Do you think some national leaders are jailing innocent people, killing peaceful protestors, resorting to violence here and around the world, and proclaiming falsehoods to be truths? Should you and I respond with three principles recommended since ancient times for dealing with wicked rulers?
First: Hold Onto Our Values and Moral Authority
Today, by fostering a culture of fear, hatred, and division many leaders of the most powerful nation in the world live by the creed, “might makes right.” It’s easy to defer to their power, position, and prominence. It’s easy to abandon or water down our values. If our leaders model vindictive, racist, and illegal behaviors, do we follow their lead? No. Instead, we do what we know is right and uphold the values we cherish. The governor of Maine gave a recent example.
On January 24 the political website The Hill reported that Maine Governor Janet Mills requested a meeting with the president after federal agents shot and killed a second person in Minneapolis amid his administration’s massive interstate immigration crackdown. Mills said, “As Governor, I am requesting that the President of the United States meet with me so that I can demand in person that his Administration withdraw these untrained and reckless ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in Maine and across the country who are stoking fear in communities, arresting legally present people, including law enforcement officials, and who pose a grave threat to public safety.”
Beyond the big cities, ICE is rattling small-town and exurban America
The Maine governor ended her statement by encouraging her constituents to exercise their First Amendment rights peacefully. Five days later, the New York Times reported that ICE had ended its stepped-up enforcement in the state.
Second: Leave Hooliganism To Hooligans
Ancient sacred writings teach us to avoid using unrighteous means to oppose the unrighteous demands of wicked rulers. To maintain ethics and morals, to deliver justice and peace, to uphold democracy and the rule of law, we cannot respond to a hooligan like a hooligan. Even when wicked rulers use illegal, immoral, cruel, or undemocratic means to treat others unjustly we cannot respond in kind. Violence begets violence. Cruelty incites more cruelty. An eye for an eye makes both parties blind. One example of following this second principle is a series of recent singing events.
A February 2 Anderson Cooper news story featured a singing resistance movement in Minneapolis. Four days after ICE killed Renee Good 300 people marched and sang. Six days later 600 people showed up. Soon after that 1,400 sang resistance songs at the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church. Minneapolis fought putrid hooliganism with peaceful harmony. Cooper’s story quotes an anonymous Minneapolis resistance leader (anonymous because she feared arrest) who said singing is a vehicle to share grief, feel rage, gain strength, and gather courage.
“Coming together in song engenders a sense of collective power with ancient, biological roots,” according to Psychology Today. “New research shows making music—especially in unison with others—creates substantial, physiological benefits by synchronizing our brains and bodies to facilitate collaboration and establish a sense of belonging.”
Third (And Most Important): Cling To Hope, Feed Your Courage
There’s nothing wicked rulers love more than to kill all hope and instill maximum fear. Bad leaders seek to create an image of total dominance and absolute futility in opposing them. Compassion, sympathy, compromise, forgiveness—they’re all abhorrent to wicked rulers. So we must kindle hope and courage. Like six members of Congress did last November.
On November 19, 2025 six Democratic members of Congress released a video addressed to the U.S. military and intelligence communities, advising them to defy any illegal orders (refusing illegal orders is in the Uniformed Code of Military Justice). The lawmakers stressed that “no one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”
The video included these words, “We know this is hard and that it’s a difficult time to be a public servant, but whether you are serving in the CIA, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, your vigilance is critical. And know that we have your back, because now, more than ever, the American people need you. We need you to stand up for our laws, our Constitution, and who we are as Americans.”
These three principles came to me in the weirdest way. They came not from a political expert, insightful historian, or leading intellectual. They came from a Community Bible Study commentary on the Bible’s ancient Psalm 125. That psalm, a song of ascent, was written sometime after 538 B.C. Ancient truths apply in 2026.
Look for, be with, and expand the work of anyone and anything that lifts spirits, serves justice, nurtures community, or spreads good. Keep your values and morals. Defuse hooliganism with grace, song, and love. Feed on what gives you hope and courage.
Chris John Amorosino lives in Unionville