Life would be easier—wouldn’t it?—if we didn’t need human leaders in either “state” or “church,” and didn’t need to suffer the successions from one leader to another. But we must somehow sail—in “church” and “state”—between lawless anarchy and freedomless tyranny, and the sailing takes skilled piloting.
The current “On Faith” question is, “How important are leadership styles and personalities of religious leaders to rank and file members of the faith and to public perception of those faiths?”
1.....The question implicitly invites religious leaders to ask themselves “How do I look to my people, and what does my faith look like to the general public?” Good question, but of third importance. Of second importance is the leader’s faith, character, integrity, authenticity, quality. Of first importance is the leader’s self-understanding as standing under the judgment and guidance of a superior—the source of the primary humility of worthy leaders of "state" as well as of "church."
2.....Worthy leaders’ secondary humility is as servants of their people. As we human beings earn the right to speak by listening, leaders earn the right to lead by following. In Aristotle’s description, the “polites” (i.e., citizen) is competent in the arts of both “ruling and being ruled in turn."
3.....In addition to believing that the leaderships of religion and government should be separate, America's founders assumed that any worthy leadership will be humble in both senses. Jefferson’s Second Inaugural Address ncluded both humilities: “I shall need all the indulgences which I have heretofore experienced from my constituents....I shall need too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplication with me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their counsels, and prosper their measures that whatsover they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations.”
4.....Jefferson's affirmation of the primary humility of worthy leadership could not be clearer: Presidents of the United States are secondary leaders under the judgment and guidance of a superior, namely, the God of the Bible. Not deism’s far-off-and-unconcerned deity, but the God who is with us—in “wisdom...power...goodness”--in our “infancy” and “our riper years.” If we Americans are to expect this primary humility in our presidents, how much more are we to expect it in our pastors!
Finally, to address specifically the “On Faith” question:
a.....Since members expect their leaders to be worthy embodiments and exemplars of the faith as well as public personal symbols of its identity, the very being of the faith, its communal coherence, and its public image are all on trial and at risk in their “leadership styles and personalities.”
b.....While unworthy leaders in “state” disgrace the state and its people, all the people live and deal with the disgrace. Clergy scandals can be even more consequential. (1) Since only some of the people of the “state” are involved, others may see a clergy misstep as further reason to have nothing to do with that faith or even with religion in general. (2) Hypocrisy in religious leaders is seen as more offensive, as the claims of piety are thought to be higher than the claims of politics. Long experience with clergy in basic and continuing education has me convinced that there are few frauds among them, but the few when exposed bring shame on the many.
c.....Our celebrity culture is a corrupting influence on all of us but is a special peril to religious leadership, whose internal markers of success (internal to the faith and to the leader) are increasingly at odds with the culture’s external markers of fortune and fame.
d.....The “public perception" of any faith is more dependent on the daily lives of its members than on the public lives of its clergy. From living next to you, what do your neighbors think of your religion? What do you think of theirs?
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