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TechnoratiSome may have heard that time-worn story about a citizen who once admonished a politician that the office should seek the man and not the other way around. "Well, I guess that's all right," said the politician, "but I gave it plenty of time and it seemed rather bashful." [1]
It's most unfortunate the ambitious lengths candidates will often go to achieve power. Great leaders, however, do not seek power for selfish ends; instead they use it to serve.
In the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 4, is recorded the temptation of Christ. In the wilderness, Jesus was faced with what means he would employ in winning men to God. What method would he use to convince others he was the Messiah – the anointed leader of Israel? One commentator asked it this way: "How was he to turn the vision into actuality, and the dream into fact?" [2] The methods Jesus rejected in his temptation speak volumes to what is standard fare for most political campaigns today.
First was the offer of bread. Give them bread was the suggestion. Propose giving material things. If Christ had succumbed to this temptation, then people would have been persuaded to follow him for what they could get – not the way of the Cross – not the way of service. "Man does not live by bread alone," said Jesus. [3]
One sure way for politicians to develop a following is to offer jobs, food, education, housing, child care, healthcare, etc. Few matters reveal the depth of political corruption than the way public officials have addicted the nation to public assistance. Today the government has essentially become the opiate of the people. Politicians offer to solve all the problems of impoverishment, but in doing so pre-empt the genius of private enterprise, the power of private charity, and the profound influence of the church – all of which are indispensable to the national character. Whenever political candidates or the public fall for this temptation, freedom is actually lost as the role of government expands. The nation's soul becomes defined in terms of government grants and perceived entitlements – not the spirit and ingenuity of its people.
The second temptation was to dazzle the crowd. Jesus was taken to the pinnacle of the Temple, where Solomon's porch and the Royal porch met, and urged to use his divine power to leap down the 450-foot drop into the Kedron Valley below, unharmed. The suggestion was that people witnessing the event would surely become his followers by the sensation of it alone. Jesus rejected this enticement on the basis that those who sacrifice substance for sensation are ridiculously putting themselves at risk.
It's the act of a misguided faith. "Do not test the Lord your God," admonished Jesus. [4]
In a recent editorial titled "The Selling of a President," North Carolina columnist Bob Steinberg rightly noted politicians today are "being sold as a product and/or superheroes." He adds, "With all of the fanfare of a Hollywood studio introducing a new movie, each candidate is made to appear bigger than life." [5] Indeed. And in the process, charisma is substituted for character, charm replaces integrity, and appeal trumps ability.
Such not only puts the nation at risk, but ultimately results in the kind of cynicism regarding politics reflected in a lank, disconsolate-looking farmer who stood on the steps of the town hall during the progress of a political meeting. When a newcomer on the scene asked the farmer what the congressman's speech had been about, the farmer passed his hand across his forehead and sarcastically replied, "He didn't rightly say." [6] Continue >>
