Thanks for these great thoughts, Jason Ogle! One quick squabble though:

I think the Bible verse you mentioned is a bit out of context. Paul was referring to appointing elders in the church (bishop’s if you will) not politician’s (i.e. king’s) to rule a nation.

That’s actually not true, which is why I pointed out the original Greek words in the footnotes. Paul could have used the word poimen, which is used a lot in the New Testament to refer to pastors or, more literally, shepherds. Instead, he used the word episkopos, which has roots in Greek secular government. Many episkopos—converted to “bishop” in modern English Bibles but literally translated as “overseer” or “supervisor”—were appointed by emperors as their eyes and ears across all of the emperor’s regions. They functioned as governors and commissioners for their respective groups of citizens on which they had oversight.