Moving Toward A Cess Pool of Public Servants

With the recent trashing of Supreme Court nominee Harriett Meiers and now the impending trashing of Samuel Alito, and the perpetual trashing of the President and anyone else in public office, we are setting ourselves up for what I believe will be the gradual ruin of our entire representative system.

Let me explain. People who run for public office realize that they are in the spotlight and as such they are fair game for question and criticism. I certainly have no problem with that. If you can’t take the heat, as the old saw goes, then get out of the kitchen. But our civilization has lost its civility.

We seem unable to exercise critical judgment interacting with ideas and concepts, policies and procedures and instead, major on ripping the heart and soul out of anyone with whom we disagree. The collective goal anymore is not to show weaknesses or inaccuracies with assessments and plans but to so berate, harass and excoriate a person—or their families--at the core of their existence such that they are bludgeoned out of the arena of public discourse and public consideration.

And here is the problem. People who are truly decent people, even virtuous people are that way because they understand, at some level, the true priorities of life in the grand scheme of things. As such they are willing to go only so far in the conscienceless arena of public service and then, properly understanding that some things just truly aren’t worth it, they will abstain from putting themselves in those positions.

The only caliber of person this leaves in what will become a cess pool of people willing to run for office, is the meanest, nastiest, most soulless people our culture has as they see nothing greater in this life than the unmitigated quest for power. If that means putting their families through hell to get it and keep it, or if it means lying and cheating and conniving, and even selling one’s soul, so be it! Whatever it takes, that is what you do.

Which means increasingly, the choices for our leaders at all levels will not be the very best but the very worst the culture has to offer. We are so close to that point I want to go hole up in a cave somewhere. We are in for nasty times.

Most Christians Clueless About Culture

Well, it’s over! At lest for now. I’m referring of course to the successful campaign of Governor Baldacci to ram-rod a piece of vaguely worded, needless legislation down the throats of Maine’s sensible citizens. This bill was never about discrimination but about normalizing a lifestyle that demeans everything most holy and sacred.

This isn’t sour grapes mind you, yet even if it was, some things are so important that the notion of losing with honor and dignity mocks the seriousness of this new law. After all, this election wasn’t simply about allocating more money for building a new bridge or upgrading a high school. It was about turning centuries of sexual, social, cultural normalcy on their ear.

It is about calling good, bad and bad, good and in the words of Jeremiah the prophet, “Woe be unto the people who do so—thus sayeth the Lord.”

But I have a challenge for the people who wear the name of Christ. Even though this is about 30 years too late, we need to pull our heads out of the clouds and take some initiative to understand—first the Bible; second God’s plan for our lives, and third the cultural issues of the day. And I’m sorry but that takes work on all counts.

I am confident we lost this vote because all many Bible believing Christians knew, and cared to know about was summed up on the “Please Vote No” campaign sign. I was dumbfounded how many Christians thought the law was; first--needed and second--a good thing because discrimination is “bad.”

So let me put it straight without any sugar coating. We are at this place in our society in part because the church bailed out of its culture, keeping it’s collective noses buried in our Bibles gaining ever more knowledge, but rarely making the connection to where and how that knowledge applies to everyday life. In short—we bear much of the responsibility for the low estate of our state’s values.

If there is any hope for our immediate futures, a massive transformation of mindset of people of true faith is going to have to change. Of that I am not hopeful.