I usually like to read at least a couple of books at a time, just in case one isn’t as interesting as the other. And I like to make sure they are different kinds or different genres of books. So, right now, I am reading The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, which is about the increasing extremism within the evangelical political movement, and The Folly and the Glory, which is an excellent brief history of the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War. As I have read through these very different books, I found a striking commonality that is not encouraging, but is insightful.
In The Folly and the Glory, by Tim Weiner, the author begins at the inception of the CIA, which evolved as an extension of the intelligence work in World War II, except the antagonist is now the Soviet Union. The Soviets worked quickly at the end of the war to set up governments in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world that would essentially be satellites of Soviet control. To challenge the growing Soviet empire, the newly established CIA began engaging in what it called, “political warfare.” Weiner writes that the goal of this new kind of warfare was to “combat Soviet subversion, counter neutralism,” and promote US interests.” In a report to President Eisenhower the leaders of the CIA wrote, “The dissemination of truth is not enough,” thus the need for political warfare. (p. 38)
Weiner details in the chapters that follow numerous episodes in the history of the CIA where duly elected governments were overthrown and replaced with some truly horrendous people who simply favored the United States over Russia. It wasn’t that these leaders held democratic values. Indeed, some of those put into office were some of the worst dictators in human history and the damage they did to their countries is still deeply felt. But the CIA had no other choice because the truth was not persuasive enough to convince others to opt for US interests over Soviet interests. It was the quest for power with the absence of truth.
The other book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, is by Tim Alberta who travels the country to interview various evangelical leaders. Most of those he interviewed were believers in some form of White Christian Nationalism, which seeks Christian control of the US government as the primary way to live faithfully to their version of Christianity; a version that is antithetical to biblical Christianity in my humble opinion.
One of the leaders he interviewed was Ralph Reed and he talked with him during the Georgia Senate runoff between Rev. Raphael Warnock and football star Herschel Walker. If you recall, Walker ran a dreadful campaign because he was a dreadful candidate. Reports came out almost weekly about Walker, a supposedly “pro-life” candidate, who paid multiple girlfriends to get abortions. He also refused to care for or even acknowledge the children he had. Of course, one of his advisors was Reed.
If Reed’s name sounds familiar it’s because he led the Christian Coalition in the 1990s in opposition to President Bill Clinton, who, they believed, was unfit for office because of his character. Yes, I said they were opposed to Clinton because of his character flaws while at present, Reed unflinchingly serves people like trump and Walker.
You really can’t make some of this stuff up.
When confronted by Alberta with this blatant hypocrisy Reed shrugs it off and basically says that evangelical voters are self-interested and don’t really care about character or honesty as much as they do the culture war issues. Of course, Reed thinks we should ignore the fact that followers of Jesus are called to be Christ and other interested (remember the 2 most important commandments?), rather than motivated solely by self-interests. But as with the CIA, the quest for power absent a priority for the truth leads to destruction.
We are witnessing this right now.
If your politics degrades the importance of honesty then you have a degraded politics. But a politics absent of authenticity isn’t just about individual corruption; this kind of public engagement is corruptive to all it touches. We see this through the calamitous actions of the CIA in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, and so many other places where US interests brought about great devastation and destruction to generations of Indonesians, Vietnamese, Iranians, Guatemalans, Congolese, and so many more. Destruction has also been inflicted by White Christian Nationalists, who seek to destroy everything and everyone that does not adhere exactly with their rigid dogma; a dogma that is built on an obsessive need to maintain their hold on political, cultural, and economic power.
Power without truth is deadly and it happens when those who want power or want to hold on to power realize that what they believe is no longer persuasive. Even though the CIA and White Christian Nationalists might claim to believe in free markets, they end up using manipulation, coercion, or even violence to preserve their interests because they know the truth is not enough. And that is how we know how weak their arguments really are. Anyone who has to result to force to persuade simply is not persuasive.
For those of us who want to hold on to the truth regardless of whether it leads to ensuring power or not Jesus promises us one thing: the truth shall set us free. Freedom is given us not because we attain power. Freedom comes to us because God loves us and has set us free. Freedom, love, truth. That is powerful enough for me.
