Twenty-something years ago now, I read Philip Turner's Money, Sex, & Power: An Essay in Christian Social Ethics. There was an insight early in that book that has stayed with me ever since: Early Christian monastic revolutionaries focused on the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience for a reason. Those are the three temptations of leadership that must be controlled for leadership to be faithful.
It's an insight I've returned to again and again in exploring the moral life with pastors -- and with politicians.
American politics is not about morality. It's about power. Particularly, American politics is about amassing as much power as one might in order to rig the American experiment toward one's own version of reality. Put another way, American evangelicals supported Trump not because he was moral but because they wanted to win. And this same desire to win is now being played out in Alabama among evangelicals supporting Roy Moore. Maybe, it is agreed, that Moore did those things he's been accused of. But it doesn't matter. Because winning is the most important thing. Power trumps morality. This is why the White House and the RNC have now endorsed Moore. It has nothing to do with Moore's morality (or lack thereof). It has to do with winning.
And lest we think conservatives alone are guilty of this game, feminist pioneer and icon Gloria Steinem famously wrote an op-ed in the New York Times excusing Bill Clinton's sexual acting out. Nancy Pelosi defended John Conyers on Meet the Press. Feminist Kate Harding, co-editor of Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled "I’m a feminist. I study rape culture. And I don’t want Al Franken to resign."
Put another way, liberals are just as guilty. Liberals are sympathetic -- even if they ultimately disagree -- with Harding for the same reasons that evangelicals support Trump and Moore.
Caesar's game has always had the objective to win. So when morality gets in the way, power will always trump morality.
The more Christians -- particularly American Christians -- politicize our faith, the more our faith will shrink in the face of the exercise of power. Early monastics knew this. Yet somehow we have forgotten their wisdom.
There's reasons Jesus rejected earthly political power as the means for ushering in the Kingdom of God. This is one of those reasons. Until American Christians become un-enamored with that power, nothing will change. We'll look more and more like Caesar and less and less like Jesus.
It's an insight I've returned to again and again in exploring the moral life with pastors -- and with politicians.
American politics is not about morality. It's about power. Particularly, American politics is about amassing as much power as one might in order to rig the American experiment toward one's own version of reality. Put another way, American evangelicals supported Trump not because he was moral but because they wanted to win. And this same desire to win is now being played out in Alabama among evangelicals supporting Roy Moore. Maybe, it is agreed, that Moore did those things he's been accused of. But it doesn't matter. Because winning is the most important thing. Power trumps morality. This is why the White House and the RNC have now endorsed Moore. It has nothing to do with Moore's morality (or lack thereof). It has to do with winning.
And lest we think conservatives alone are guilty of this game, feminist pioneer and icon Gloria Steinem famously wrote an op-ed in the New York Times excusing Bill Clinton's sexual acting out. Nancy Pelosi defended John Conyers on Meet the Press. Feminist Kate Harding, co-editor of Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled "I’m a feminist. I study rape culture. And I don’t want Al Franken to resign."
Put another way, liberals are just as guilty. Liberals are sympathetic -- even if they ultimately disagree -- with Harding for the same reasons that evangelicals support Trump and Moore.
Caesar's game has always had the objective to win. So when morality gets in the way, power will always trump morality.
The more Christians -- particularly American Christians -- politicize our faith, the more our faith will shrink in the face of the exercise of power. Early monastics knew this. Yet somehow we have forgotten their wisdom.
There's reasons Jesus rejected earthly political power as the means for ushering in the Kingdom of God. This is one of those reasons. Until American Christians become un-enamored with that power, nothing will change. We'll look more and more like Caesar and less and less like Jesus.