here is a piece i found on FB. Read it.
--Kim
Long, but interesting.
Reposting from a friend who reposted it. Original poster acknowledged:
On FB by Ekongkaar Khalsa:
"Diary Day 16: February 4, 2025
The Divine Right of Kings
Some writers, such as Heather Cox Richardson, have a masterful grasp of the political moment in which the United States currently finds itself, especially in relation to US history. However, I'd like to take a moment to explore our current situation through a theological lens. I will state up front I do not have a PhD in religious studies. I have been a student of religion and mysticism for most of my life. As a Sikh Minister of 25 years, I have spent many hours researching Sikh history and theology, including translating Sikh spiritual poetry into English. All of this is to say that I believe I can write intelligently on this topic, but I acknowledge that I may also fall short.
From this perspective, I would like to say that the underbelly of religion in our current US political moment is getting increasingly impossible to ignore. Today I'd like to explore why I think understanding the Divine Right of Kings is important for making sense of this political moment.
The United States was founded on the ideals espoused by Enlightenment thinkers who valued rationality, empiricism and the common man. Prior to these thinkers of the 17th and 18th centuries, Western civilization was governed by "The Divine Right of Kings." Put simply - the "King" was "chosen by God" and therefore held absolute authority. Disobeying the king was equal to disobeying God. No earthly authority could criticize or hold the monarch accountable for his actions.
The US Constitution, with three co-equal branches of government, and a body of elected representatives, was meant to break away from the Divine Right of Kings. Many people know that "no one is King" in the US Constitutional order. But it's critically important to recognize the theological shift that comes with democracy. We do not recognize the idea that God ordains a particular individual as having sovereignty over everyone else. Instead: "We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness."
In this opening salvo of the Declaration of Independence, the founders of the United States explicitly rejected the Divine Right of Kings. It was a theological as well as a political statement. God was not going to work through "one person" - elevating that person above all others. Instead - E Pluribus Unum - out of the many, we would be One. God would work through the entire body politic, not through one anointed individual. In God directly we would trust. We would not trust the monarch as God's representative.
For the last 50-60 years, the United States has gone through profound social transformation. Barriers have fallen somewhat (although not completely) for many marginalized groups. Along with the social transformation, there has come an accompanying change in morality. And that change has not gone over well with some conservative Christians. Some (not all) Christians object to abortion. Some (not all) Christians object to same-sex partnerships. Other moral ills include drug use, out of marriage childbirth. The list goes on.
For those who helped create this massive societal shift, or who have grown up in this liberal society, we cannot imagine why anyone would object to the changes. Don't we have it better now than our parents and grand-parents, in terms of education, opportunity, and individual freedom?
For a significant portion of the US population the answer is no. God doesn't like what has happened to the United States. The moral center has moved too far afield from their ideal of what a God-fearing society should look like.
For this group of people, it looks like they have given up on traditional democracy. For decades, in many rural parts of the United States, the slogan "I follow the Bible, not the Constitution" has been a defiant battle cry in the face of the rapid social changes happening in the United States. The existential crisis for these populations is very real. To them, we cannot have a God-fearing country and a liberal democracy both.
If you want to step away from liberal democracy - where do you go? The phrase "illiberal democracy" has been bandied about (with a nod towards Victo Orban and Hungary). But I don't believe that's the correct framework. What we are seeing is a political regression to the Divine Right of Kings. Like it or not, some evangelical Christians see Donald Trump as an anointed King-like figure who will restore the moral foundation of the United States and do away with the "evil" social changes that have happened in the last 50 years. You may scoff at this. You may take umbrage at it. You may pound the table about the Founding Fathers and the Constitution and the Rule of Law. But you would be missing the moment.
They don't care. They won't listen - because this is an existential theological crisis for them. The Divine Right of Kings is their solution. They will go through the motions of looking like they are participating in democracy only to control the levers of power in order to install their King and support him, no matter what. That is the idea behind the "Divine Right." The monarch knows best for everyone else. Questioning him is questioning God. And no earthly power can hold him to account.
If you can recognize that some portion of US citizens have abandoned democracy at its core and are looking for their Divine King to give them back their vision of a Christian society, then everything falls into place.
Purging the FBI and DOJ of people who tried to hold Donald Trump accountable for his crimes? He is the Divinely anointed King. He didn't commit any crimes. Anyone who thinks this way is opposing the will of God. They have to go.
January 6 criminals? They were protecting the Divinely anointed King. Of course they should all be pardoned.
Having a spine and objecting to the unqualified Cabinet nominees Donald Trump has proposed? He is the Divinely anointed King. Disagreement is not allowed. It's disobeying God. Fall in line or you will be replaced. Trump knows what he is doing.
Allowing Elon Musk to execute an administrative coup and seize control of the data and the finances of the US federal government? Cutting programs that aren't in alignment with the President's policy? Pressuring those who are not sufficiently faithful to resign? Trump is the Divinely anointed King. This is the only way to make sure that the King's will is obeyed.
Sending US troops to occupy and "rebuild" Gaza? And "clear out" the Muslims? This is the Crusades all over again. Muslims against the Christians and Jews. There is no will to tolerate multiple religions, to create interfaith harmony and peace. Christians need to occupy the Holy Land for Jesus to return anyway.
Erasing the voice of science, especially climate science? Jesus is returning to give us a new earth at the end of the world. It's blasphemy to think that humans will cause the destruction of the earth, or that we have any power to stop that destruction from happening. Our Divinely anointed King will bring these federal departments in line and resolve the cognitive dissonance that science is creating with our faith.
In private circles, in ways that are not sensitively understood publicly, Trump has been anointed their King. Most likely, allowing issues to play out through the US courts is a delay tactic. Trump and his appointees are going to defy the courts as much as possible. They will drag it out and try to look like they are operating within the US Constitutional order. But the hidden agenda is to drag the United States to a pre-Enlightenment governance structure: The Divine Right of Kings.
And they are already looking for ways that Donald Trump can run for a third term - Trump and Trump alone.
For those who have read this post and can understand what I am saying, there is not just a political battle ahead of us. There is a theological one, as well. In fact, I would propose that the political crisis stems from the theological issues outlined above.
The Founders gave us the theological argument needed to defend democracy in the preamble to the Constitution.
All men (people) are created equal.
No one is sovereign.
God's will is known through the MANY becoming ONE. The many voices, dialoguing, compromising, agreeing - this is how God's will is known. Not through the ideas and actions of a single individual.
Without this framework, it is easy to fall into ridiculing Trump and his people. It's easy to be outraged by the way that many Republicans will not defend their oath to the US Constitution. But Donald Trump is not being stupid. He is acting out the most fervent hopes and prayers of the Christian devotees who have made him their King. Ridiculing him, being contemptuous of the people who are giving him this power keeps us from understanding the chess board that we are playing on.
The existential crisis for some Christians right now, and their decision to return to the Divine Right of Kings, is the real Constitutional crisis that we face. I do not have the answer to this. But I believe it's imperative that we understand the true grounds on which this fight is unfolding. And the theological issue is a critical part of those grounds.
Thanks for reading if you took the time to read the whole way through. I hope this will be useful for your sense-making of our current situation."
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