BY SAMUEL PRESCOTT

The New Testament may be the most popular book in human history. Which seems fitting, because – regardless of one’s faith – it is grounded on what Jesus (and others) said to us as us because of what we are. And in that sense, the Bible tells our story.

In a book so important to so many people for so long there are few passages, or even ideas, that have not been intensively studied, endlessly deciphered, and (often) argued about.

Here is a passage that almost no one reads from the King James version. In the preface. Because it is there that the publishers of that version paid homage to the British King. Why pay homage? Because James was King.

This is part of what they said.

To the most High and Mighty Prince James, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain [etc.]

….

Great and manifold were the blessings, most dread Sovereign,  which Almighty God … bestowed upon us . . .when first he sent Your Majesty’s Royal Person to rule and reign over us. For whereas it was the expectation of many who wished [us] not well [and] that . . . some thick and palpable clouds of darkness would so have overshadowed this land, that men should have been in doubt which way they were to walk; and that it should hardly be known who was to direct the unsettled State; the appearance of Your Majesty, as of the Sun in his strength, instantly dispelled these supposed and surmised mists, and gave unto all that were well affected exceeding cause for comfort, especially when we beheld the Government established in Your Highness

. . . .

Your very name is precious among them . . . [that] behold you with comfort, and they bless you in their hearts, as that sanctified Person, who, under God, is the immediate author of their true happiness.

There are many reasons why being ruled by a King is a very bad idea. One of them is well known to anyone who has ever had a boss; when one decisionmaker makes all the decisions across the board on every topic, you inevitably get very poor decisions.  Causing a lot of unnecessary damage to real people leading real lives.

Another reason – the one suggested here – is more nuanced but no less clear. Which is that when the favor of one person is all that matters, far too many people will debase themselves pursuing that favor.

The preface to the King James version of the Bible is one example of such fawning debasement. Think about the men who wrote it, why they did so, and how they felt about it.  Because we are, after all, one unchanged species.  I doubt they enjoyed writing, or truly believed in, those words. Yet there it is; jarring and, indeed, contemptible to the modern eye, as well it should be in any society.

That was then. What about now? Just watch what happens at the next meeting of Trump’s cabinet of clowns. Consider the recent vote in Congress to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. And recall that body’s deafening silence when Trump fast tracked the entry of 70 South African victims of “genocide” into the United States as he revoked the refugee status of hundreds of thousands of Afghanis who came to us from a country where many sacrificed, fought, and died in our failed effort to combat terrorism by elevating that nation.