wfn.org | Musings about Elections

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3177 notes).

Note 3176 by UMNS on Sept. 18, 1996 at 15:47 Eastern (6299 characters).

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CONTACT:  Ralph E. Baker                         462(10-71B){3176}
          Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470           Sept. 18, 1996

Politicians and baloney mongers:
musings about elections

                         A UMNS Commentary
                        by Ezra Earl Jones

     I have been praying for our new bishops. I started praying
early in the summer as I became more aware of how much people want
to learn to trust God and pay attention to the things that God
seems to care about in the world. Now that they have been elected,
I find myself holding our new bishops even more fervently in God's
care. With only a couple of exceptions, I have known these people
for a long time; and I know that God has blessed us.
     I pray that these new bishops will be learners, that they
will learn daily how to stay focused on the risen Christ and how
to help the rest of us stay focused. I pray that they will learn
about connectional church systems, about the centrality of annual
conferences in United Methodist Church life and about how our
organizational patterns can support ministry rather than swallow
it. I pray that our new bishops will learn about improving church
processes for the benefit of all who come and that they will never
believe that what we are doing is "good enough."
     I also pray for the rest of us who are or will be United
Methodists. I pray that we will be open to new leadership, new
destinations and new pathways. I pray that we will be the kind of
followers who will push our leaders to be the best they can be --
even as they do that for us.
     As I observed our United Methodist episcopal elections, I
noticed some parallels with the U.S. presidential and
congressional primaries. A Newsweek article (March 4, 1996)
reflected on Bob Dole's response to difficulties in the early
primaries. For some, Dole was not aggressive enough. But writer
Joe Klein responded that Dole "is unwilling to call his supporters
to the 'sound of the gun' because he knows what guns actually
sound like, and what guns do."
     Klein continues:
     
     "He [Dole] also knows what politicians do, which is rarely
     anything quite so dramatic as leading an army into battle,
     and he's constitutionally incapable of pretending otherwise.
     Yes, he is the ultimate insider: but an insider as scornful
     of political rant as the most alienated. ... He is
     particularly scornful of the baloney-mongers who announce
     'revolutions' that don't need to be fought."

     Thinking again about our church, I trust that we did not get
any politicians for leaders -- people who rarely would lead the
troops into revolutionary change.  Politicians never state clearly
the primary task of a body, so they never have to take
responsibility for specific results or take extreme measures to
bring about change. Politicians do what is popular, call it
results and assume that their constituencies will not notice the
difference (and we usually oblige). Politicians manage the
organization as it comes to them, and they try not to let it
deteriorate noticeably during their watch.
     But what about the rest of us? We are the insiders -- some of
us, the ultimate insiders. We love this church! We own it!
Sometimes that causes us to circle the wagons and try to protect
it. But like Dole, we are also scornful of "political rant" and
particularly of the "baloney-mongers" (I love that term!) who
announce revolutions that don't need to be fought.
     The baloney-mongers tend to take a part of the whole, lift it
up as more important than the rest and pay attention only to other
"true believers." They form groups to pressure leaders and accept
those leaders only if they promote the baloney-mongers' narrow
agenda.
     Oh God, deliver our new leaders from those of us who suffer
from narrow vision, insecurity and selfishness.
     Let's look at the U.S. elections and Joe Klein's comments
about Bob Dole:

     "Dole is selling ... a product insufficiently appreciated by
     an enervating media and self-indulgent electorate: he is
     selling tradition, restraint, moderation in the midst of a
     vast public silliness."

     I hope we hear that message of restraint and moderation in
the context of our church. Jesus said to Jerusalem as he
approached it for the last time:

     "If you, even you, had only recognized  on this day the
     things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your
     eyes."    -- Luke 19:42, NRSV

     Isn't the essence of being the church walking with the risen
Christ, learning to live with our neighbors who are also seeking
to follow Christ and learning to love the world? Is it not
creating settings where people can be received in active waiting
on God, opening ourselves to God in the exercise of daily living
and the prayers of the Christian community, and pursuing justice
and shalom for all who dwell on the earth? Is this not our
tradition and ultimately all that matters? Aren't these the things
that make for peace?
     The fundamental issue for United Methodism today is not
leadership. It is our identity as a church. It is how we see
ourselves in relation to Christ and to other people. It is whether
we see ourselves as individuals who receive the truth and then
live it or whether our identity is a community of Christ followers
who learn as we go, who work it out as we live it out, and who
hold both our leaders and ourselves responsible and accountable
for increasingly higher levels of radical faithfulness.
     In this context, leadership then becomes the significant
issue for us. Without leaders, we would have no one to help us
identify and hold our vision and create pathways to the promise --
God's promise in Christ.
     So praise God for new leaders! God help them to do what they
can do! And God help the rest of us to follow them and to do what
we can do!
     ... Think about it.
                              #  #  #

     * Jones is general secretary of the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn.

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