Chateau Lloyd

I've noted before that much of American culture is built upon Puritanical beliefs.  This is where we see the celebration of industriousness and a certain contempt for the poor, who are assumed to not try hard enough.

Despite this Calvinist foundation, Catholicism has worked its way into the national consciousness as well.  For one thing, the idea of receiving absolution, that is forgiveness of sins in real time is very much embedded in the national psyche.

Like the anointed kings of old, the American president has been granted the powers of clemency and pardon, acts of mercy celebrated in the Bible.  Pagan societies also admired mercy, but rarely granted it.  To both the Greeks and the Romans, mercy was dangerous, and the safer (and wiser) course was to carry out the law in the harshest possible way.

While clemency and pardons are useful, they are inherently limited by the nature of the legal system.  It is one thing to offer clemency to a repentant model prisoner or remedy a faulty conviction with a pardon.  But how does one create a secular form of absolution, which erases all sins?

In an absolute monarchy, one might be able to achieve this, but not in a federal republic, because while the various executives at the state and national level can offer pardons, their jurisdiction is limited.  There is no equivalent to a Roman emperor proclaiming and amnesty on a beloved subject.

America actually used to be quite good at forgiving, but the rise of Yard Sign Calvinism has shifted the balance away from mercy to pure punishment.

It will be interesting to see of arguments for clemency become stronger in the coming years.  Keeping score is tiring and ultimately pollutes the soul.  There is a better way.