What does former president Donald Trump have in common with a black pastor from Alabama? And what does that have to do with you? In May, Pastor Michael Jennings had just finished up services at his church in Childersburg and went to his neighbor’s house to water their plants while they were away. Another neighbor called the police and said there was an unknown man on the property. The police showed up while Pastor Jennings was still watering the plants. The officer’s body cam shows Jennings explaining, “I’m Pastor Jennings. I live across the street. I’m looking out for their house while they’re gone.” The police demanded identification. Jennings refused, saying he didn’t do anything wrong. And then things went south.
Two minutes later, Jennings was handcuffed and the officers were aggressively demanding he identify himself. Then another neighbor told the officers that Jennings likely did have permission to water the flowers. But the officers continued to maintain that Jennings was a suspicious person and he should have presented his identification when asked, even though he was not committing a crime. Even members of Pastor Jennings family confirmed his identification, but he was taken to jail in cuffs and charged with “obstruction of a government operation.” Now, because of the body cam footage, that charge was dropped a month later and the officers are under investigation for their conduct.
Now where does Trump come in? Well, it’s a similar situation. The FBI, in his case, comes to his home because one of their agents thinks Trump is withholding government documents that “could” impact national security. Even though Trump and his lawyers have been working with the Department of Justice on these so-called National Archive documents for months, the FBI raids his home and makes a big deal that Trump has stolen his own documents—that’s essentially what this is. Today, there is a bunch of back and forth in the courts about whether Trump is guilty of something. Reviewing the search warrant and the redacted affidavit that generated the warrant, there was nothing but speculation by the FBI.
Pastor Jennings and former president Trump are victims of a militant system established by the Democratic Party. In Jennings’ case, it’s the residue of Democratic Party Jim Crow laws that began oppressing freed slaves after the Civil War. In Trump’s case, it’s the jackboot FBI targeting a citizen to give the impression of wrong doing, exactly the reason Congress opposed the formation of the FBI in 1908—it would become a secret police used against the citizenry. This is exactly what the Democratic Party has done with the FBI, especially against Trump. And we can see from these two examples that an all-powerful government can make up any charge against you it wishes and disrupt your life if you don’t go along with it. We all may face it and what will we do? As Peter and the Apostles said in Acts 5:29, “We ought to obey God rather than man.”
