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Benjamin
Franklin
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- Good-Natured: showing or reflecting good nature (as pleasantness, affability, geniality, and kindliness) : marked by a disposition to please
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- Humility: the quality or state of being humble in spirit : freedom from pride or arrogance
[Source of Definitions: Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary]
Consider
the three pillars of leadership within a democratic context.
A
good leader likes people. This is perceptible by a good-natured
ambiance when in his presence. He has a disposition to please and at
a minimum a desire not to needlessly provoke.
Nevertheless,
a leader needs much more than kindness. He needs to have the
qualities of well-tempered steel – inveterately strong, yet
flexible. A good leader has none of the brittleness of a prig nor
the obstinacy of a jerk. He is tempered by wide experience in
practical affairs and thus has substantiated firsthand (often through
trial and error) the essential need for principled integrity -
however abstract, remote, and unnecessary it may seem to the
uninitiated.
Thirdly,
leadership requires a humility that places facts before authority. A
spiritual humility is likewise required. In this regard if God did
not exist, he would have to be invented. Such a requirement is
necessary for practical reasons. For it is the nature of power to
aggrandize itself without limit when there are no checks. While it is
possible to create institutional checks, on a personal psychological
level submissive humility is only established through recognition of
a higher power – a supreme being. Democracies with their emphasis
on individual rights especially need this check in place to make
governance tenable. Christianity is attractive in this regard for it
combines a higher power – a worship of God – with love of neighbor (a significant but different empowerment), thereby jointly
undergirding with enabling humility the social contract. The
creators of our democracy clearly understood this as is evidenced by
the following remarks. The understanding arises that while religions
are inadmissible as formal state institutions, the belief in God and
love of neighbor are fundamental to the survival of the democracy - a
genuine miracle in its creation.
"The
highest glory of the American Revolution was this - that it
connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil
government with the principles of Christianity." - John Quincy
Adams
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(UC)
"He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of
primitive Christianity will change the face of the world." -
Benjamin Franklin
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(UC)
"It can not be emphasized too strongly or too often that this
great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not
on religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ." - Patrick Henry
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"The
religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ
and His apostles...to this we owe our free constitutions of
government." - Noah Webster
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"Our
constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is
wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams
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(Source)
It
is my sincere belief and hope that leadership should not – and will
not – be a singular or rare occurrence but widespread – even
universally so. This is based upon the following understanding of
leadership: it is sourced in humility both as to the physical and
spiritual; it is founded upon a structured and well-tempered
character; it is filled with good-nature punctuated by affability and
kindness. In this context, the blind quest for limitless power is
transformed into something radically different--servant leadership.
In a representative democracy it is lethal lunacy for each man to
lust after egotistical kingship. A healthy matrix within which the
state and the larger society can thrive depends upon substantial
moral fiber, grace, and generosity.
1. Come, thou almighty King,
help us thy name to sing,
help
us to praise!
Father
all glorious,
o'er
all victorious,
come
and reign over us, Ancient of Days!
2. Come,
thou incarnate Word,
gird
on thy mighty sword,
our
prayer attend!
Come,
and thy people bless,
and
give thy word success,
Spirit
of holiness, on us descend!
3. Come,
holy Comforter,
thy
sacred witness bear
in
this glad hour.
Thou
who almighty art,
now
rule in every heart,
and
ne'er from us depart, Spirit of power!
4. To
thee, great One in Three,
eternal
praises be,
hence,
evermore.
Thy
sovereign majesty
may
we in glory see,
and
to eternity love and adore!
