History, Religion and Leadership

What role does history, religion and leadership play in the future of a country?

There is a new Pope and he is creating quite the stir. This Pope is a man who stood for traditional values, against a socially liberal government in his home country. This is a humble man who took public transportation or rode his bicycle while working in his Diocese. The second day of his Papacy he returned to his hotel, picked up his own bags, paid his own bill and then stopped to pray before returning to the Vatican. His actions, not his words, show a brave Christian Solider now leading the Catholic world.

The new Pope and his election led me to thinking about leadership, the church and our future.

In the church, time takes on a different meaning. The teachings of the Bible and the story of Jesus were not for a certain time in history, it is for all time. The Pope is not only responsible for the Church today, but must weigh the principles from the start of history and consider their impact until the end of time. To argue to such a person that modern society makes certain demands is to downplay the importance of his role, and emphasize the questioner’s lack of understanding of the Bible. To argue against basic tenants of the Bible, suggesting they were only for a certain time, and could be changed because society changed, is to argue the word of God is fallible. It takes strong religious leaders to remind us we are only human.

History, the bible, and leadership got me to thinking about our Constitution. I am not drawing a comparison of the two documents, nor am I ascribing religious powers to the Constitution. The fact the Constitution has a number of amendments ends the conversation about an infallible document. Still, the ideas outlined above might serve to initiate thought about modern society and our Constitution.

The Founders of this great and good country had a deep understanding of mankind. The history of the world is one of Kings, Dictators and Despots ruling over subjects and slaves. The majority of people born from Adam and Eve until this very day have lived under the control of rulers not freely elected. The Founders understood freedom is fragile. They also understood man, as a being, seeks power to control others. The Founders understood how crisis and the power of charismatic leadership can be used to subjugate a people. Being educated, experienced men, they understood rights are God given. The Constitution, in my mind a miracle, stood to protect this country from repeating historical errors.

We take for granted such things as checks and balances, natural rights, free elections and divisions of power. But in the history of the world, these were/are rare except in America. It takes strong leadership to keep us on a course of freedom.

Today we have formally educated people, self-identified elites, telling us the Constitution is outdated. These erudite scholars lecture we have a living Constitution which must change with the times. These elites would lead us to believe they have a better idea. These folks have a strong ideology, but lack true historical perspective, or any track record of success using their ideas. What these academics miss is the human nature factor. The Constitution takes into account human nature and builds a barrier between those seeking absolute powers over the people. In order to change this country into a society that can be controlled by people who would insert their own powers, those people must first convince us the Constitution is not in our best interest.

Much like the Pope, who must provide a stable foundation for today and tomorrow for Catholics, our leaders must do the same for our country. In both cases, leaders are guided by documents which are historically old, but whose path is timeless. It takes a certain arrogance to believe a leader today has a superior knowledge to all the past leaders in history. One must abandon any appearance of modesty, to proclaim they are superior in knowledge, to documents tested by the blood and toil of mankind throughout modern time.

Those who would turn the Catholic Church against the bible are kidding themselves. Those would seek to turn the U.S. against the Constitution are playing a dangerous game.  One area of commonality between the Church and the U.S. is faith. The faithful are called to protect the church; the faithful are called to protect this nation. Faith binds us to each other, to this country and to a higher authority. Leadership demands a shrewd perspective which understands not just today, but our past and our future.

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