How can one be a good person when living under the rule of a bad emperor? That is the question that occupied the mind of Roman historian Tacitus, who was born in AD 56 (during the rule of Nero), was a teenager during the tumultuous Year of the Four Emperors (AD 69), served as a senator during the long and paranoia-filled rule of Domitian, and died around AD 120, during the rule of Hadrian. Tacitus spent over half his life, in other words, under bad emperors. In his later years, writing during the rule of kinder emperors—Trajan and Hadrian—he felt comfortable to air his feelings. As is still the case today, writing history was cheaper than therapy.
This fall has been a divisive and discouraging election season for many, and I have felt some degree of this ennui myself. I know that the candidate for whom I voted (American Solidarity Party’s Peter Sonski) has no chance of winning. But there is additional food for thought: both major party candidates are morally flawed and unacceptable (which is why I’m not voting for either of them–and I’m in good company), yet one of them must win. Such is the reality of a two-party system and election. Barring some very extreme and unforeseen development, one of these two candidates will be president for the next four years.
And so, the Tacitean question that occupies my mind now stems from this unpleasant reality: how can I (and any one of us!) be a good citizen under a bad president? On the one hand, even under good rulers, and in a democracy even, there can be plenty of bad citizens. This was true in antiquity, and it is no less true of Americans in any period–we are a “fallen people.” And yet, Tacitus notes how at the same time, under bad rulers, there are several determined good citizens—individuals like his father-in-law Julius Agricola, who tried to live a life of quiet fidelity to his family, community, and the state. These individuals never gain great power, we can’t help but notice. Tacitus noticed it too. Some of them die violent deaths in suspicious circumstances too–like the hero of the early portion of his Annals, Germanicus. And yet, these individuals’ quiet competence makes them likeable and able to do good work in their limited sphere of influence. Living under a bad emperor may not be comfortable, Tacitus suggests, yet it does not have to warp our own personal ethical compass.
This reality fills me with conviction right now. We can expect chaos and confusion, especially if (as some predict, including Dan Williams) this election will be so close as to be tied up in courts for weeks or even months after today. And yet, what is my duty to those around me—to my family, my community, my church, and my country? My calling to serve others doesn’t depend on who is in the Oval Office and doesn’t change with the change in leaders. Such is the blessing of being just an ordinary citizen, rather than an elected public official.
In the meanwhile, the need for works of mercy in response to the suffering all around us—in our homes, in our communities, and around the world—is intense. Wars rage and innocents suffer abroad, while domestically, Helene devastated entire towns, a drug epidemic plagues rural America and contributes to the growing foster care crisis, and loneliness and isolation have reached such heights as to be designated a public health emergency. Both major party candidates, while ignoring these crises, openly advocate for abortion—murder of innocents—while maligning immigrants (in the case of one candidate) and the rights of religious groups (in the case of the other).
There is no question about one thing: the “emperor” for the next four years will be bad. We, the citizens, however, don’t have to be.
I find it helpful to recall that Paul was writing his letter to the Romans (with its infamous chapter 13 ) when Nero was emperor. If Paul could say what he said with Nero at the helm, I suspect I can accept either a Harris or Trump presidency for the next four years.
This is a hopeful piece, well written(no surprise), & just what I needed on this sad Wednesday morning. Please keep writing Dr. N.
Actually, I voted for Sonski, too. My cousin, who is part-time faculty at Covenant College, was angry at me because he said that any vote not for Harris was a vote for Trump. So, with the Democrats, I couldn’t win, as voting conscience (which also meant rejecting Trump) was just another vote for The Donald. So, at least with one member of the Covenant faculty, the ONLY moral choice was Kamala Harris.
This is one reason why I am wary of both the Standard White Christian Nationalists (read that, Eric Metaxas and his followers) and the OTHER White Christian Nationalists, the evangelicals who also believe that state power solely in the hands of the Democrats is the only thing needed to set things right.
I would add that I would hate for the Christian Faith to be so shaky that it depends upon the “correct” political leader to be in power. We easily forget that throughout history — and in modern times — the Church has shone most brightly when the political leadership where the Faith has been practiced has been downright craven. Christians in places like North Korea or Nigeria who face death for their faith can teach us a few things about serving Jesus when the “easy” choice would be to go with the dominant political culture.
This claim of “both are tyrants” – and the view of America that surrounds it – is errant nonsense and should have no place in mature Christian dialogue or discernment.
A view based on disdain for the right of a woman to have control over her own body, rooted in a desiccated vestige of traditional values, unsupported by Scripture or the teachings of Christ, is an utterly failed and contemptuous set of unpersuasive political shillings fit only for the prideful Christian Nationalists and the NAR denizens who would have us all reciting mandatory Liberty Catechism upon waking each day, devoid of any aroma of the Holy Spirit and certainly not indicative of the vaunted Christian love that you seem to think exudes from you – in reality, your scent is more akin to “l’odeur Troumpf” we’ve heard so much about from those seated behind him on his rally stage than to fragrant lilies blooming in the field.
There are many like me who were indoctrinated in our Sunday Schools in the 1960’s and 70’s with the seeds of what we are seeing come to fruition in MAGAworld, and you are not fooling us. We know the code, the cadences, we can quote King James scripture from memory for hours on end, we are saved Christians with our names in the Book of Life along with yours, we are on to you.
The rhetorical sleight-of-hand you think so clever and cute is cringe-inducing and ham-handed, a flume of falsehoods carrying ersatz logs of papier-mache, utterly transparent to our eyes and ears, failing to conceal your inauspicious low motives as you casually scapegoat transgender American citizens and glom on to the tired, dead “wokeism” wailing of the bottom-feeder politicians who you praise in public and ridicule privately with the same condescending disdain you level towards your political opponents and non-Evangelicals, using your wan moralizing as a cudgel in the service of that least Christian of humans, The Liar Donald Trump, and his pack of slavering billionaires, praying as hard as you can that the Leopard-In-Chief won’t devour *your* faces.
Please, spare us your benevolent guidance through the valley of the shadow of death; it’s the climate you’ve longed to return to and forced upon us, and now you get to breathe its fetid air without an N95 mask to filter out the toxins. This born-again gay-married queer with AIDS has set his wasted face like a flint behind a fully-seated gas mask and HAZMAT suit, and I know I will not be ashamed.
Sadly, I know shame has taken flight from you on the Holy Spirit’s companion pass, but that’s not my hole to fill. I’m already busy tending to the holes in the hearts of my friends and loved ones who have overnight become targets, who fear for their lives, who have done nothing to deserve this premature Tribulation.
I will finish this race and keep the faith. I pray that you will also, but I’m not convinced we share that goal.
In Christ,
Joe Smith
San Francisco, California