The Use and Abuse of Power

The scriptures referred to are scattered throughout the sermon.

St. Augustine of Hippo wrote of seeing a baby jealous of another who was suckling at its mother's breast and that, to him, was a prime example of original sin. Since Augustine was astute, I think we can infer that the baby was not starving but just didn't like seeing the other kid get Mom's attention like that. And certainly we see that babies and toddlers tend to be selfish. If they want a toy, they grab it, even out of the hands of another kid. In time they grow enough to learn empathy for others. They see someone sad and they go to comfort them. They wince when they see someone else get hurt. I wish I could say that all do but some people never grow out of that “The world is all about me” stage. They become narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths.

But even those of us who do have a conscience will find ourselves in a position where we want something from someone. And if the person is not immediately cooperative, we start calculating how to use our strengths to get it. If we are a good negotiator, we might try to trade for it. If we are rich, we might try to buy it. If we are persuasive we try to talk them into it. If we are manipulative, we might try to use charm or emotional blackmail to get it. If we are sneaky, we may try to steal it. If we have authority over them, we might demand it. And if we are physically stronger, we might just take it.

In the world we often see those who have an advantage over others use that power to take what they want from them. And from a purely naturalistic viewpoint, why shouldn't they? Lions don't ask for food; they just kill it. Similarly, to make a nursing lioness more receptive to sex, a new male taking over the pride will often kill the cubs of his predecessor. Pods of male dolphins will corral and rape females. In nature, the strong simply take what they want. Why do we object to this when we see the same thing in humans? Aren't we just animals?

Many scientists would say we are simply that: biological organisms whose primary drive is to live and to perpetuate our species. We approach every other organism with the underlying questions of the 4 Fs: should we fight it, flee it, feed upon it or fertilize it? We are social animals so I suppose we could add another F: should we friend it? We are not the strongest of predators, nor the fastest, nor do we have fangs or claws. We have gotten to the top of the food chain by cooperating. One man has little chance of bringing down a wooly mammoth but a group of them with special weapons and a strategy can. And some scientists have postulated that this is why we think of how things affect not just ourselves but our group. We might even sacrifice ourselves for the good of the group, especially if they consist primarily of our offspring and kin. Dogs will risk their lives for the pack. Your pet dog will, too, for it considers you and your family its pack.

What is really hard to explain is altruism that goes beyond the boundaries of kinship. Like Ashley Aldridge. The 19 year old mother of 2 looked out of the window of her mobile home and saw a man in a wheelchair trying to cross some railroad tracks. His wheelchair got stuck. He called for help but two cars and motorcycle just passed him at the crossing. Hearing a train horn, Ashley ran barefoot through gravel to help the man. With the train just a half a mile away, Ashley tried to move the handicapped man's wheelchair but it wouldn't budge. She wrapped her arms around his chest and tried to lift the man but couldn't. At the last possible second she heaved again, falling backwards but taking him with her. The train, traveling at 80 miles an hour, reduced the wheelchair to shattered and scattered pieces of metal and plastic. Ashley saved a complete stranger but almost left her 1 and 3 year old children motherless. What motivates such altruism? You might go into a burning building to save your children or grandchildren but why do some people risk their lives for people who are not related to them or not of their race or nationality or religion? Why become a firefighter or a combat medic or a disaster worker? Why give one of your kidneys to someone you don't know?

There are differences in the brains of the very altruistic just as there are in the brains of psychopaths. The right amygdala, the brain structure connected with the perception of emotion and the control of aggression, is about 8% larger in the extraordinarily altruistic and a lot more active than the average person's, making them more empathetic. Psychopaths have smaller amygdalae as well as other brain deficits. So technically both psychopaths and extreme altruists are abnormal, in the same way that both the developmentally disabled and geniuses are also out of the norm. Does that mean we can mentally sideline such people? Can we say “There is no way that I can be that altruistic so why bother?”

Think about how that would sound coming from an athlete or a singer or an artist. “Since I will never be as good as LeBron James, I might as well give up playing sports.” “Since I will never be as good as Renee Fleming, I might as well give up singing.” “Since I will never be as good as Barbara Brown Taylor, I might as well give up writing sermons.” Thinking that way kills aspiration. It doesn't matter whether you can be as far along the spectrum as someone else. The world already has plenty of people who are not really trying their best. That's why laziness is one of the 7 deadly sins. Besides you don't know your potential until you try. Who was the greatest athlete when LeBron started out? Whose excellence stoked up the ambition of Renee Fleming? Who inspired Barbara Brown Taylor? You might surpass the person who lit the fire in you. And even if you don't reach the pinnacle, you can still be pretty darn good.

There is even hope for psychopaths. In a study of 561 children whose birth mothers had a history of antisocial behavior, in other words, children who had a higher probability to inherit the brain of a psychopath, those raised in warm and nurturing adoptive families were less likely to exhibit the kind of callous-unemotional traits that mark the psychopath. The Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center in Wisconsin works with teenagers who have long criminal records, by focusing not on punishing bad behavior but on rewarding the good. Again they see improvements in precisely those traits that make these kids a threat to others. (To read more about all this, go to the National Geographic article here.)

So we are not condemned to act the way we see in nature and in so many societies where might makes right, where the powerful usually get their way and get away with it. Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)

In fact, those who follow Jesus should look out for those people who are the least powerful in society: the sick, the disabled, the poor, the hungry, the homeless, prisoners, aliens, widows and fatherless children. Jesus routinely blessed children and said those who seek to enter the kingdom of God must adopt the trusting attitude of a child.

