Winners and Losers

By the time this day is over, or soon after, half of America will be happy with the election results and the other half very unhappy. Whether your candidate wins or loses, there is another issue that is in play today. It is whether we will respond Christianly to the election results. At the national level, whichever candidate wins the White House, there will be a great deal of ill will by the losing party. Perhaps gloating by the winning party. But how do we, as Christians respond?

We often forget that we are citizens first of heaven and second of our nation. Our highest loyalty is to our Lord. In effect, we carry two passports which are why Peter calls us aliens and strangers in the world. In accepting Christ as our Savior, our citizenship changed even though we still hold a passport here on earth. Given that, our Christian worldview, our Christian attitudes, and actions will often be at odds with the prevailing worldview, words, and actions around us.

Here is Paul’s advice to us today. On this day and in the days to come. “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.”  Titus 3:1-2. 

Think about those words. There will be many who respond very differently to the election results because they lack a Christian worldview. In fact, many who are Christ followers will react differently than Paul’s admonition as well. It is hard sometimes to remember that, as citizens of heaven, we have different values, practices, words, and attitudes. But we do. In this and in every area of life. Our worldview is no longer that of the country in which we were born but in the country to which we are going. This is what sets Christians apart in whatever society they live in.

As Christ's followers, this is a day when we slander no one, are peaceable and considerate, ready to do whatever is good, and show true humility toward all men. We do not join the vitriol and anger that will follow the results. Or, slander the winner or loser. We are different, We act and react differently. We are citizens of heaven, and our response should not be the same as those around us. Can it be hard? Yes. Does it please God? Yes. This is a day to remember where our true citizenship lies.

Christianity Today, Donald Trump, Evangelicals and Christmas

I find it ironic that Christians of differing stripes are doing battle over President Trump and the impeachment proceedings during Christmas week. That in a moment.

Here is what I suspect. I suspect readers of this blog fall on both sides of the fence. That is good since God does not carry a card for any political party. I suspect that there is plenty of hypocrisy in Washington by those who want to impeach the President and those who are defending him.  Hypocrisy in Washington is not limited to either party and anything seems to go in the political arena. For those who know American history this is nothing new. The fact that this process is almost entirely along political lines should indicate that it is a political process.

Here is what I am glad for. At least CT has started a conversation about issues that matter to many. It is right to be unhappy with the public statements, tweets, attitudes and behaviors of our President. We are the laughing stock of the world over his behavior. Most of which we would not permit in any evangelical church or any sane place of business. So to say this doesn't matter is not possible. 

For those who believe that a national leader should be a general role model for those they lead, the behaviors of our current President are deeply problematic. Yes, our President is not our national pastor but there are standards of decency that we have in society that are not remotely followed by our President.

For those who focus on issues such as the judges appointed to our courts, religious liberty, abortion and freedom of religion, Mr. Trump has been a Godsend. Those matters are as important as that of his behaviors - so there is no way to insist that the former views are more important than the latter views. Both are true and we live in a fallen world.

I suspect that neither side has the option of being smug regarding their views (as many are) as there is plenty to be said on both sides of the equation. And it might just be that we need to find another source of our hope for the present and the future.

Many evangelicals have not been willing to speak out regarding issues they have with this administration because of how polarizing those opinions are. I tweeted this a few days ago:

Regarding #ChristianityToday it is clear that politics is just as divisive among evangelicals as it is elsewhere. What we lack is the ability to have conversations around our national leader and still stay connected to one another. It is why so many choose to say nothing. Peace!

We have good leaders and bad leaders who end up in power. And their policies do matter. Look for instance at the policies of President Xi of China where the government is causing all kinds of difficulty for the church. So, policies and laws and appointments have real life consequences.

The irony is that no political figure can be the savior of a nation, a society or a man or woman. That role belongs to Jesus, whose birth we celebrate this week. My confidence, hope and faith is not in any party or any person but in the sovereign God who chose to invade this universe surreptitiously to redeem men from their sin.

"He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

"The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the father, full of grace and truth." John 1:10-15.

Christmas gives me great hope because Jesus is the only hope of the world. The two pictures at the top show the difference between the two sources of hope. One is that of power. The other is that of God becoming man. Too often we believe power is the answer when in reality the humble baby born two millennia is the answer.

Pesident Trump's leadership style could be his undoing.

