Retribution in Statecraft

- and vengeance upon enemies in the second Trump Presidency

It was the English poet Alexander Pope who admonished us in the manner of the New Testament that “to err is human; to forgive, divine” - Errare humanum est, ignoscere divino.

The Old Testament in contrast, has the equally familiar and perhaps far more popular, “eye for an eye,” and in one of the most revolutionary statements ever uttered, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount talked about us “having heard that it was said, “an eye for an eye” - but I say unto you, love your enemies.”

To wish to take revenge upon one’s enemies is therefore human, but Jesus is asking mankind to rise above this basic instinct and instead, to forgive and love one’s enemies. This was all of course part of His Mission on earth - to change by His Life, His Cross and the Resurrection, the destiny of human beings from being bound to basic instincts and death - to being bound for eternal life, a different destiny and a new creation.

The mavens of Hollywood of course march to a different and more ancient tune (which has been handed down unchanged to them) and generations of movie goers and consumers of media have been brought up on the idea that revenge of the most explosively visceral kind is a good thing, even a noble thing.

My readers will undoubtedly have their own sincerely held beliefs about Jesus’ command to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us and once again, I do not wish this essay to turn out to be a sermon! What I wish to address instead, is to ask the question: what is the place for retribution, vengeance and revenge in the conduct of statecraft?

In other words, when President elect Trump said in a recently widely publicized interview that he was, “not looking for retribution, grandstanding or to destroy people who treated me very unfairly,” was he declaring a principle of statecraft that makes for a fulfilling and productive Presidency? And is this also a principle of statecraft that will “make American great again?”

In typical, inimitable and endearing Trumpian fashion, the President-elect also added the tongue in cheek comment: "I am always looking to give a second and even third chance, but never willing to give a fourth chance — that is where I hold the line!”

It could be argued from the life of no less a colossal figure than Julius Caesar that decisive and devastating revenge upon one’s enemies makes for a strong and respected ruler and nation. Whilst still a private citizen, Julius Caesar was captured by pirates on the way to the Greek island of Rhodes (to which he was travelling in order to learn oratory from the famous professor Molon). Caesar raised his own ransom - then raised a naval force, captured his pirate captors and had them all crucified.

The later assassination of Caesar and the subsequent civil wars that rocked and roiled Rome is the subject of Shakespeare’s magnificent, “Tragedy of Julius Caesar.” The subsequent rule of Augustus Caesar was marked by stability, expansion of the empire, the building of roads and bridges (via which the Gospel was to travel), the making of sea and land routes safe for travellers (again, to the advantage of the early Christians taking the Gospel to Asia and Europe) the consolidation of Roman power - and the rule of (Roman) law. It was also during the reign of this austere, learned emperor that Jesus was born in a manger, in the Roman province of Palestine.

The making of laws and the institution of courts and judges was an ancient attempt to divert and placate the basic instinct of revenge and to channel the administration of justice through a system that could impartially weigh the crime and the evidence and administer punishment in a manner that removed society from the terrors of living in a savage, primitive jungle of instant retribution and recurring cycles of violence. (Hollywood departs and leaves the story when revenge is thought to be “complete.” It does not stay for the aftermath).

In the Christian Era and under the touch of Christ upon the Western centuries, our laws underwent a relentless progression toward the humane values preached and practiced by Christ. Thus, we don’t have debtor’s prisons for example and don’t put people in prison for adultery.

After the regression of Western civilization that has occurred in the last few decades, a pagan West has written pagan laws into our governing and criminal codes that had hitherto been fashioned by centuries of growth in Christian jurisprudence. Several basic features of the latter remain, but the laws of West are now under siege by the barbarian, pagan hordes in our midst.

Crime still demands punishment - and I believe this is a lesson that has not yet been learned by our Churches. The Christian leaders and priests involved in sexual abuse (who have been exposed by a gloating press) have very often been recognized for their demonic behaviours by Bishops or elders many years before their exposure by the press (sometimes the abusers have been Bishops) - but have supposedly accepted the “repentance” of the abuser and “forgiven” them. This can never ever be! They ought to have been immediately reported to the police! Churches have confused sin and forgiveness (which is eternal) with crime and punishment (which is temporal and necessary for a functioning society). Or as the quintessentially folksy American saying goes, “you do the crime, you do the time.”

I have no doubt that President Trump intends to use the full force of the law to administer justice and administer punishment to his enemies and the enemies of the State. This is not vengeance. This is merely returning the American nation to the rule of law.

The “Russia-gate” fiasco made those of us who have admired the American nation and the miracle of its founding despair for its future. The spectacle of millions of Americans walking blind into the world of make-believe crimes used to persecute a sitting President was embarrassing, baffling and almost fatal to the Republic. Now that Trump is the President in waiting, those involved in this gigantic fraud must undoubtedly face the full force of the law. So must the Biden regime’s minions (including the perpetrators of the covid propaganda, lies and mass injections of deadly “vaccines”) and the outgoing Attorney General, who has persecuted Christians, criminalized the right to protest and made a mockery of due process.

But what if the laws and the courts and the judges are very corrupt themselves, part of the persecuting machinery of a totalitarian bureaucracy?

Julius Caesar did not himself punish the pirates for their crimes as soon as they were captured and brought to Rome. Instead, he put them all in prison and made his case to the judge Consul and Governor, Marcus Junius to bring the pirates to judgement and to administer just punishment.

Junius however, was looking for a bribe and kept delaying the trial of the pirates. Whereupon, Julius Caesar went to Pergamon (where the pirates were imprisoned), took them out of the prisons - and crucified them.

For the sake of the American Republic, I do not wish vigilante justice of the latter kind upon any of the many individuals who have committed crimes during the first Trump and Biden Presidencies. But the nation itself is on trial - will justice and the rule of law prevail?