That's why it is dismaying to hear about the ongoing scandal in the Roman Catholic church. The latest report is that hundreds of priests sexually abused thousands of children. And what makes this especially evil is that these men, having a position supposedly based on their spiritual power, used that to manipulate children into satisfying their desires and to stay quiet about it. And in those rare cases where bishops were told about this abuse, they simply moved the priests to unsuspecting parishes.

It is the systematic protection of these predators by a worldwide church that is so reprehensible. You expect a few people to behave badly in any group. As it turns out studies show that only 4% of Catholic priests have abused children. That falls within the estimated 1 to 5% range of pedophiles in the general population. And in doing my research I found that no one has done a study to find out how many teachers are pedophiles, although that is another profession that has been in the spotlight for sexual abuse of children. And we are hearing more and more of coaches and sports doctors abusing young athletes. Pedophilia is a big problem in our world. 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys are sexually abused, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime.

But the difference is that people in the church should, of all people, be protectors of children, not exploiters of them. They knew this was wrong or they wouldn't have tried to cover it up. Moreover, there is a saying of Jesus that should have burned in the hearts of those who would have to preach on it. After speaking of welcoming children in his name, Jesus said, “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6) One definition of the Greek word translated “stumble” is “to fall away.” And indeed these wolves in sheep's clothing have caused many of these abused children to lose their faith. I don't know how they continued to work as priests knowing the harm they have done to these little ones whom Jesus expressly said should not be ensnared (the literal meaning of that Greek word).

I am not going to get into a discussion of celibacy, especially since outside the Roman Catholic church most pedophiles are married men. Rather I want to again underline that Christians are to protect, aid and nurture the powerless, not take advantage of them. If there is one common theme in the pedophile scandal and the #MeToo movement, it is that people too often abuse their power to force someone else to give them pleasure. And in case you thought this was exclusively the province of one gender, it has been revealed that powerful women can also sexually harass students, younger actors and employees. As Lord Acton observed more than century ago, power tends to corrupt. And, I might add, it is an equal opportunity corrupter.

God is the champion of the underdog. In the Psalms it says “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing...” (Psalm 68:5-6) In Isaiah it says, “For you are a protector for the poor, a protector for the needy in distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat...” (Isaiah 25:4) In Leviticus God commands, “Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind but fear your God. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:14) In the same chapter God says, “Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.” And “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19: 32-33) That refrain of “I am the Lord” doesn't follow every command in that passage, just ones that God wants to emphasize. It's like he is saying, “I am serious about this.” How serious? In Jeremiah it says, “'...they do not plead the cause of the fatherless that they might prosper; they do not defend the rights of the poor. Should I not punish them for this?' declares the Lord. 'Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?'” (Jeremiah 5:28-29) That's how serious he is.

And notice that God is invoking empathy in Leviticus. He tells his people to love the foreigner living among them as themselves because “you were aliens in Egypt.” In other words, use your experience and your imagination and put yourself in the other person's place. When Ashley Aldridge saved the man in the wheelchair on the train tracks, she denied being a hero; she was just helping someone. She said she did it “because if that was my grandpa, I would hope somebody would help him too.” That's very close to Jesus' saying that “whatever you did to the least of these, my siblings, you did to me.” (Matthew 25:40)

And this principle of God identifying with the powerless didn't start with Jesus. In Proverbs it says, “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” (Proverbs 14:31) And “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.” (Proverbs 19:17) This goes all the way back to when God tells Noah that murder is wrong because God made humans in his image. (Genesis 9:6) What we do or neglect to do to our fellow human beings we do or neglect to do to God.

Christians are called to help those who are in need, who are unfortunate, who are powerless. We are not to take advantage of those over whom we have power, be they poor, or of a different gender or race or religion and especially if they are children. I am becoming increasingly convinced that we have the society we do largely because of the way we treat children. Poor children do not learn to save because when you are poor you have nothing left over to save. Everything goes for food and shelter and the basics. They do not make good choices as adults because they were not offered good choices as children. They focus on what is the least bad choice. Science tells us that poverty lowers your IQ. Frequent toxic stress affects the developing brain and makes it difficult to learn. Abuse and neglect and a chaotic home life for a child will lead to an adult who has a much higher risk of chronic disease, depression, suicide, violent behavior or becoming the victim of violent behavior, social, emotional and legal problems. To paraphrase Alexander Pope, as the twig is bent so grows the tree. I think when the Bible speaks of the sins of the fathers being visited upon the children for generations, it is not speaking of what God desires but describing how these things actually play out in the world. Kids subconsciously imitate the behavior they see in and experience from adults. Many child abusers were themselves abused. We don't remove the chains and then wonder why they don't do better in the race. We punish those dealt a bad hand for not playing it better.

When the church appears to be heartless towards those without power it hurts the gospel. One of the reasons people are leaving churches while still saying they are spiritual is because of the many high-profile betrayals of our principles by those who say they are Christians. Jesus said that the world will know we are his followers by our love. And I still think that is true. Those actually following Jesus demonstrate love for others. People who abuse power rather than use their might for right are likely those who will on the last day call Jesus “Lord, Lord” only to have him say, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.” (Matthew 7:21-23)

I want to end with this clarion call from the book of Proverbs 31:8-9: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”