The character of a president matters. From this point forward, this will hold more truth than it ever has before.

 I won’t pretend to understand constitutional law.  For most of us, understanding the detailed ins and outs of the SCOTUS decision to offer presidential immunity for official acts is beyond us.  We shouldn’t pretend. 

Because it’s hard to understand how this plays out, fear is arising in many people.  Our minds imagine situations, hoping they are worst case scenarios.

·        Could Trump change election results if he doesn’t believe them?

·        Could Biden steal documents to keep them from his predecessors?

·        Could Trump make physical threats to intimidate people if he believes it was protecting the country?

·        Could Biden have Trump assassinated as an official act in order to save America from dictatorship?

Everyone agrees: determining “official” and “unofficial” will be very complicated. 

While I don’t think I have the background or knowledge to speak on the complicated legality of this, as a pastor, I do think I can speak about how this decision highlights an even more serious issue. 

The character of a president matters. From this point forward, this is truer than ever before.

Most of us are guided by principles and values which direct our decisions and behaviors, kind of like a GPS.  Looking from the outside in, you can almost get a sense of someone else’s values/character by evaluating the totality of their behavior and decisions.  This is why we can admire politicians like John McCain or Jimmy Carter for their character regardless of whether you agree with their politics.    

Yet, no surprise, humans are prone to missteps, vulnerabilities, selfishness, and hypocrisy.  Some people have bad GPSs.  Other people can take wrong turns, being swayed off their true north.  And while the law can’t completely deter us from bad faith, selfishness, or harmful choices, it does act as guard rail to check oneself. Isn’t this one of the very arguments for putting up the 10 Commandments in the schools in Lousianna? 

Anyone in higher-level leadership knows decisions get messy.  Competing values often are at play.  One can easily be swayed, but rules and laws guide in these times (even when the law itself isn’t just).  The law is like society saying, “This is the value we are going to live by for now.”  Good leadership requires both a good GPS and good guardrails.  

Without the law, the president is relying on their character alone.  And let’s be honest; we don’t vote on someone’s character.  Most of us vote on partisan lines.  We assume that any politician of our party reflects the right values, or maybe we don’t care about character anymore.  Whether it’s the former or latter, with this ruling, THIS is going to be a big problem….

Because character doesn’t break down on ideological lines. Most of us know we would be fired from our jobs for things both republicans and democrats can pull and stay in office.  If a president has immunity—whether they are democrat, republican, or independent—their character must be more important than their party.  Policy won’t matter if we can’t trust their honesty, kindness, respectfulness, and compassion.  Will they follow the law?  Do they act in good faith?  Can you look at the totality of their life and say, “This is a good person.”  Do we trust this person’s GPS and true north?

The GPS of the president matters more than ever because the guardrails keeping them on course are gone.