This is an essay for politicians who seem to have forgotten the important relationship between mercy and judgment in 2025. It’s also for their colleagues and loved ones.
If you’re wondering why I’m picking on politicians, it’s because there is a raging epidemic of politicians who don’t feel they have to answer to anyone, least of all their constituents. Nor do they bother to respond to the pleas of religious leaders begging them to change their ways. This is particularly reckless behavior because it is the duty of religious leaders to care for their immortal souls.
The phenomenon of leaders ignoring good advice is even more curious when one considers their colleagues, friends, family members and political appointees who see these leaders every day and seem to only worry about fitting in. If anyone should care about the final end of their brothers, sisters, fathers, uncles, and political associates, it should be these people.
I believe it is important to say these things at this time because the behavior of authoritarian politicians around the globe has an outsized influence. First, they are in a position to change public policy. Second, they misbehave in public with great bluster and bravado, and thereby influence others to do the same.
Adolf Hitler’s Example
Officials who are currently in office don’t have a monopoly on bad behavior. There have been a number of them in recent history. Consider Adolf Hitler’s example. Most people who suffered during the Second World War and then learned of the death camps, hated the Nazis. That’s why they were shocked when Hannah Arendt summed up the Party’s horrific deeds with the phrase, ‘the banality of evil’. They expected an unflinching condemnation, largely because they themselves were revolted by Hitler’s deeds, but also because Arendt was Jewish. Instead, they had to be content with her philosophical musings. But in Arendt’s defense, loud condemnations would have been futile.
The time had passed when an effective rebuke could have made a difference because it could no longer be heard by the person who was most responsible. Hitler had already lost the war and killed himself when Arendt made this comment, and his war had already killed 10 to 13 percent of the German people. Its global effects were even worse. World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. Wikipedia lists the global death toll in gruesome detail.
The proper time for remonstrance was when Hitler was still alive and theoretically capable of changing his ways–when there were still people around him who were honor-bound to councel him.
Hatred of a Brother Without Cause
That said, a regular reading of the Bible would have done Hitler a world of good. I’m thinking of the verse that warns against hatred of a brother without cause.
Matthew 5:22-24 King James Version (KJV)
"...but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the councel: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."
Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger of the judgment! Like all verses in the Bible, this one applies to all of us. However, it applies to Hitler in particular because Hitler was angry with the Jews without cause. He considered racism an indispensable part of his scheme, and he admitted this to his colleagues on the far right. He consciously used racism to justify the concept of the German Reich. His racism was a convenient way to promote his plans for the world.
Donald Trump
Bible verses dealing with mercy and judgment are particularly relevant in authoritarian regimes. The Trump regime is currently in the process of demonstrating the importance of Christian mercy by its absence. Someone close to Trump should draw his attention to the Book of James.
Mercy and Judgment in 2025
Trump’s religious followers seem to accept him even though they know he gives lip service to religion. But there are currently evangelical churches of the millennial type that claim to know what they are talking about and yet they are in error. Some if not all of them say that while Christianity was all about mercy in its first 2000 years, we are in the age of judgment.
This is an obvious misreading of the Bible and the New Covenant. Or perhaps it’s a failure to read the Bible. Whatever it is, judgment seems to have taken the upper hand. Under the Trump regime we are again dealing with racism hidden under accusations of criminal behavior. Trump is justifying judgment and punishment without due process for an entire group of people. Mercy seems to be a foreign concept to him.
Mercy and Judgment in James 2: 1-13 The Catholic Bible (NABRE)
The following verses are taken from James 2: 1-13 and they focus on the sin of partiality. James is telling Jewish Christians to speak and act as people who will be judged by the law of freedom. He warns that this is preferable to Law and judgment because the law is merciless to one who has not shown mercy. James was clearly concerned for the souls of his listeners.
"My brothers, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if a man with gold rings on his fingers and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, 'Sit here, please,' while you say to the poor one, 'Stand there,' or 'Sit at my feet,' have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs?
"Listen, my beloved brothers, Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? But you dishonored the poor person. Are not the rich oppressing you? And do they themselves not hand you off to court? Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you? However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
"For whoever keeps the whole law but falls short in one particular, has become guilty in respect to all of it. For he who said, 'You shall not commit adultery,' also said, You shall not kill.' Even if you do not commit adultery but kill, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as people who will be judged by the law of freedom. For the judgment is merciless to one who has not shown mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment."
Ruthless Legalism
Before anyone despairs about the unforgiving nature of law described in the last verse, the commentator James B. Adamson1 identifies it as ‘ruthless legalism’, and explains that it applies only to God’s attitude to sin, not his attitude to sinners. Then Adamson repeats this idea using the words ‘Law’ for God’s attitude to sin, and ‘Grace’ for God’s attitude to sinners. Adamson says it is important for everyone to remember this distinction throughout the Bible, but here James is primarily addressing Christian Jews who were still clinging to the old law. James wrote his epistle to remind them of what that involves.
Jews, Including Nehemiah Knew the Law was not the Only Key to Man’s Future Before God
Adamson does say that there were Jews before the incarnation who were aware that the Law was not the only key to man’s future life before God. He cites Nehemiah 9:4-31, and quotes verses 9 and 31. But the rabbis in James’ time were uncomfortable with this, and were trying to make grace part of the code of law. For example, they tried to hedge on whether ‘small’ sins counted. The effect in Adamson’s opinion was to close their minds and hearts to repentance. Adamson believes the verses quoted above are the deciding argument for preferring the law of liberty, of which mercy is a part.
“James says in effect, ‘I advise you to choose the law of liberty as God’s law of life for you: but remember this–just as the old law (which a Christian Jew may still choose as God’s law for his life) requires infallibility within its scope, so likewise there is an indispensable requirement in the law of liberty…
“…as James points out in 2:13, he who seeks pity must show pity. Mercy and law are not really different principles. They are really the same in principle…”
- The Epistle of James, James B. Adamson, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1976. ↩︎
