The Wardman Wire

Now that ‘troughing’ has officially entered the English language, can the body politic ever recover from this bout of swine flu? Politicians elected to serve the public have exploited their office for personal gain, and built a system which winks at greed whilst at the same time hiding the truth from public view. Political leaders have been at pains to blame ‘the system’, as if it is only structures which sin: that’s not really good enough, but reforming the systems and culture of politics is key to reforming the soul of the body politic.

The vocation of politics has become seriously tainted. It’s not alone: the report into child abuse within the Roman Catholic church in Ireland is horrific reading. Here again is a vocation which has not just become sick, but has died, decomposed, and spread the stench of death across a whole society.

Is the idea of vocation (’calling’) still a viable one? Many of the classic vocations seem to be in decay: the vocation to entertain has mutated into celebrity culture, the vocation to justice has become the much-scorned legal profession, teachers are leaving in droves rather than prop up a system built not on education, but on league tables.

The son of a postman watched his father polishing his boots every night in preparation for the morning round. He asked why he bothered, since nobody would see him, and he was only delivering the post. “It’s not the post”, replied his dad “it’s the Royal Mail”.

The difference between a job and a vocation is that sense of higher purpose, whether that purpose is as a messenger, a seeker of justice, a mediator between people and God, or as a leader in political life. Over 2500 years ago the political commentator Isaiah spoke of the decay of leadership in his own society:

“I will make boys their officials, mere children will govern them
A man will seize one of his brothers at his fathers home, and say
‘You have a cloak, you be our leader: take charge of this heap of ruins!’
but in that day he will cry out
‘I have no remedy…..’ “

When the existing leadership becomes discredited, people will grab at anyone, from the BNP to Esther Rantzen.

Vocation doesn’t look after itself, it can decay. Early church leader Peter encouraged his hearers to ‘make your calling (vocation) and election sure.’ He wasn’t talking about the European Parliament, but – as our MP’s are finding – there a present day connection between the two. Pay attention to your character, counsels Peter, because if your character doesn’t keep up with your level of influence, then there is trouble ahead.

Some of our politicians have perhaps been so busy that they’ve forgotten to pay attention to themselves, to look in the mirror and ask whether they’ve made their calling sure, or whether they’ve traded it in for pig food.

Character and calling also depend on the quality of community: if you’re surrounded by people who collude with corruption, then it’s easy to become corrupt. If you determine to be accountable to people who will strap you to the mast as you sail past the Sirens of money, sex and power, then your character and calling have a chance of making it to the end of the journey intact.

And we can’t fall back on ‘regulation’ to take the place of character, calling and community. As Rowan Williams writes today:

We talk about people’s vocations most readily when we see them clearly doing things that don’t bring easy rewards. But if the culture is such that regulation takes the place of virtue, we shouldn’t be too surprised if public figures show signs of the virus and take refuge in the “no rules were broken” tactic.

I personally think the Telegraph needs to pull stumps on this, the drip-drip of revelations is starting to take on a taint of sadism. Before we completely lose faith, it’s time to recover political leadership as a vocation, but not to kid ourselves that this solves everything. Every leader has the responsibility (and needs the support of others) to ‘make your calling and election sure’. Neglect your calling and character, and you lose your place. Look after your calling and character, and your election will probably look after itself.