Every politician hungry for his slice of glory likes to talk about “leadership.” Leadership is always one of the talking points, and there will always be a reference to it in the printed material. You could write one of those brochures in your sleep, right? “Experience. Integrity. Leadership.” At which point we all get out the handkerchief and wipe the brow. “Glad he mentioned leadership!” But it is almost always talking about leadership to the head of the line, after which point everybody continues to stand there in a single-file column to nowhere.
But in order for the nation to get out of the abortion mess we have gotten ourselves into, we need civic leadership. But we do not need claims to leadership, or “how a bill becomes law” civic leadership. We have plenty of that kind of expertise. What has been lacking is charismatic leadership — apart from which a nation of 300 million will not be budged, much less led. Make no mistake — we need the pro-life judges. And we need the political rugby scrum in Congress that gets us those pro-life judges. But in order for that to happen, we need leadership that inspires, not leadership on the brochure.
Positions aside, the hunger for this kind of charismatic leadership is virtually universal. It was fun for those on the right to mock the Obama-messianism of the Democrats, but a funny thing happened on the way to the Republican convention. Judging from the response to Sarah Palin, it seems that conservatives were every bit as starved for it as the progressives were.
Now this is not an argument for following a charismatic leader wherever he goes. This hunger that people have is the reason there is always a market for demagogues. And so of course there are always reasons to be wary. Any Christian following the political process should be aware of the deceitfulness of the human heart, and should guard himself accordingly. Just “go with the gut” and you might find yourself weeping at a rally with the Obama-evangelicals. And if that idea doesn’t scare you back into fundamentalism, then you are beyond my ministrations.
But the Christian must not just guard himself against following after some floating daydream. He must also guard himself against staying entrenched in his well-earned political cynicism. The people of Israel needed to stay when the glory cloud stayed, and move when the cloud moved. It was a sin to move sometimes and a sin to stay sometimes. The answer to the question “which is when?” is, it depends. It is not enough to read the Bible. It is not enough to read books of political theory. You must also read the times.
The best argument against Sarah Palin has been an argument that says this kind of thing has happened to us because American Christian men have been wimpy. This argument resonates with us because American Christian men have been abdicating for many years — in their homes, in their churches, and in their vocations. But in a nation of 300 million, surely there are some men about whom this is not true? Why couldn’t God have raised up one of those guys? The answer has to be — He didn’t want to.
This assumption about wimpiness rests on a common reading of Deborah in the book of Judges — the assumption being that Deborah was a judge simply because the men of Israel in that day were all a bunch of abdicating males. But the text never says that — never accuses the men of that generation of being wusses, and never hints at any kind of disapproval of Deborah. And the only penalty Barak receives (relatively minor) is one caused by him putting conditions on a directive that a woman gave him. Had he simply obeyed that women (Deborah), he would have had the glory of taking Sisera’s head instead of that glory going to Jael. Barak’s problem was not “too much” obedience to a woman in civil leadership, but not enough obedience to a woman in civil leadership.
But as some Christian men have criticized Sarah Palin, they have spoken in this way. “Where are the biblical men?” That is a great question, and always worth asking. But in this context, we can bring things back down to earth by asking one of the critics why he wasn’t McCain’s vice-presidential selction instead. And let us not suppose him to be a pencil-neck theology geek — let us assume that he is a faithful Christian man, doing what God has put into his hand to do. The ultimate reason he is not the veep is that God didn’t give it to him. Nobody asked him, and he is not in control of whether anybody asks him. You play cards with the hand you are dealt.
I voted for Ron Paul in the Idaho primary. I like him personally, and I like a lot of his positions. I also believe that principled splinter parties and movements play an important role in providing drag and resistance for those conservative Republicans who are simply liberals in slow motion. But — let us be frank — when it comes to leading the masses, Ron Paul would have to be classified as a charisma hole. If we are to do right as a nation, then that will have to be given to us. The paleo-right has, I am afraid, gotten accustomed to being right in what they believe to be a nation gone irremediably wrong. Then, after the judgment of God falls, we will reserve to ourselves the right to be able to crawl out from under the rubble and say, “Don’t blame me. I consistently voted for third party candidates.”