The recent memes of the President of the United States as a Christ-like entity is a unique concept for this country. It was a common in the ancient world that the leader was either a direct decedent of some sort of god or the that leader would eventually morph into a god, like the caesars of Rome. However, it was belief that never crossed the ocean. with English refugees of 17th Century.

Historians recognize the ancient world to have started around 3000 BC to around 500 AD. During that time there were a lot of god-like rulers running around. Elected presidents or prime ministers running Democratic/Republics would come later. Back then the closest thing to Democracy or a Republic was Athens and Rome. After their fall they left some nice buildings but it would be some time in the future before their governing principles would come up for discussion or consideration.

Kings, potentates, emperors, pharaohs were common rulers of the day. Some of these rulers were considered gods and looked upon as such. In Europe it was the Divine Right of Kings; in China it was the Mandate of Heaven; in Japan it was a belief that the emperor was the direct descendent of the Japanese sun god, a belief that ended with their defeat in WWII. Africa in the 1800s had Shaka Zulu. History Collection.com says that Zulu kings “were regarded as possessing special divine powers. Their leadership was deeply intertwined with religious rituals and ancestral beliefs, which reinforced their political and spiritual authority over the nation.”

Other modern day god-like leaders were Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, the “Lion of Judah.” According to History Collection.com Hailie Selassie linked “his rule to a biblical lineage said to descend from King Solomon…inspiring the Rastafarian movement, which revered him as a messianic figure.” The Dalai Lama is another modern day spiritual/political leader, “Believed to be the human incarnation of Avalokiteshvara.”

So why not the United States? In 1 Samuel the Israelites begged Samuel for a king. Even though it displeased God (it seems to me when you read this it is really a frustrated God telling Samuel go ahead and find a king. I have had enough of Israels complaining) he tells Samuel to give the people what they want.

Here in America governmentally and politically we have probably inched our way past monarchism. The next logical step is to turn the king into a god, or at least god’s representative on earth. Who needs elections, rigged or otherwise, when we can have a crown prince, a god-anointed, dancing with angeles.

If there was one place in Europe that was a hotbed of religious turmoil it was 16th and 17th Century England. Protestants had no problem loping off the heads of Catholic leaders or other heirs to the throne and vice versa. One minute you are a king or queen’s minister the next minute you are a heritic. Some Catholics sought an escape route out of England, settling in Maryland. Some Protestant sects like Quakers went to Pennsylvania and ticked-off Calvinistic Puritans headed for New England. They all felt the need to flee to the New World. This country, despite what may pass for common knowledge, was not founded on religious tolerance, it learned that tolerance was the path towards a stable civil society–and government.

Fortunately for us, In 1787 the framers of our Constitution were more hooked into Enlightenment thinkers of the time than the Calvinistic reformers riping religious dogma apart like jackals on carrion. The idea of a king never took root in the colonies after the Revolutionary War. And the whacky notion that the executive power of the new government should be held in the hands of theocratical clergy never came up. That political theory never washed upon the Eastern shore of any colony, despite that many were founded on firm religious beliefs. (A side note: Since 2001 we have engaged two ultra theocracy in Afghanistan and now Iran. If we cannot beat them maybe it is time to really get a god on our side.)

That magistrate is to be elected for four years; and is to be reeligible as often as the People of the United States shall think him worthy of their confidence. In these circumstances, there is a total dissimilitude between him and a King of Great-Britain; who is an hereditary monarch, possessing the crown as a patrimony descendible to his heirs forever;–Federalist Papers No. 14

Ask any middle school civics student and they can tell you that the “executive power shall be vested in the President.” Section II states the powers of the president as being the Commander-in-Chief of the military, the president has the power to make treaties, appoint ambassadors, judges public Ministers and Consuls. The president can even propose legislation. Simply put, he is not only the Chief Executive but also Chief of State and Chief Legislator. But nowhere does it mention that he is Healer-in-Chief or High Priest. If a president can make his son-in-law a special envoy without portfolio, why not make himself a deity. Napoleon crowned himself emperor why can’t a president issue an executive order making himself a saint.

Here is where things tend to get sticky. The Constitution never references God, Jesus or a higher divine authority. Religion is only mentioned once in Article VI stating “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” And in the free exercise clause in the First Amendment it states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

It would appear to me, and I am not either a Constitutional or Biblical scholar, that any president is free to proclaim his or her’s relationship to a higher divine authority, particularly in a country like ours that holds Christian values so high. It may even be spiritually logical that our president is so in-tuned with the oneness of Christ that he follows what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 28 that a president today is like the disciples of the past, and has “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” And if it takes a few Tomahawk missiles and laser guided smart bombs to enhance your ministry, so be it.

In John, Jesus says that He is the light of the world. He tells the disciple that works he has been doing “they will do even greater than these.” He says ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. Maybe not wiping out aa whole civilization, just knock the fear of god into them. Getting a god to put a Sodom and Gomorrah on Iran would ensure a regime change and help in disposing of all that enriched uranium. And it would be divinely authorized.

However, there is a catch portraying one self as a disciple; and it is more than making a catchy internet meme; or proclaiming that you are all about the Gospel or publically reading the Bible with fellow Pharisees. Because throughout the New Testament, Jesus commands his followers to love God and love one and other. Paul tells the Galatians 5:13 “serve one another humbly in love.” Which really means showing some compassion for the down trodden and the sick. Paul tells the Ephesians to “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” You never heard Jesus issuing criminal indictments to those who disagreed with him.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.–James 2:14-17

Christian values are not just based on faith as James writes, that faith by itself without works, is dead. In a letter to Titus Paul writes that our people should “learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.” I am not sure but this does not look like the America I have been living in for the last 10 or so years. And certainly seeing a the leader of the free world portraying himself as a divine being while immolating Iran with Old Testament wrath is not channeling the Christ. It makes me wonder if the presidential meme should replace Jesus with Moses or Abraham and a time when turning the wrong way would turn you into a pillar of salt.

I have to ask what is next. It would not surprise me to learn that some sort of burnt offerings and animal sacrifices are being planned on the Ellipse Grounds on the National Mall celebrating 250 years of independence–without kings and religious potentates.