Much longer trend than the current administration; a sign of dry rot in our system:

“Prosecutors identify defendants to go after instead of finding a law that was broken and figuring out who did it.”

Apologies for cryptic blogging. I’m “slammed” with work deadlines that won’t let up much before the middle of next month. I wish it were not so. Meanwhile, I fix one eye towards heaven, wishing I had the courage to chuck it all and fix both there full time.

UPDATE: It occurred to me in the wee hours last night that this rule of men not of laws thing is all apiece with the elementary school indoctrination video (filmed last June) that probably everyone on the planet has seen by now:

How? It matters not whether the object of adulation is Gandhi, MLK Jr. or Mother Teresa. The Bible is utterly clear on this point: We are not to worship men (or women) — or even angels.

To briefly borrow a concept from Buddhism, they are merely fingers pointing at the moon. None are perfect as Christ is perfect. Not even remotely close.

We are not graded on a curve, as some would have you believe. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are saved by His grace and work on the cross. To worship something or someone in place of Him is to commit idolatry. That that sin comes first on His list of commandments is surely not without reason.

To take a more secular run at it, try the following mental exercise: List the nations that pop to mind (either today or back through history) that have embraced the worship of individual men while they were alive and in power. There will be gradations and judgment calls, of course, but extra points are awarded for those that indoctrinate their children into adulatory practices in an institutional (thus involuntary) setting.

Places like North Korea, East Germany, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Pol Pot’s Cambodia and Mao’s China spring immediately to mind, as do places like Castro’s Cuba, Suharto’s Indonesia, Idi Amin’s Uganda, and a passel of other third-world dictatorships.

In fact, once you get going, the list grows very quickly. One could make a strong argument also (on each side of the fence) for King Henry VIII’s England as well as the Catholic church under various Popes, but that’s as far as we’re going to go down that road this morning. (Note bene).

Then, just for kicks, try the same exercise for corporations… and religious organizations (think for example, of Jim Jones and Kool-Aide in Guyana, Sung Moon in Korea, etc.)

The point is not to add to the list or say why one is worse then the others. That’s easy. Rather, the exercise draws me to conclude that nations and organizations devoted to the fair and equitable application of laws based on enduring principles are rare indeed.

The U.S. and other Western democracies come close but fall short. Nations that firmly root their enduring principles in eternal truths are even rarer. Those that do that and also apply those truths to the principles, to the laws, and to the people are… nonexistent.

Yet they remain the ideal. There is one man worth worshiping: the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He will come back to rule and reign. He will establish his kingdom. At that time, I will dance with delight to watch elementary school kids sing songs and recite poems in praise of his unique, omnipotent and wholly righteous rule.