One of the most crucial things needed in the regards to leadership is morality, or ethics. This is one of those things that determines the weight, scope and impact of what one intends to lead. All too often what is forgotten or blindly assumed is the worldview that drives a leader. What are the parameters that they have set up, what is the direction they are taking a particular project, and with it not just the end but the means as well. One can looks all throughout the world and actually grade various groups and governments by their very ethic.
Judeo-Christian beliefs have become much of the moral foundation of the West, especially since the Reformation. Beliefs like “thou shalt not kill” and “thou shalt not steal” have branded a moral construct on our society and has shaped much of the way the west has grown. These type of values are seen far more clearly in places with a Christian worldview as opposed to many places in the third world. As the United States has stretched out its hand in giving aid to developing nations the moral foundation we have given has ceased to be that of strict moral ideas but instead we as a nation preach “democratic ideals.” Our view as a nation has been that of democracy and rights as opposed to an answer for right and wrong or any definitive sense of justice. The climate has changed from a state of right and wrong to an ever fluctuating mob rule ethic.
One of the ways I have encountered this is in the times I had volunteered with the Kansas City Rescue Mission. Even while talking to many of the clients there they all had this basic understanding of right and wrong. The depravity of human nature aside, even though many of these guys had been made many poor choices strong traces of Christian values were still within in them. During chapel services the issue that was preached was not an ethic, most of the men in there new that addiction, theft, and destructive behavior was wrong, but rather repentance and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to live righteously. Ethic was not so much the message but rather it was Christ.
As I am preparing to go to a nation that has little to no Christian ethic or history I am really intrigued about seeing how things break down in Japan. It is easy to see corruption in developing nations such as the DRC or Afghanistan but Japan is a highly developed nation that on the exterior has little problems socially and an incredibly low amount of crime. I am really excited to continue the journey of societal transformation and see where it leads and how it can play out globally.
