“Rulers” (e.g., governors, presidents, CEO’s, kings, tyrants, dictators, bosses) may but are not obliged to justify their decisions or actions.
They wield power. They may possess it through family, social status, election, appointment, class privilege or even deception, falsification, assassination.
“Teachers” (e.g., professors, school teachers, scout masters, dieticians, counselors, trainers, guides, trail blazers, therapists, models, designers, artists, directors) are the opposites of rulers
They coach and challenge others to learn to think, analyze, and understand, encouraging them to encounter new ideas, perspectives, and experiences.
“Leaders” are a sort of blend of both. They have a responsibility for organized groups with common purposes. They serve the group both through personal qualities and example and through their special role of making decisions for the common good.
What is the principal role of clergy? When a bishop, priest, deacon, or other minister is preaching the Good News, explaining the Scriptures, or counseling an individual or a congregation, is it mostly a matter of teaching, leading, or ruling? Is it more about witnessing, persuading, or demanding?
There’s a complicated history to all of this, and the answers may vary depending on the era you have in mind.
Jesus was not a ruler, even though he spoke with the language of his day of a kingdom not of this world. He taught by word and example, he led and guided, he gave standards and mandates.
His early followers were heralds and proclaimers of what they considered to be good news all over in and outside of the Roman empire in which they lived. But, they needed and had leaders, not rulers, to guide them, coordinate their efforts, and foster their unity and common values.
Jesus and his first followers were Jews, whose tradition was that priests and other Levites were a special tribe with roles and power as presiders in religious rituals and as adjudicators of the laws of God.
The early Christians in the Jewish world were influenced by this tradition, while those in the pagan world struggled to accommodate the proclamation of Jesus and his teachings to the traditions and ways of a foreign culture.
When Christianity became the official religion of the empire, the proclaimers of the message and the celebrants of the rituals possessed a status in the empire, as the new priesthood and temples replaced the old.
With the collapse of imperial authority in the West, Christian leaders in Rome began to fill the gap, by ruling and wielding political power. This blurred the distinctions between ruling, teaching, and leading for many centuries. (Movie fans, just think of Becket, A Man for All Seasons, and films about Joan of Arc.)
Vestiges of this, like the pope’s appointing nuncios (ambassadors) to countries or establishing codes of law, still linger. Is the Pope today a powerful enforcer of legislation, a fearsome wielder of life or death decisions? Hardly!
His power lies in faith and witness, in his skill in teaching, motivating, and leading. Dictates are out-of-date and ineffective.
Decreeing, judging, and penalizing have become outdated religious methodologies, while witnessing, explaining, persuading, and leading are far more effective.
Even so, trying to rule as well as to teach and to lead still lingers as a methodology of some religious leaders and their followers.
18 July 2021