President Warren Harding is a sad example of a politician gone wrong.
He was an American Baptist, like my church, and served as a trustee in the Trinity Baptist Church of Marion, Ohio. When he became president the country entered the Roaring Twenties. There was peace and prosperity and he was hugely popular.
But behind the scenes, some of his friends were using their positions to get rich. A swindle called the Teapot Dome Scandal rocked the capital. Harding complained, “My…friends…they’re the ones that keep me walking the floors at night!”
He is now remembered as a disgrace, not because of what he did, but what he allowed others to do. Harding’s impressive tomb in Marion is barely visited.