your Country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your Mind, and never communicate, as from yourself, or any one else, a sentiment of the like Nature.”
As the war came to an end, Washington tendered his resignation quietly going back to his plantation. In other words, Washington said, he would not be America’s king.
The delegates at the Constitutional convention, introduced a document which outlined the perimeters of their new government. In Article 2, Section 2, they delineated the powers and duties of the President. From 1790 through 2024, there was very little debate or confusion about presidential power. The president was not above the law. He was a servant leader. His power was derived from the people and confined by the constitution.
However, on July 1, 2024, the ultra-conservative US Supreme Court rewrote the presidential powers giving the presidency more power than any of our founding fathers ever imagined. The court’s conservative majority ruled, that presidents are completely immune from prosecution for things they did through core constitutional powers of the presidency.
This High Court which is dealing with its own ethics and integrity problems carved out new constitutional space for the presidency. Maybe they were defending their above the law positions as they ignore Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito’s unprecedented ethics problems and clear conflict of interest issues with their wives.
The High Court specified those core powers include presidential pardons and communications with the Attorney General. However, the Court’s majority went much farther. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of presidential power entitles a former president to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority, … And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.” This is a remarkable decision especially when considering the background to the court’s decision.
From and ethics and integrity standpoint, at the very least, when former President Donald J. Trump argued that his actions were covered by presidential immunity one has to evaluate the potential kingly privileges that could result. Should immunity include the arranged secret payments to a porn star, when he helped organize and lead an attempted overthrow of the federal government on January 6, or illegally kept and hid classified documents after he left office, proudly announced he would be a dictator, or bragged that he would use the justice department to avenge his enemies. To the average American the answer to these questions would be obviously, “No!”
Amazingly, the US Supreme Court said “possibly,” and then gave Trump legal cover to continue his agenda.
According to a July 19, 2021, Forbes magazine article by Dan Alexander entitled, “Trump’s Business Hauled In $2.4 Billion During Four Years He Served As President, “Alexander outlined how the Trump family made unprecedented profits during his presidency. When you compare how George Washington quietly rode up to Philadelphia and handed in his titles and sword, retiring to his plantation when offered the role of king, and when you consider that Jesus dismissed the crowd and went to a quiet place to pray when offered the role of king, what do we think that a President Trump would do with such a opportunity?
Jesus could have been the greatest king ever. Yet, He turned it down to continue to serve. George Washington probably would have been an effective King. He was willing to sacrifice for his country.
Lord Acton is still right, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The only person we can trust we absolute power is God!
