Why the Epidemic of Bad Leadership is our Own Fault

Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. 
Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say, 
 “Is not the Lord among us? Micah 3:11  

Western civilization is obsessed with the concept of leadership.  This fact was driven home recently as I passed through a Barnes and Noble bookstore. I wandered into the leadership section and found what appeared to be an unending supply of books on what I foolishly thought at the time was every possible aspect of leadership.

I was intrigued by the abundance of choices and I wanted to see if I could find more. So I did a quick Internet search. There I uncovered a plethora of far more specialized titles on the subject.

 I found books on the art of leadership, primal leadership (no, I’m not kidding), women and leadership, the history of leadership, future-focused leadership, leadership and ethics, courageous leadership, principal-centered leadership; leadership styles, and the perils of leadership. In subsequent searches I found 152,000,000 conferences and 465,000,000 articles for leaders and would-be leaders who lack the time, energy, or attention span for an entire book.

The absurd abundance of resources begs the question.

If we are so obsessed with leadership, why are there so many genuinely terrible leaders out there?

There are teachers and youth leaders who have sex with students; parents who abdicate decision-making to their kids; managers who mistreat employees; CEOs who swindle stockholders; legislators who lie; and pastors who steal, manipulate and spiritually abuse their flocks. Powerful but bungling politicians wring their hands and appear flummoxed as innocents die and the world spins out of control.  

This clear contradiction between the leadership we have and the availability of resources on the subject makes absolutely no sense, at least on the surface. After much thought I have concluded that we are at fault for the leadership we see all around us for four reasons.

Most of us don’t vote

 Every election year, 40 percent of the Americans who can vote choose not to. Sadly, this number includes many Christians who irrationally believe that it is better to vote for no one as opposed to the lesser of two evils. A vote for no one is not a noble decision to abstain from two bad choices. It is actually a default vote for the greater of the two evils.    

We value the wrong things in leaders

The vast majority of today’s leaders are well groomed, well educated, have adorable families, tell cute jokes, and own iPhones. Sadly, many are lacking integrity, wisdom, knowledge and a valid skill-set. They look good on television but couldn’t lead a brownie scout out of a long corridor with a flashlight and a map. This indicates that most of us value style over substance and do not wish to look beyond the surface when electing or hiring a leader.

We are tragically and willfully ignorant

A good chunk of today’s populace is uninformed on nearly every critical subject. This includes history, politics, the Bible, economics, and most current events that don’t involve a celebrity or natural disaster. This means that when the vast majority of people do cast a vote they are relying on either their opinions or their feelings. Their feelings are often based on what the ladies on The View tell them to think, surface issues (see above), misleading campaign ads, or the opinions of their equally uniformed friends. It’s appalling and wrong and it needs to change.

We want the wrong things

 Tragically, many Americans seem more interested in receiving free birth control, expanding the “right” to abort the unborn and smoking marijuana than in foreign policy and implementing sound economic principles. Most Christians have little interest in free birth control, expanding abortion or smoking marijuana. Nonetheless most of us do choose to stay ignorant of any issue that causes us to feel sad or helpless. We would much rather focus on our cool churches, individual families and messages that empower us to feel positive about our lives but teach us nothing of substance. Few are concerned with the integrity of leadership or the teaching of hard or unpleasant biblical truth.  As long as these facts continue to be true, we will have terrible leaders who give us exactly what we want and ignore the stuff that really matters.

As long the majority chooses to wallow in willful ignorance, care about all the wrong things and refuse to get involved, we will continue to get exactly what we deserve: leaders who tell us what they think we want to hear and do nothing good. It’s not too late to move things in a more optimistic direction. Midterm elections are in November. There is still time to get registered, get educated on the issues, get your butt to the ballot box and pray like crazy. What this world needs right now is some intelligent, informed Christians on their knees praying. 

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land~ 2^nd Chronicles 7:14 NIV