In recent decades we have witnessed frequently a high degree of disharmony in the plans of many leaders from civilised countries. They have not only been contradicting each other, but some of their plans have been sharply resisting others' plans as well. Imagine the destiny of a community whose leaders are ill equipped, resisting their own leadership style with contradictory plans and approaches. What can then be expected to happen in the midst of their community? It is obvious that a spirit of conflict and rivalry will prevail. Harmony and peace will be dismissed and the means of discord and polarisation will dominate.
We all know what happens in countries with dictatorships, how leaders put themselves at the center of everything and force people to take their side. Even leaders in some western countries have been imposing themselves on their citizens and coercing them to take a position without testing the validity or truth of that view. Leadership has become more like emotional or political propaganda that compels people to join a party or group without a clear picture of the end result of their case. Not many of our contemporary leaders are interested in facing the real issues of our time and investing in discovering real remedies for problems. Their plans are nothing but fantasies and their approaches nothing but punching air. They love to spend their time on superficial things just to keep people emotionally engaged. A classic example would be how much concern and discussion was aired by some US leaders over whether there should be free access to opposite gender toilets!
When a leader is ill-equipped or unable to address the real needs of his people the result is confusion and no solid majority standard. A leader without a sound and stable moral code is more difficult to hold accountable to their own integrity. Unfortunately, many leaders in the West have disassociated themselves from Christian morality. Instead, they operate according to a fluid, relativist morality and rule randomly, thereby justifying whatever the consequences of their leadership decisions may be.
Such an unpredictable leadership will be the cause of divisions, indifference, discord, disloyalties, ethnic rivalry, discrimination, hatred, violence and wickedness. These evils will penetrate every sphere of national culture, progressively turning it into a culture of death and, in this way, blocking the path to unity and peace. No society can become healthy with such an erratic leadership that paves the way for doing evil.
One confusion that seems to dominate among our contemporary leaders is around Globalization and Multiculturalism. These are two popular ideologies that are, in practice, in conflict with one another. On one hand, leaders claim to be committed to a ‘global’ doctrine for political and economic co-operation. On the other hand, internally, they proclaim the sovereignty of the doctrine of ‘multiculturalism’, in which full freedom is given to each individual culture to run its own course. This is argued on the grounds of the belief that sectarianism must be avoided at all costs.
Think about the war against Climate Change by Western leaders. They have been marching ahead to obligate all nations and people groups to follow their particular climate-friendly agenda. But at the same time the same leaders have not only been defending the establishment of Islam in the West, but also have allowed huge amounts of taxpayers’ dollars to be invested for the formation of this religion’s Sharia. Unfortunately Sharia does not want non-Muslims to breath fresh air, but wants them to be suffocated for simply not joining Islam!
How many millions of dollars have been invested in the last three decades by Western leaders to get their environmental agenda embraced worldwide? It’s huge! These so-called civilized Western leaders have been trying to influence the minds of the leaders of developing and underdeveloped countries to introduce greater openness and dynamism into their closed cultures by getting them to start protecting their domestic environment for the benefit of the entire world’s population. Their messages about Climate Change tell us, though only theoretically, that we are now living in a global village where the self-centeredness of a group or of developing nations will be a cost to others. On this basis they argue that these developing nations should not use technology in a selfish way and at the cost of others’ rights and well-being. But alas, we wish the leaders in the West would be just as candid about the importance of 'worldview' in their approach to the leaders of developing nations. This might help these leaders to better understand the significance of the relationship between cultural practices and environment. Surely this might help the developing nations to take climate initiatives that would advance consistent targets at home and abroad. Alas, this is not what we have seen in the past decades.
The problem lies at the root of their beliefs and philosophies. Most Western leaders believe in evolution and random natural selection, meaning that everything happens by chance and there cannot be a reliable man-made plan, including a plan for Climate Change., After all, nature is in control and is the driving force in life. You see, these leaders do not believe in the capacity of humankind to write a deliverable plan. Neither do they believe in the existence of any pre-made or Divine plan. The bottom line is that they hold to a doctrine of ‘the inevitability of gradualism’ that will take its course. Yet, they still try to impose plans and ask others to respect their plans. Isn’t this strange? A total contradiction between their philosophies, their plans and their actions.
This is why they struggle to bring their promises to reality and deliver their political pledges. Firstly, they do not have a sound belief system to underpin their plans. Secondly, they defeat their own (globalization) plans by asserting sovereign power to every cultural group at home, without asking them to be open to integration. A good example of this is the sovereign power that they have given to Islamists to hold onto their closed, intolerant and restrictive beliefs even though that is contradictory to the dynamic of globalization. They proclaim loudly that they are globally caring leaders, but miss the point that Islamists have historically not cared for harmony. Rather, they care for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate to force the world to bow down to their 7th century AD nomadic culture of Mecca.
So you see that, on one hand, Western leaders have been aiming to assert their power and demand the right to pursue their agendas for the future of the planet - all in the name of global harmony - but on the other hand, they have been undermining themselves at home via multiculturalism which gives power to groups like the Islamists, not only to disregard the significance of environmental issues, but the future of the world for non-Muslim citizens. What a contradiction! That’s why Islamic terrorism has been advancing globally alongside the proclamation of ‘globalization’ (worldwide-harmony). This contradiction has been palpable for three decades now. Islamists realize that leaders in the West are no longer governing for the protection of their own communities. Rather they are distracted by myriad minority agendas and personal aspirations for power and reputation. Muslims know that the more the cloudy-minded leaders in the West are in power, the more Islamists will be able to spread their influence and penetrate and destabilize non-Islamic societies.
What a leadership crisis the West is facing! The weakness in leadership has been ripping off western culture and undermining its openness, freedom and creativity. Instead, Western societies have become increasingly divided, discordant and chaotic. Such a negative trend in a culture will inevitably prepare the society for the rule of a dictator. That’s why the totalitarian thinkers are happy for the changes that are dominating the West. Some are even financing the fragmentation, the conflict and the madness so that the long-awaited dictatorship might take over.
What is the solution?
The solution is in Jesus Christ. The Gospel says that God is not the author of disorder and confusion but of unity and peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). For this reason, the leadership of Christ is the best model. He is the Prince of peace and unity. There is no trace of confusion in His leadership. Confusion drives peace and unity away. Western leaders therefore need to go back to their Judeo-Christian legacy if they want to leave a positive impact on their world and be a blessing to other nations. No leader who is under the inspiration of Jesus Christ and seeks His counsel continually will be exposed to confusion. The Spirit of Christ in him will guide him to avoid any contradiction between his plans, promises and actions. He will not allow the spirit of division and disharmony to prevail and ruin the peace of his people. His society will experience stability under his leadership. Let us pray for leaders to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and to allow Him to inspire them with His leadership values for the sake of their own personal need for peace, and for the peace of their societies and the world.