I have watched with some bemusement the internal leadership dynamics of the Trump presidency and White House. Not his politics - the country voted for that. But his leadership style. In fact, I suspect that it is his personal leadership style that will prove to be the most serious challenge in his presidency. 

As a reader of biographies including many of world leaders, I am well aware that their personal quirks, often combined with very smart minds make them the leaders that they are or were. Those who know me know that I read everything I can on Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, whose leadership style combined with their personal idiosyncrasies made them the leaders that they were. Or, equally, Abraham Lincoln whose team of rivals made his presidency what it was through a tumultuous time in our history. That being said, I have some observations to make about the leadership style of President Trump that I believe could be his undoing. These issues go to the heart of great leadership.

One: The best leaders are crystal clear on their message. 

Clarity is one of the fundamental secrets of good leadership. Clarity means that one has thought through their position and will articulate that position with simplicity. When Roosevelt insisted that the only way that World War Two would end was with unconditional surrender of the Axis powers he clarified the endgame and made all other options of negotiated surrender superfluous.

When President Trump contradicts himself in his messaging he confuses the people around him, makes them look like chumps (especially when he has send them out to defend a prior position) and opens himself up for unnecessary attack. And frankly, it looks amateurish and foolish. Further, it undermines his credibility with other leaders in the world who wonder which Trump they should believe. Continually surprising your own staff will alienate them and eventually erode their trust in their leader.

Two. The best leaders ensure that there is a common narrative that is true, defensible and clear so that the team is on the same page. This is the responsibility of a leader and of his communications team. They need to talk, they need to agree on the message and not be in a position where one or the other is going to contradict their messaging. Clearly this has not been happening in the White House and Sean Spicer and staff have been left out to dry numerous times by the president they are trying hard to serve.

While Saturday Night Live has pilloried Sean Spicer nicely, at the core of Sean's challenge is a leader who loves to sow confusion at the expense of his staff. Sean became ineffective, I would argue, because of the individual he was working for and his dysfunctional leadership style. If I were Sean I would be bitter at how my leader had treated me.

Three. The best leaders support their staff in public and air their issues in private. Whatever one thinks of Jeff Sessions, he is currently being undermined directly and publically by the one who appointed him to his leadership role. Good leaders do not undermine their own staff! This week President Trump called Sessions a "beleaguered A G." Of course if he is beleaguered it is the President who has created the situation for Sessions. This is not only highly unprofessional but it is also disrespectful, counter productive and demonstrated that the "boss does not have the staff's back." 

I suspect that Sessions will choose to leave his role and I also predict that some others will choose to leave early because of their growing conviction that if this could happen to one of their team members it could just as easily happen to them. Of course, the President has also undermined others with whom he disagrees, which leads me to the next issue. 

Four, the best leaders respect differences of opinion and actively solicit alternate points of view. The reason that Lincoln's Team of Rivals worked as well as it did was that he wanted differing points of view, respected them and insisted that his team worked together. This was also true of FDR whose team members did not always like one another but who chose to work together through the issues of the depression and the war. 

This is not President Trump's modus operandi. Consider his ill advised early morning tweets. Almost all of them blast people or institutions that differ from his point of view including his own staff when he chooses (including other world leaders like the President of China, the leadership of Germany or the Mayor of London). While I believe there is huge bias in the news media against the president and all things conservative, I have come to the conclusion that "fake news" includes not only bias but anything that the President disagrees with. His issue with Sessions that has become so public is not with "fake news" but his unwillingness to allow Sessions to make a decision to recuse himself from the Russia inquiry. Ironically, Sessions is actively carrying out the President's policies even as the President undermines his authority and position.

Five. The best leaders take the blame in failure and give away the credit in success. One is hard pressed to find many evidences of this from President Trump. Failure, as a rule, is pinned on others, including members of his own staff and party while success seems to always come back to him. 

I suspect that many great leaders are narcissists and it appears that the President fits that description pretty well. Yet at the core of great leadership is a leader who has gathered a first rate team around him or her and it is because of the team (working synergistically together toward common objectives under good leadership) that the best things happen. That is why the best leaders give the majority of the credit for success to their team. And, since the "buck stops at the President's desk" he/she shields the team from responsibility for failure - at least in public. 

