David Neff, editor-in-chief at Christianity Today, writes a piece under the provocative title of “What would John Calvin Say to Dick Cheney?” Calvin is hot. It’s the 500th, after all. And the Bush administration is as out of favor as Calvin is supposedly accessible.
The point of Neff’s piece is actually quite sensible. It has to do with the abuses of the Bush administration in asserting to itself powers above the law. (Pssst. Real American conservatives know that Congress is the branch to trust, not the White House.) Granted, Neff may be guilty of sucking up to the new administration when he credits President Obama with understanding that “whether the issue is the torture of detainees, due process for American citizens suspected of terrorism, or eavesdropping on our private communications without appropriate judicial warrants, the President of the United States is bound by law.” We’ll see how well any American president resists the temptation of imperial power.
Neff goes on to write as if Calvin would have agreed with Obama and opposed Cheney.  According to Neff:
But what about the unfaithful political leader? Calvin wrote that “dictatorships and unjust authorities are not governments ordained by God.” They are no longer “God’s ministers” if they “practice blasphemous tyranny.”
What a striking phrase: “blasphemous tyranny”! And how apt. When rulers place their own goals ahead of protecting God-given laws and liberties, they are not only being tyrannical, they are also blaspheming.
Old Life 