When the President thinks he's the exception that proves the Rule of Law

I heard an update on the latest craziness from the current resident of the White House on the radio this morning -- and all I could muster as a response was surprise that anyone can still be surprised by the ongoing onslaught of corruption, chaos and collusion.

It cannot be a surprise to anyone that a man we all heard declaring on video tape those immortal words ... "When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything." ... thinks that when you're President you really CAN do anything: that you are the exception that proves the Rule of Law.

And anyone who thought that was libtard, snowflake hyperbole only needs to dig back through the wreckage of this administration to see what damage can be wrought to the body politic when a Commander-in-Chief confuses himself with a Despot-in-Chief.

Listen to the wise words of my bishop -- John Taylor -- who posted this observation on his Facebook page earlier today:

"Trump taunted his critics today by calling on China to investigate Biden. So there we have it. From “no collusion” to super-collusion, collusion everywhere, with all the wealth and might of the United States for sale to the highest bidder. This is familiar stuff. When the leader decides it’s legal, and has the power to back it up, then it’s legal. Thus it always was -- approximately until constitutions and the balance of powers. Humanity gets it deep in our being. Much of the modern world has still never known anything else. It’s important today to remember how easy it would be to lose it."

It is very important to today to remember how easy it would be to lose it. To lose it all. To lose not only what we've managed to accomplish after these couple of centuries of living into the aspirational American Dream but to lose all hope of making liberty and justice for all not just a pledge we make but a reality we live.

Humanity does get it deep in our being ... and the place we "get it" is what I would explain theologically as the Imago Dei in each and every human being: the image of God that calls us to our best and highest self -- loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And yet our history as humans bears out how we've struggled to make what we get in our being align with how we live in the world.

If we could have done it on our own, there would be no need for the Garden of Eden myth to explain how death and evil entered the world. If we could have done it by following a to-do list, the Ten Commandments would have done the trick and we'd be good to go. If having the one who created us in love becoming one of us in order to show us how to walk in love with each other had worked there would have been no Good Friday.

Instead, here we are as Easter people. Continuing in the struggle to align our lives with God's values of love, justice and compassion. Continuing to be a church that is the Body of Christ -- the hands and feet of Jesus in the world -- comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Continuing to strive to be a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal -- a nation where the the rule of law is a thing and where a constitution and balance of powers are the bedrock of our fragile democracy.

And today -- a day when corruption, chaos and collusion dominate the news cycle -- to continue to remember how easy it would be to lose it ... as we renew our commitment to walk in love with each other in the struggle to preserve it.

La lucha continua.