Does any of this matter? It actually does! Consider:

• The best staff will not agree to serve and may not stay when these leadership dysfunctions continue to exist. Sure there will always be people who want positions in the government but the best people may well stay away given what they see.
• These leadership dysfunctions are real downers for the staff that is working overtime to please their boss. It is demoralizing and it is leadership by fear and intimidation. In the long run it is not a healthy leadership paradigm.
• At some point trust between the leader and staff begins to erode when this leadership style is present. I have to suspect that other good leaders on the President's team are watching the issues with Jeff Sessions with great unease. 
• Senior staff do not need the chaos created by a boss who changes his story or contradicts what they have said in good faith. How, for instance, does Mr. Tillerson lead the State Department when President Trump tweets messages contradictory to what Mr. Tillerson has said or creates situations that Mr. Tillerson must clean up with other world leaders. 
• Thinking people around the world including many world leaders are watching Mr. Trump's leadership style with consternation. What should they believe? And why does it seem that he is more critical of his friends around the world than America's enemies (Russia?). 
• If senior staff come to the conclusion that the President does not listen to them they may well ask "Why then am I here?" And leave. 
• Most important of all, there are real issues that face our nation that are largely being ignored because of (I would argue) the leadership style of the President. Yes the media goes after Mr. Trump relentlessly but his style and some of the people around him feed the media beast with reason to be suspicious (unreported meetings, inaccurate or incomplete information). Whatever the organization, when there is dysfunctional leadership at the top the staff of the organization and most importantly the agenda of the organization is sabotaged. 

Trump, Clinton, truth, Jesus and grace

One cannot read any social media these days without being inundated by information on the upcoming election, the demonization of one candidate or the other, charges, counter charges and some pretty hot feelings about what a Christian should do in the upcoming election.

There are Christ followers who believe they cannot vote for either candidate. There are others who insist that you cannot be an evangelical and vote for Trump. And there are those who say you cannot be a true evangelical and vote for Clinton. Enter theologians with PhD's who have proven to us their case (on both sides). They in turn have been vilified for taking the wrong side in this interesting election, which ever side they have taken.

A few observations.

Neither side respects women. Trump may lack tact and may well be guilty of what he has been painted as (per his own words). On the other hand if the unborn are truly human (and I believe they are) Clinton is certainly not respecting the right of those "girls" or "boys" to live. Both sides have lied significantly and both deny the obvious. Politics today is dirty - and any reading of American history even back to our founding father's shows that this is nothing new. Further, much of our politics is driven by our own fears - whatever they are: immigration; supreme court choices; character of our elected leaders (they have rarely if ever been saints); the economy; and whatever else our fears are. All of this has polarized the nation and Christ followers as well - sadly. My final observation is that Jesus does not carry a card of the independent party, the Republicans or the Democrats. He is above our party squabbles and He has His own concerns that are not directly mirrored by any political party.

Paul made a significant statement when he wrote that we see through a glass darkly. I certainly do on many issues. I think each of you do as well. Our truth on issues not clearly delineated in Scriptures is always partial truth. It is why on even theology, God fearing individuals can have differing interpretations. Convictions are great and I respect them. But in the political arena there is a lot of grey given the observations above. I can share my convictions and the reasons for them with others but I cannot expect all to agree with me if we see through a glass darkly.

Members of my own extended family most of whom love and follow Jesus will vote on different sides of this election for valid reasons. It would be wrong for me to judge their choice if they are doing so out of their own conscience. It is equally wrong for us to allow politics to divide us in the church. There are valid reasons to vote for both candidates even from the perspective of a Christ follower. And there are reasons for those who choose not to vote for any candidate in this election. Civic duty notwithstanding.

This is not the first election - and will not be the last where people believe that the fate of the nation is at stake. We hear that every four years. And the gospel is not dependent on who gets in the supreme court. Besides, if you notice, those who do get in often don't vote the way the president who chose them thought they would. And last I heard, Jesus stands above nations and rulers and accomplishes His will since He is sovereign and is bringing history to His intended conclusion. Daniel in the Old Testament fully understood that as he represented one of the most pagan kings of the ancient world.

So my commitment is to pray for the nation, for the candidates (and God is quite capable of using either one for his purposes) and to give others grace in their convictions knowing that I see things through a glass darkly and will until the vision is fully cleared in the presence of the God of complete truth and righteousness. Jesus expects grace from His people toward one another and toward those who don't follow Him. When we lack grace we are not representing Him no matter which candidate we intend to vote for (or none at all). Grace matters!