Soothsayers and Prophets

Would-be leaders always arouse a bit of skepticism in me.

A cartoon I saw pictured a man running around and saying, "The people are on the march. I am their leader. I must find out where they are going , so that I can lead them." A more pointed observation was made in a recent article, "A leader tells the people what they want to hear." Perhaps the essence of leadership is the ability to articulate the crowd's desires.

Franklin D. Roosevelt did this with his comforting "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself", and "Happy Days Are Here Again." Ronald Reagan played on the popular mood with "Government can't solve our problems, government is the problem", and his promise to minimize government so we all could get rich. Hitler promised Germans wealth and power by eliminating the Jews from German society. Lenin and Trotsky, in 1917, won the support of the Russian people who, hungry and disheartened by the slaughter of their armies by the Germans, rallied to the slogan, "Bread and Peace."

Here at home, Carter and Mondale fell short because, instead of presenting a glittering future, they presented to the voters problems to be solved. The voters - or a majority of them - chose what they wanted, including horrendous government deficits, an increasing number of citizens condemned to miserable poverty, and a mounting promise of mass suicide in nuclear war in a world wide shoot out. Any ethical criticism of the government now becomes a criticism of ourselves and therefore is unacceptable.

This business of telling people what they want to hear brings to mind a story in the Bible (I Kings 20:1-40). Ahab, King of Israel, had a state visitor, Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, and asked his guest to bring his army to help Ahab recapture Ramoth-Gilead, an Israelite city held by Syria. Jehoshaphat agreed, but suggested they first ask fortune-tellers to prophesy concerning the expedition. Four hundred of the seers met and told Ahab, "Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the King." Jehosaphat was skeptical of such unanimity and asked whether a prophet of the Lord was anywhere available. Ahab replied there was one, named Micaiah, who also spoke evil of him. But, nevertheless, he sent for the prophet.

The messenger found Micaiah and said to him, "Micaiah, the King wants to go to war to recapture Ramoth-Gilead. He is going to do it, and four hundred seers have told him he will be victorious. Now, Micaiah, have a little sense. You're one against all of them. What you say won't change a thing. Be agreeable, go along with the crowd. Speak favorably of the King's venture and don't be a trouble-maker."

Micaiah replied, "What the Lord says to me, that will I speak." In a dramatic confrontation with Ahab and the soothsayers Micaiah predicts that Ahab will be killed, his army scattered, and Israel left leaderless. Ahab was infuriated and orders the governor of the city, "Put this fellow in prison, and feed him on scant bread and water until I come in peace." He went up to Ramoth-Gilead and was killed by a random arrow. The only words Ahab heard were those he wanted to hear.

It is interesting to note that with all the acclaim whipped up for the present political administration's programs as it moves to recapture a past - a figurative Ramoth-Gilead - the most consistent evaluation and critique of them comes from the leadership of Churches, both Protestant and Catholic, and the Synagogues which put loyalty to God above self-interest and popular pressures. The basis for that criticism is the dearth of ethical concern in those programs.

An English divine of the seventeenth century, Bishop Butler, once told his flock, "I do not want to make you happy, for to make you happy I would have to pamper your vices."

It's comforting to choose soothsayers over prophets, but it can have tragic results.