Politics and Being Good Shepherds

Ezekiel 34:10. 0 shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the

sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable

for my flock.  We elected the President and members of Congress with the idea they would be good shepherds for “We the People." Somewhere between being elected and being in office, Congress and the President seem to have lost touch with being good shepherds.

Not a surprise after all, as Luke 16:2,10,13 states: “And he called him and said to him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous in much. You cannot serve both God and mammon.” Our shepherds in Congress and the White House have not been good stewards recently. Shepherding "we the people" has been mired by partisan politics and worries about the upcoming 2012 elections. Then again how can Congress or the President truly be one of “We the People” when the Congressional starting salary in 2007 was $97,500 and they get their own health care for free for the rest of their lives? Is it any wonder they don't want to raise taxes on those who make over $100,000 a year? Then you add for the president, you're own mansion, bodyguards for life, armored limousine, private 747, your own helicopter, all paid for by the tax payers.  Singer/Songwriter John Stewart once wrote "It's time to tell the children that it's not about the rings that we put upon the fingers of the man who would be king." What if President Obama and the members of Congress had to live as one of “we the people:”

·       What if they had to live on $1000 a month in Social Security?

·       What if when they do not do their jobs (i.e. pass a balanced budget, decrease costs, increase taxes on the wealthy) they're fired without benefits and have to file for unemployment.

·        What if their employer cut out their healthcare benefits and instead they had to pay for individual plans at almost $300 a month if they can get it with their pre-existing medical conditions. When 55 is the average age of Congress.

·       What if they were teachers in a classroom trying to create lesson plans that comply with district, state and federal No Child Left Behind while dealing with the school having no money for any supplies?

LBJ and FDR tried to be good stewards for the country during the course of 2 very difficult wars. They put the country’s interests ahead of their own interests. Perhaps President Obama and the Congress could take a few lessons on being good shepherds from FDR & LBJ and three former presidents and a former White House staffer.

As Former President Gerald Ford said “I was in the House of Representative for 25 ½ years and I disagreed with the occupant of the White House whether he was Democrat or Republican. I used to say ‘How can he be so autocratic, so dictatorial why doesn’t he understand that the Congress is doing the right thing. Well, when I moved from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other end and occupied the oval office my perspective changed significantly and then I would look down at the congress and say ‘what are those people doing over there? How can they be so irresponsible?’ ”

As former President Jimmy Carter said “The fear of failure by the President or his staff is one of the deterring factors in making courageous decisions and if you take a chance and fail there’s no doubt it’s a deleterious effect on your popularity but if you take and chance and succeed it’s very good. It’s always a danger you have to take. One of the things that any top leader needs is to have people whom you trust that will actually tell you the brutal truth even if it’s contrary to what your desires and beliefs may be.”  So it seems they are faced with the preverbal double edged sword. In other words Mr. President and Congress “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” You cannot serve your own self interests and partisan politics and still serve “We the people” who elected you.

David Gergen White House Advisor to Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton provides us with a great definition of being a good shepherd for the country. Gergen gives the example of Harry Truman’s decision to desegregate the military in 1948 against counsel from his advisors “He was a model of saying ‘let’s put the country first and we’ll worry about the election later.”

Author's note: for more information on Congressional benefits go to: http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL30631.pdf