Professionalization of Faith and Politics

I never want to shy away from mixing faith and politics particularly when it makes for some good discourse. Now that President Obama has taken the oath of office, I've been thinking of some things that I believe are an indicator of where our culture currently is at. I'm not going to say that Americans are all about style over substance, though that argument can be made, but rather I am going to make an observation about our citizenry wanting professionals running the show both in government and maybe even in our churches.

I thought of this as I watched a recent interview with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. I'm sure there are those who were against Palin for reasons other than what I am about to bring up, still I have observed and heard in public debate from many casual voters (the determining voter factor in who will ultimately be elected) that Palin was "unqualified" to run for the second highest position in the free word. But upon close examination it was clear to me that these same casual voters were uncomfortable with Palin because she was just not professional enough. Before I go further let me give the reader of this blog a definition of terms. Most debate gets stifled because of a disagreement of how to define terms. I am using the term professional (perhaps incorrectly) more in the context of one who has high academic training and is an excellent communicator. As a "professional" Sarah Palin fell way short. She may have had a fan base who liked her for different reasons; endearing, mom, charasmatic, etc. but among the masses of non partisan voters she never had a chance.

What's wrong with this? Many who may accept my definition of professional may say, "What's wrong with electing politicians or having pastors for that matter who are high in academic training and excellent, even inspiring communicators?" Well, on first glance nothing. I thing leaders should be smart and know how to articulate their views. What is more problematic is how we place a premium on people being "more smart, more articulate" than what may be necessary. In life it would be ideal if all leaders were both good talkers and good doers. More often though there are talkers and there are doers. And just as the biblical book of James describes 'Faith without works being dead," likewise, reason would conclude that talking without doiing is dead.

Leadership requires making decisions. For a president of a country and a pastor of a church this requires executive ability. Many who have had this ability (hopefully along with ability and a dependance upon God) throughout history have not been the smoothe James Bond figure that Barrack Obama seems to be. Great leaders from history, if their lives would be brought to the silver screen, many would look rather "ordinary." But we live in a very visual world where a premium is placed on appearing "presidential" and Obama fits that mold beautifully. This world is far removed from the one where Eisenhower became president simply because he was a General and known as a great leader of men.

I lament this "professionalization of politics" and unfortunatly as in many other areas of culture people of faith seem to follow the same course. Consider the ministry of megachurch pastor Joel Osteen, who like Obama speeks of hope and many other feel good buzz terms, and looks great behind a pulpit. The only difference may be that people of faith don't seem quite as smitten with the academic credentials that political voters do. Whether this is a benefit or not means little to me. What does matter and what question we should be asking to our postmodern culture is....What role does character play in who we choose to be leaders in our secular and spiritual worlds?