In August of 1974 my wife and I were on vacation in a parishioner’s cabin in the hills of North Carolina. As I remember it was near Blowing Rock. And as much as we enjoyed hiking in the mountains and exploring the rustic beauty of the area, we were glued to our small television the day Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. I remember the feelings, a sense of relief that justice had been done mixed with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach about the future of our democracy.
His resignation was not exactly a surprise for we had watched with fascination and horror as the Watergate investigation rolled on and the bipartisan committee did its work. We were no Nixon fans (even though I had actually voted for him in 1968, so sick was I of Lyndon Johnson’s lies about Viet Nam) but even we thought perhaps he had somehow been kept unaware of the clandestine work of the “plumbers” and the other nefarious deeds which comprised this whole sordid affair. Yet, the evidence was clear.
The evidence is not yet so clear that Donald Trump had/has colluded with the Russian government in general and Vladimir Putin in particular to win the 2016 presidential election. It will in fact never be possible to prove that if there was in fact collusion that this decisively affected the outcome of the election. But that is hardly the point.
The most important thing is to determine if Russia did indeed interfere to the degree it is beginning to seem and to take steps to minimize the chance of such things happening again. But an equally important thing is to discover whether or not the President of the United States is in fact, formally or informally, consciously or unconsciously, acting as an agent of the Russian government. It is not necessary to believe that Donald Trump intended to end up in this position or not.
Those of us who are spiritual directors, or find ourselves on a conscious spiritual journey through life, know how subtle and maliciously sin works in our lives. The giving in to small temptations lead to compromise with even greater ones. Avoiding the consequences of sin early in the game can lead us to believe that we will never be found out, that the wages of sin really are not death in any real sense. We roll down the slippery slope of self-centeredness and deceit and wake up one morning in the garbage pit of the lost.
It is particularly difficult for an egocentric narcissist like our current President to catch the early warning signs of such a descent. His wealth and personality disorder has so sheltered him, throughout his long life, from suffering any of the consequences of his actions (or any consequences at all!) that he would be a ripe target for the Adversary (whether one understands that term in the cosmological or geopolitical sense!).
Foreign agents and spies are always on the look-out for men like Donald Trump who they can turn and manipulate. But I’m sure few could have imagined that such a potential mole could win election as President of the United States. The evidence is, as I say, not in yet. I actually hope the bleak scenario painted above is not so.
But I remember another leader of the free world once assuring us, “I am not a crook!”
And he didn’t even have a Twitter account.
That We All May Be One 
Leave a Reply