Saturday, March 12, 2005
He is trusted in all My house; you, on the other hand, are not
In Keeping Accounts, Gilah Langner addresses the lack of trust in leadership by the average person and how a leader (in this case, Moses) can and should address the concerns of his people. The applicability to modern society is obvious as never in this country's history has there been a greater need for our leadership to be open, honest and earn the trust of our citizens.
The current President of this country, George W. Bush, sets aside his relationship with G-d in a way significantly different than previous Presidents. While Bush, many Republican politicians (Santorum, Frist, et. al.) and the leadership of "religious right" set themselves up a prophets of G-d, many of us (religious and not) see G-d being used as a tool by these leaders.
It's interesting that Supreme Court arguments over the Ten Commandments took place in the midst of the part of the Torah cycle we're reading Exodus. As Langner points out, the 10 commandments takes up mere verses where construction of the tabernacle takes up chapters. In today's society, we have leadership that chooses to focus on maintaining a public showing of religion with an argument that government that doesn't openly support religion is one that is hostile to it (there is no room for neutrality in their world) while ignoring the larger obligation to actually serve their constituents. Moses chose a very different approach. Aware of the scrutiny and concern (legitimate for leadership in general, if not for him in particular), he made a full and public accounting.
Anyone can claim to have the tacit approval and trust of G-d. Anyone can claim to speak for G-d. Moses was not all fluorish & show with empty, inconsistent action. Moses showed his humanity and proved his connection to G-d by his words, the consistency of his actions, and the visible, positive results of them. The same cannot be said for the current administration or leadership of the "religious right."
Tags:politics;Judaism;religionSphere: Related Content
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2 comments:
Excellent post. First time I've read your blog, but I'm bookmarking it to return to often. I'm a guest poster at a progressive Christian blog, faithforward (link in my profile), and I'd like to link to your post. Is that all right with you?
Thanks, that's a nice compliment coming from somone who works with Pastor Dan (who I just realized lives not too far from me - depending on your definition of far)! Link away :)
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