Pray for justice and truth to result from the Senate hearing of former FBI director James Comey.

The integrity and moral courage of the upright will guide them, but the crookedness of the treacherous will destroy them. (Pr. 11:3 AMP)

View Comments (7)

“Washington is consumed by anticipation this week ahead of an expected Capitol Hill appearance by James Comey, with speculation across town focused on whether the ousted FBI director’s remarks could further damage President Donald Trump.

Comey is expected to be peppered with questions during his planned appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday about reports Trump pressured him to shut down an FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, which was part of a larger probe into Trump associates’ ties to Russian officials. . . .

Few non-politicians have had more impact on Washington politics in recent years than Comey. He shocked the political establishment last July when he held a news conference to announce that, while Clinton had been “extremely careless” in her use of a private email server as secretary of state, her actions did not warrant criminal charges. He upended the presidential race again, 11 days before Election Day, when he informed Congress he was reopening the Clinton email investigation, only to close it again several days later.” (Excerpted from Politico, reporting by Kyle Cheney and Austin Wright.)

Comey’s Theology?:

“Two months before he was fired, FBI director James Comey inadvertently revealed something about his theological leanings that may have pointed to his inevitable fallout with President Donald Trump. . . .

While a student at the College of William and Mary, Comey wrote his undergraduate thesis on Niebuhr. The Protestant theologian seems to have left an impression, judging from Comey’s references to him in public speeches . . .

[P]oliticians caught trying to balance moral idealism and clear-eyed realism often look to Niebuhr, who’s earned the nickname ‘Washington’s favorite theologian.’. . .

How did this particular theologian become so many politicians’ moral and spiritual compass? Niebuhr developed a view known as Christian realism, believing the human ego would undercut our attempts to better the world. According to Niebuhr, people need to shed their self-righteous illusions and perfectionist pretensions to set their sights on more modest solutions. Niebuhr warned that people should never assume they could eliminate evil. In fact, they should be on guard lest their moral ambitions lead them into a self-deluded and destructive pride. . . .

In an interview with New York Magazine, Comey mentions Niebuhr and his most important work, Moral Man and Immoral Society, as a formative influence. . . .

Whatever one thinks of Niebuhr’s theological views or Comey’s actions as FBI director, to me at least, it’s reassuring to think that for the first four months of Trump’s presidency, there was a high ranking and principled Niebuhrian in the executive branch standing up for justice. But maybe that is giving too much credit to Comey who has been criticized for falling into his own form of pride, what he refers to as the pride of virtue—‘a moral pride revealed in self-righteous judgments based on highly arbitrary standards.’” (Excerpted from Christianity Today, analysis by Steven Weitzman, co-editor of The FBI and Religion: Faith and National Security before and after 9/11.)