President Harry Truman was fond of quoting Horace Greeley: “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow, only one thing endures—character.”
As I hear public figures continue to say things few Americans would have countenanced, let alone applauded, just a generation (or even a decade) ago, I wonder about the state of character in America. The well of humility, honesty, fair-mindedness, basic decency and compassion seems to be running dry. It is more than the issue of a single individual. Can character make a comeback? And if so, how?
Some say religion is the answer. However, spiritual master Dallas Willard offers this diagnosis of the disconnect between Christian faith and character today:
“The current situation, in which faith professed has little impact on the whole of life, is not unique to our times, nor is it a recent development. But it is currently at an acute stage. History has brought us to the point where the Christian message is thought to be essentially concerned with only with how to deal with sin: with wrongdoing or wrong-being and its effects.
Life, our actual existence, is not included in what is now presented as the heart of the Christian message…That is where we find ourselves today. Transformation of life and character is no part of the redemptive message.” (The Divine Conspiracy, p. 41)
Consider bracelets with the letters “WWJD” which stand for “What Would Jesus Do?” It sounds easy—just stop and think what Jesus would do in any situation. And yet, Jesus himself contradicts our WWJD assumptions. Don’t we assume Jesus never gets angry, never loses his cool? Yet we see him so angry he overturns the moneychangers’ tables and drives them out of the temple with a whip, no less!
Then consider—even if we could without fail know what Jesus would do in every situation, does this necessarily mean we will actually do it? Often it’s patently obvious what Jesus would do, yet I still do the opposite! (How about you?) WWJD can’t ultimately help us.
Here’s a paradox. To become a person of character, one must aim at something deeper than character.
We must aim at becoming the kind of person from whom good character naturally flows. An apple tree naturally and easily produces apples because that is its nature. Jesus says this is how character works as well:
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:43-45)
These are some words to remember about character during this presidential campaign.
Yes, we all have some garbage in our hearts that seeps out through our words and actions. So Jesus promises to begin at the source—by changing our hearts. Being consistently in Jesus’ presence—through scripture and prayer, worship and sacrament—changes our hearts.
Eventually we won’t need to ask ourselves “WWJD.” We will have Jesus himself living in us, prompting us to react as he would in every situation.
One hundred years ago, most people in the US were members of one Christian or Jewish denomination or another. Character was not a universal quality among the population, but it was highly valued by the population, and very small character defects, if made public, were considered to make one ineligible to hold public office. In the Sixties, I worked for the US General Accounting Office, an investigative agency that reports to Congress. A top secret security clearance was a minimum requirement for employment, and we could not accept more than a cup of coffee (literally) from anyone that we were investigating. Virtually all employees with whom I came in contact within GAO dealt with classified information, and our ethics rules in a most serious manner. Now, there is a much smaller percentage of folks in the US who profess to be Christians, Jews or any other religion and there appears to be far less value placed on character by the citizenry. Fifty years ago, neither Trump nor HRC would have made it past the first round of the primaries. And, this lack of character appears to me to permeate many private and public entities. I suppose that we will, as a society, get the government that we deserve, but I grieve for the country.
I disagree with your sentence that “WWJD can’t ultimately help us.”
If you mean that it is only a first step, then I do agree with you. But if you mean that we don’t even have to bother with asking the question, especially in our early stages of trying to develop the character you recommend, then I do strongly disagree. Otherwise,
you are saying that we don’t even need to ask what we believe Jesus
would do — ever. I believe it a first step for any Christian who
truly wants to make a positive contribution to the Christian life that so many profess to have, but live lives that show a grave
scarcity of that love and compassion which Jesus had for those in need. As an aside, don’t you think it is amazing how many of those
politicians/leaders who claim to be Christion also never, or very
seldom, quote Jesus Christ?
Noah, thanks for your thoughtful comment. Yes, what I mean is that it’s fine to use “WWJD” as a means to determine the right thing to do, but ultimately, if we have been discipled so that Jesus’ Spirit guiding us, we will more naturally react as Jesus would without needing to ask “WWJD.”