Brinkmanship & Demagoguery: Flirting With Disaster

An article by Matt    1 Comment

Brinkmanship seems to be all the rage these days.  Whether it is the NFL owners versus the NFLPA or, President Obama versus John Boehner we do enjoy pushing things to the very brink of disaster.  As Seth Godin noted a few weeks ago, brinkmanship is a shortsighted way to go about things.  The mentality that dictates taking things to the edge of disaster has diminishing returns, and does significant long term damage to the relationships involved in the process.

The biggest issue with the brinkmanship strategy is that it requires demagoguery in order to work.  In the case of the NFL dispute, the owners apparently hate the players, their families, and their pets while the players are greedy children who want nothing more than to bankrupt the owners.  With the debt ceiling debates, the Republicans want old people and the poor to pay forty seven times as much in taxes as rich people do while the President wants to spend enough to bankrupt the country by noon on Thursday.  As the rhetoric continues to build, and the mud continues to be slung the relationships involved become more and more damaged.

I wish that I could say that this only happens in football or politics… but we have all seen this happen in the church world.  Unpopular decisions, staffing changes, or differences in opinions can easily lead to brinkmanship and demagoguery.  We all know stories of former pastors or former elders who have left churches after being chased out by those who disagreed with an unpopular opinion or decision.  Relationships are damaged, spiritual lives are hurt, and the reputation of the Bride of Christ is run through the mud yet again.

There is much to be said about the graciousness that our savior has modeled for us.  I pray that church leaders everywhere will continue to embrace that grace with both those whom we agree, and disagree.