When did the philosophical question “When do the ends justify the means?” become a statement and guiding principle, “The ends justify the means!”? Our country is currently deeply imbedded in ends of tariffs, deportations, warmongering, dismantling DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), ending protection agencies, attacking education, militarizing law enforcement (to name just a few examples) that are involving egregious and indefensible means. Why?

Historically, globally, philosophically, legitimate ends require noble, positive, and ethical means. Even in times of war, drought, famine, and plague, remedial steps taken demanded the highest standards of virtue and fidelity. Of course, it is easy to pick out examples of exactly the opposite – unscrupulous, greedy and power-hungry leaders manipulating any and all means to achieve their selfish, narcissistic, and devious ends. This is kind of the point. People of good faith, deep morals, solid values, and generous hearts have always and everywhere opposed such destructive “ends justify the means” violations. Why aren’t we doing it now?

So easy to blame politics, the media, corporate control, COVID, Hollywood, “woke,” fundamentalism, etc. There must be a root cause, a single critical moment we can point to when it all started going wrong. But if history (while we are still allowed to study and understand history) teaches us anything it is this: we never learn. We ALWAYS have to repeat past mistakes and simply ride the pendulum that swings between progress and regress. Guess which way we are swinging now?

A friend of mine asked me recently, “So, what are your politics? I know you are liberal-progressive, but you are pretty critical of whatever political party is in power. You say Christians can’t help be political, because everything Jesus taught was/is political. You confuse me.” Well, obviously I don’t subscribe to “the ends justify the means,” way of thinking, and while I am very political, I tend not to be very partisan. I am a systems thinker, and the corrupted and convoluted system of government we now have is not working well, no matter which party is in charge. Put another way, politics should be a means to an end, not an end in itself, and the end should be noble, ethical, compassionate, honest, and true – doing the most good for the most people for the greatest benefit to all humankind.

I say it until I am blue in the face: I am a Christian first and foremost. My values, core principles, ethical standards, and commitment to the common good come from the gospel of Jesus Christ, not any political party. When a political party conducts itself in a way that espouses and promotes solid Christian values, I applaud. But do not kid yourself: we do not have political leaders guided primarily by their faith, no matter what they say. You cannot hate, condemn, attack, embarrass, humiliate, insult, deprive, despise, and destroy and call yourself a person of faith.

My friend also asked me what I thought of our presidents, past and present. Here is a descriptive model for my perspective on our presidents beginning with Ronald Reagan. I call this my “Ready, Aim, Fire” rating system. Make of it what you will. This doesn’t say whether I thought they were a good president or not, effective or not, doing the right thing or not. It is simply an assessment of their style.

• Ronald Reagan – Ready, Aim, Fire, Ready, Aim, Fire
• George Bush – Ready, Aim, Ready, Aim, Fire
• Bill Clinton – Ready, Ready, Ready, Ready, Aim, Fire
• George W. Bush – Ready, Fire, Aim, Not ready, Fire, Aim
• Barack Obama – (other than Affordable Care Act), Ready, Ready, Aim, Aim, Ready
• Donald Trump – (first term) Fire, Aim, Fire, Aim, Fire
• Joe Biden – Not really ready, Aim, Aim, Aim, Fire
• Donald Trump – (second term) Fire, Fire, Fire (pew, pew, pew) Fire, Fire