Monuments To Me

From My Perspective - - -

We are witnessing an interesting phenomenon today in the political arena, namely, the public persona of one candidate for the office of President of the United States. It is sometimes near cultic dimensions in terms of the response. It causes one to ponder the degree to which this becomes egocentric (having little or no regard for interests, beliefs, or attitudes other than one's own) and/or narcissistic (inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity. In Psychoanalysis, narcissism means erotic gratification derived from admiration of one's own physical or mental attributes, being a normal condition at the infantile level of personality development). Could it be that we are allowing ourselves to be duped by personality rather than informed and persuaded based upon content?

In today’s issue of The Wall Street Journal Online, John Fund has a column entitled: “Congress's Edifice Complex”. It lists some of the political figures who secure earmark funds so buildings can be named for them in their districts. For instance, he mentions: “Now it seems almost every committee chairman gets some "Monument to Me" named after himself with the tab going to the taxpayer. There's a navigation lock in Pennsylvania named after Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, the former GOP chair of the House Appropriations Committee. He represents St. Petersburg, Fla. -- his only connection to Pennsylvania is that he happened to be born there…. Indeed, the NIH campus is replete with monuments to the congressional patrons who shoveled cash to it. Buildings there honor still-living pols such as Mark Hatfield, Louis Stokes and Lowell Weicker. Attempts in 2006 to have the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta name its "Global Communications Center" after Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) and its operations center after Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) were blocked at the last minute by Congressional grinches such as Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.) and John Campbell (R., Calif.)… If longevity in Congress is linked to the number of projects named after a living member, the Immortality Prize clearly goes to Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia. John Stossel of ABC News found the Democrat's name attached to three dozen taxpayer-funded entities in his state, including a highway interchange, education and technology centers and even a telescope… Indeed, Mr. Byrd is unrepentant, telling Congress in 2001: "Pork has been a good investment in West Virginia, if you look around and see what I have done." Taxpayers for Common Sense notes it's easy for him to say that when he's spending other people's money, and asks what's next: rechristening the state "West 'Byrd'ginia?"…”

The amazing thing is that as appalled as we say we are about this type of spending, we still elect these same people to continue their extravagant and narcissistic ways – which the taxpayer is funding! And now, there is an apparent stampede toward a person who is totally inexperienced at worst and basically elitist at best. We are caught up in the web that is being woven…

We can easily critique the political arena and project outwardly but what would we discover if we were to critique ourselves spiritually and project inwardly? It would be good if we found a good measure of humility and some degree of self-abasement. One is reminded of the focus and commitment of The Apostle Paul when he wrote in Philippians 3:7-8 [The Message], “The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash - along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant - garbage. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ…” It would be good if this was our persuasion and motivation. The theme of our lives being the words of a Hymn – “Not I But Christ, be honored, loved, exalted; Not I, but Christ, be seen be known, be heard; Not I, but Christ, in every look and action, Not I, but Christ, in every thought and word.”

Think about this with me - - -