Tag Archives: faith

Whose “Real World”? Power, Morality, and the Prophetic Challenge

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My present early-morning discipline begins with sustained reading of a biblical prophet—currently Hosea—followed by attentive engagement with the news, especially stories that resonate with or resist the prophetic witness. Using a reflective practice inspired by my late friend, theologian Ted Jennings, I then pray and reflect, seeking discernment, guidance, and courage to live and serve amid the dissonance between God’s vision and the world’s realities.

In recent weeks, that dissonance has come into sharp focus around two governing assumptions that dominate public life and stand in direct tension with the witness of the Hebrew prophets.

The first is the claim that might makes right: that coercive military and economic power defines the “real world” and is therefore the path to security, order, and peace. This conviction was stated plainly by a senior government official: “We live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, by force, by power… These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”*

The second assumption is that individual moral judgment is the final arbiter of truth and goodness. When asked what restrains the exercise of his power, the President replied: “There is one thing—my own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”**

Though voiced by political leaders, these are not merely political claims. They are philosophical, theological, and ethical affirmations. They operate across political parties, national borders, and economic systems. They appear within every major religion. And their temptations lie in wait within every human heart.

Power understood as coercive domination and morality reduced to personal preference are as old as the Garden of Eden and the Pharaohs of Egypt—and as contemporary as the streets of Minneapolis and today’s power-centric leaders.

Against this vision, the Hebrew prophets—and Jesus who stands firmly in their tradition—bear witness to a radically different understanding of power and moral life. Power is not domination but covenantal responsibility. Moral truth is not self-generated but grounded in the character of God and ordered toward justice, compassion, and the flourishing of the vulnerable.

The prophets and Jesus insist that true power serves rather than subdues, and that moral truth is discerned not by private assertion but through concrete practices of justice, mercy, accountability, and humility before God. The decisive test of both power and morality is revealed in how individuals, communities, and nations treat the poor, the stranger, the oppressed, and the powerless.

Set against domination and moral autonomy, the prophets and Jesus announce an alternative to the love of power and the protection of privilege: the power of love embodied in concrete policies and practices that reflect the character and will of God.

The belief that domination secures peace and that morality belongs to the individual alone is not progress but idolatrous regression—an echo of Eden’s rebellion and Pharaoh’s empire.

According to the biblical witness, God’s real world calls for continual repentance from our captivity to domination and self-justifying morality, and for renewed commitment to acts of compassion, justice, mercy, accountability, and peace.

We move toward God’s real world not by force, but by faithfulness—confident that justice is not an illusion, truth is not optional, and love is stronger than fear. As the prophetic tradition reminds us, the arc of the universe bends toward justice. Truth endures. Love prevails.

Whose “Real World” shall we choose?

*Stephen Miller interview with Jake Tapper, CNN, January 14, 2026

**President Donald Trump Interview with NYTIMES reports, January 14, 2026.

Choosing Leaders

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This election season challenges me to clarify the qualities of leadership that most closely reflect the core values of my faith, whether those being chosen are for government, the church, or institutions/agencies. Here are some qualities I look for. What’s on your list?

1. Personal Character and Temperament: truthfulness and reflections of “Fruits of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Leaders greatly influence the culture of the entity they lead. Power divorced from honesty, moral character, and mature temperament becomes manipulative, coercive, self-serving, and destructive, thereby thwarting the common good and inflicting suffering on others. 

2. Demonstrated Commitment to Justice as Equity, Fairness, and Enabling the Least and Most Vulnerable to Flourish as God’s Beloved Children. Developing and implementing policies that protect and enable the powerless to have access to God’s table of abundance strengthens the whole society. Merely protecting and advancing the privileges of the privileged fails the justice test and results in exploitation, inequity, abuse, and even death.

3. Proven Recognition of and Respect for the Inherent Worth, Dignity, and Wellbeing of Every Person. Leaders set the tone for how those they influence treat others. Using a biblical image, leaders are shepherds who know, defend, nurture, preserve, and guide others. On the other hand, “hirelings” fleece, exploit, abandon, deplete, and may even slaughter the sheep. The shepherd recovers and restores the weak; the hireling scatters and disregards the vulnerable. 

