I was pastor of several different Presbyterian congregations during my career. Although I often referred to them as “my church,” none of them was ever mine. I tried very hard never to forget that, and even to teach it to those congregations.
In the Presbyterian system of church governance, we often say something like, “authority and power reside in ordered groups of people elected by our membership.” Those groups are ordered so as to be accountable to one another in the exercise of their responsibilities. No one person—no one group of persons—is a law unto themself. What little ultimate power anyone has must be clearly articulated, and even then is never beyond scrutiny.
My position as pastor of a church meant that I was entrusted with an institution that was not mine to use as I wished. In fact, all of us in leadership positions in the Presbyterian church are in effect trustees of the church, holding it in trust so that it not only serves Christ faithfully today but will be strong to do so in the future.
It is a system that demands a lot of working together, often very hard work. A system in which someone or something has ultimate, unquestionable authority seems easier, and can often seem to get things done much more efficiently.
Pastors have been known to game the Presbyterian system, and congregations and other entities have been known to let them do that, at least until the roof falls in. I believe I failed the system sometimes by being unwilling to push to the limits of its constraints upon me, sometimes hiding behind them when things got dicey.
There are very important parallels between how Presbyterians are to govern themselves and how we as a nation are to govern ourselves. In our political system, citizens elect persons to represent them, either as individuals (president, governor, etc.) or as members of a group (congress, legislature, etc.). Those elected individuals and groups are ordered in such a way (ideally) so they there mutual accountability between and among them as they exercise their governing responsibilities. No one person or group is a law unto themself.
Many have said our nation’s founders learned what they wrote into our Constitution from the Presbyterians. I think that’s at least in part true, although there are deeper philosophical roots that meet somewhere to undergird both polities.
All of which is why I have so difficult a time with the presidency of Donald Trump.
It is built into me not to approve of or to accept single, unrestrained authority and power. I simply do not understand how anyone who was raised and educated in this country, or who sought and accepted citizenship here, does not have the same disapproval and resistance built into them.
“How can he do that?” has to be the single most uttered response to most of the things Mr. Trump has done in his second term. From renovating the reflecting pool to rounding up migrants to starting a war he has no idea how to end or to win, millions have thought if not said, “How can he do that?” Amazingly, he and his administration rarely offer answers that make sense, and we drift on to the next unbelievable decision we never thought could be made.
It is hard for me to imagine that there are no Republicans in Congress who struggle with the gift they keep on giving to Donald Trump—the gift of his not having to be accountable to anyone but himself. I sometimes imagine them all lying awake at night wondering how much more of our democratic republic they are willing to compromise so that he can continue unchecked. Would that they’d be brave enough at least to talk to one another about it! My wildest dream is that they are secretly plotting together to invoke constitutional provisions to deal with him.
My fear is that my wild dream is no more than a dream. It is that they really believe him, not because he’s is right, but because they’ve come to believe he is a leader ordained by some “god” who has granted him divine sanction that no one dare counter, even if it means the end of the United States of America as it was founded and as we have known it. They would rather drink poison than break ranks.
It all looks and feels like a cult to me, and only intense deprogramming will free his most ardent followers from blind obedience to him. Maybe getting defeated in November will be the kind of tough love some members of Congress need to start the process. (I am afraid there no similar way to free the Supine Court majority from its attachment to him.)
It comes down to this: the way Donald Trump is conducting his presidency continues to demonstrate that he thinks that our entire government is his private company whose purpose is to serve and gratify him and his needs. He offers no evidence that he understands that the people have entrusted our United States to him to manage in a way that serves all of us together, today and into the future. He gives no evidence that he thinks he is answerable to anyone but himself.
It galls my Presbyterian heart, and my U.S.A. heart as well.
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