Taking Out The Power & Putting Love In Its Place

I've been reading Tony Campolo's Choose Love Not Power:  How to Right the World's Wrongs from a Place of Weakness with my sons, Andrew and Zachary.  We've done this a few times since they've been away at school.  What struck me was a passage in Campolo's book in which he chastises followers of Jesus for not taking Philippians 2:5-11 seriously enough.  We know how Jesus emptied himself of his vast power in order to become one of us, in order to rescue us from ourselves.  He did it with humility, servanthood, and sacrifice.  So why do so many of us ignore our Master's model and try to get and keep as much of an upper hand over others as we can?

Here's the quote.  You can chew on it for yourself:

Christians do not always take warnings about power seriously.

There are husbands who think it is their right to exercise power over their wives, and there are wives who, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, play power games with their husbands

There are children who try to exercise power as they challenge the controlling efforts of their parents, and there are parents who regularly tyrannize their children.

There are pastors who try to dominate their parishioners, and church members who try to manipulate their pastors.

There are employers who enjoy bossing their employees, and employees who from unions just so they can strike back and dictate policies to their employers.

There white people who fear losing their power over African-Americans, and African-Americans who turn cries of “Freedom now!” into shouts of “Black power!”

There politicians who compromise anything to stay in power, and there are candidates who, in challenging those politicians, use any deception to wrest power from the incumbents.

There are nations that, in order to become world powers, willingly threaten the survival of the human race by building war machines, and there are world leaders who would push the buttons for all-out nuclear war if they thought their power was being threatened.  (Campolo, pp. 12-13)

In the middle of a rough and tumble political season, it might make sense of Christians took a step back and prayed not for a particular candidate or party's success, but prayed instead that all our candidates might come to see the value of tempering the exercise of power with the example and leadership of love and sacrifice.  I pray that we can all change our tone in this direction, and soon, before the polarization of our society over the little things that separate us lead us to turn our backs on the important principles and overarching compassion that unite us.