4. A Disciplined, Tough Mind and a Compassionate, Empathetic Heart. This is what Jesus described as being “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Leaders must exhibit both intellectual and social intelligence. Intellect without empathy humiliates and demeans; empathy without intellect risks enabling destructive behavior and being co-opted for nefarious purposes.

5. Compelling Vision for the Common Good and Sensible Strategy for Moving Toward the Vision. For me, the vision is defined in the biblical images of “the kingdom of God” and “the New Creation;” and it is embodied in the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Components include these:

▪ the dignity and worth of ALL persons are respected, preserved and nurtured.

▪ the interrelatedness, interdependence, and mutual flourishing of creation is respected.

▪ the oneness and unity of the human family is reflected in actions and policies.

▪ service ranks above profits, restoration surpasses retribution, and hope defeats despair.

I realize that no one fully embodies these qualities, and they may seem idealistic and unattainable. Admittedly, they are more aspirational than concretely visible in our polarized, fragmented, and violent world.

Yet, we need leaders at all levels whose aspirations transcend mere self-interest, acquiescence to things as they are, and cynical scorning of such ideals as freedom, compassion, respect, and justice for ALL.
                

Trying to Make Sense of My Life

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I’ve spent much time in recent years remembering and reflecting on events, relationships, and stories that have shaped who I am. It says a lot about my station in life. I’m poignantly aware of having exceeded by more than a decade my biblically allotted “three score years and ten.”

A few colleagues and several family members, including grandchildren, urged me to share stories from my life and more than sixty years of ordained ministry. It has been a daunting, emotional, frustrating, and yet healing process.

Reliving past struggles, mistakes, failures, hurts, griefs, disappointments, and losses resurfaces unresolved guilt and regrets. The grace I have proclaimed for six decades has been put to a test as a lived reality. Accepting forgiveness for myself is sometimes harder than extending it to others.

But the process of remembering, reflecting, and writing has been predominantly a source of healing, thanksgiving, and hope. I am in awe of the ineffable mystery and resilience of life. Each person’s finite story is mysteriously interwoven into an Infinite Story with limitless connections and possibilities.

Seemingly inconsequential events, encounters, or decisions in retrospect were life-transforming. “What ifs” are part of remembering: What if I had not gone to that conference? What if I had said “no” to a particular invitation? What if I had not enrolled in that school, or taken a different class, or entered an alternative vocation?

Life is a mysterious combination of choices made and conditions prescribed, situations over which we have control and circumstances beyond our control, the “givens” of nature and the influence of nurture.

Life is simply too complex, too interrelated, and mysterious to be fully described. Memory never records the totality of any incident and recall always reflects current contexts as much as the event itself.

Therefore, writing a memoir requires a stance of vulnerability and humility in remembering and interpreting the circumstances, experiences, events, perceptions, and relationships that constitute one’s life. The process is risky and fraught with temptations for distortion and misrepresentation.

The book, Shifting Margins: From Fear and Exclusion to Love and Belonging is my attempt to make sense of my own life. It began with simply putting memories on paper, starting with my earliest recalled experiences and moving through seven decades. Reviewing journals and accumulated files of correspondence and other documents resurfaced forgotten events, transitional experiences, and relationships. The result was almost six hundred pages!

With the help of a skilled editor (who happens to be my daughter), identifying themes, and creating a coherent and readable manuscript followed. Reducing the manuscript by two-thirds became symbolic of my reality. Life’s experiences are narrowing. The circle of engagement and involvement is diminishing. Physical energy is declining. Cognitive functioning remains but with less quickness and retention. The end is far closer than the beginning!

After all this remembering and reflecting, I have concluded that perhaps the goal isn’t to make sense of life. Rather, it is to participate in its unfolding mystery with love, perseverance, and hope.

Whatever the stage, there are opportunities to give and receive love. There are challenges to confront with determination and courage. There is hope that our stories ultimately fold into God’s Story of Endless Love and Resurrection Life.

To order Shifting Margins, https://www.marketsquarebooks.com/store/p123/Shifting_Margins.html