Those Affable Demons Sound Good, Look Good, Bear Bitter Fruit
By Al Cronkrite The Covenant News ~ April 09, 2007
On a train bound for a Siberian work camp an unfortunate Russian peasant composed a letter to Premier Stalin to inform him of the atrocious mass relocation; he was sure Stalin did not know what was going on. In Russia, even today, many citizens would welcome a return to the Stalinist era.
I must confess that I have never thought nor written from the perspective of a ruler. Rulers seek to dominate, manipulate, and influence. I do not welcomed these procedures in my own life nor do I want to inflict them on others. In some ways my role as a father may have been injured by this somewhat rebellious notion.
The pitfalls of leadership are vast and dangerous. Fathers can stifle the initiatives of their wives and children by exerting too much control or be guilty of a lack of proper oversight by exerting too little. The workplace can become a tense and fear-filled environment under a dictatorial supervisor and a purposeless chaos under a wimp. Nations can be and often are lead into dangerous and deleterious situations by faulty leadership. When nations are lead into sin the people suffer along with the leader.
Though they escape my understanding, there are individuals who relish domination and manipulation. Driving an automobile in traffic will soon produce individuals who enjoy controlling their fellows. They delight in holding up traffic by driving slowly where others cannot pass; soon dozens of cars are lined up behind them. Control freaks lack leadership ability and only succeed in upsetting those around them.
Webster defines a leader as “a person or thing that leads; directing, commanding, or guiding head, as of a group or activity”. Leadership is often coveted and aspired to by those that make up organizations. Anticipating a delegation of power, lay Christians often forsake fellowship; instead, they cater to and cultivate church leaders. Politicians often attract an entourage seeking to bask in reflected power.
One of my mentors used to say that individuals who aspire to leadership have a fatal defect in the aspiration; an inflated ego that seeks to dominate and control. There is wisdom in that position.
Saul, Israel’s first king, provides an excellent study. He was a handsome and vain man who obeyed God most of the time. In him, however, was a rebellious opinion that in some areas he knew better than his Creator. God finally concluded, “I regret that I have made Saul King, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands“.
The Holy Scripture provides a litany of leaders selected by God. Often He chose individuals who had no desire to lead. Abraham was fearful, describing his wife as his sister to protect himself. Moses stuttered and was a reluctant leader. David was the least in his own family. Joseph was rejected by his brothers. Every leader had defects. Though he committed adultery and murder, David was described as a man after God’s own heart. Good leaders sacrifice themselves for those they lead.
Confirming my mentor’s opinion, God’s people seemed to receive the best leadership from the most humble sources. In spite of the fact that the Bible advises us to sit in the back until we are called to the front, leadership in today’s churches comes mostly from those who are winsome, talented, and sitting in the front.
Consider the leadership of the Savior. Jesus was a teacher of truth that conflicted with the desires of His subjects. Sinners are not naturally inclined toward humility. They do not readily accept the maxim that the “last shall be first.” nor are they inclined to welcome a Savior. Those that followed Christ did so for the same reasons leaders are followed today. They were enthralled with power. It was the healings that created the excitement and cultivated the followers; a desire to bask in the glow of the power Jesus displayed.
Jesus was obedient unto death; a death brought about by a strident confrontation of the powerful Pharisees.
Any leader who is not restrained by the mandates of the Living God is an errant loose cannon. Leaders who ignore God’s legal codes and replace them with their own opinions have usurped God’s throne. They are dangerous because none is capable of discerning justice without the yardstick of God’s Laws.
Christian leaders who along with the exquisite message of salvation fail to confront evil in both individuals and the social order are not following the example of their Savior.
President George W. Bush has declared himself the “Decider” and Christian leaders who have often risen to prominence by catering to the whims of their audiences have given him an amen. They have backed his regime as it tyrannized U. S. citizens by robbing them of their freedoms and attacked a distant sovereign nation using bogus propaganda as an excuse.
How could a 220 pound professional wrestler living under the commands of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob attack a colony of midgets who possessed no weapons, made no threats, and were of no danger to him? How could he defend attacking that colony, killing several and wounding the rest? Would he not be guilty of an infraction worse than murder? Sadly, reality is even worse than my analogy. Our “Decider” has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iraq.
Recently I took issue with a brother in Christ who maintained it is no sin to vote for the Republican Party.
We Christians worship a God that often chose the least of the potential candidates. How then can any Christian defend voting for the most prominent candidate who represents a substantial measure of evil when a less well know candidate who promises to be obedient to God and the Constitution is running?
Maybe someone can help me here. In the 2004 presidential election the Constitution Party ran Michael Peroutka, a Christian lawyer, for president and Chuck Baldwin, a Christian pastor, for vice-president. Both of these men promised to obey God and the Constitution and to return the nation to its previous position as a city on a hill. Can someone tell me why it is not sinful to cast a vote for a know element of evil when that element does not exist in the alternative?
An argument might be made that third party candidates do not have the proper experience and are not properly connected to govern effectively. I would readily agree that the mass of dispensable government apparatus could not be torn down overnight; patience and wisdom would be required. However, real Christians elected to office by popular vote with the intent to tear down the bulk of our oppressive government would be better than any of the well known, experienced members of either of the two popular political parties who would surely add limbs to the monster.
Another argument is that the Constitution Party candidates had no chance to win. Again, I am open to correction. Do we worship a God that allows the end to justify the means or does our God require that the means justify the end? It seems to me that if the latter is correct there is not doubt where our vote should have been cast. I maintain Christians should always vote for the most righteous candidate on the ballot. Anything less is a sin!
Now, gentle reader, as the 2008 presidential election looms large on the horizon there will be two winsome candidates representing the two major political parties. They will have spent untold hours determining what will produce the most votes and untold millions producing a popular image through media advertising. The media itself will favor these two candidates by allowing them to monopolize coverage. If the past is prologue, both of these candidates will be affable demons and the fruit produced by the victor will continue to be bitter.
Please don’t vote for affable demons. Righteous government can NEVER be realized by voting for various shades of evil!