The Qualifications for Leadership

The latest scandals in the Houses of Parliament has thrown up a number of issues - not least the nature of leadership. The Members of Parliament who currently are being hounded about their expenses claims are, sadly, our leaders. Some have emerged with honour. Many have not emerged at all. But what has become clear is that the way MPs behave matters. It is not enough that they follow the letter of the law - even their own laws that they've set for themselves. What they are being castigated for is the plain old sin of greed.

It is interesting their expenses are going to be handled by an 'independent body'. Presumably this is a body that we can all trust. But one would hope that the House of Commons was filled with people we already all trust to get on with this sort of thing. This is not only being shown to be not the case - there is no question of it ever being the case in the future, since the body is being set up so that MPs are being checked by other 'independent' people (as opposed to those chosen by the people).

This whole tawdry affair has, for a while at least, done away with the nonsensical view that what MPs do in their 'private lives' can and should have no bearing on their roles as MPs. A number of people consistently push this line - that a politician can live their life one way, but operate as a politician in a different way. For example, sending their children to private school when their party despises paid-for education. Or refusing to reveal whether your child had the MMR jab during their hysteria of previous. It is false.

The myth is that leadership skills exist apart from character and virtue - as if a politician is able to manage a government department when his own household is a mess and his friends think he's an over-ambitious idiot.

The qualifications for leadership in the Bible could not be more different. They are all about character and conduct. This is not to say that the qualifications for secular governance should be same as the those of Bible teachers and pastors. But it would be a good place to start, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be great if our MPs were like the leaders highlighted in Titus 1:7-8:

Blameless, not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. A hospitable lover of good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

I'd vote for that guy.