Reforms for 2024, as suggested by Paul of Tarsus and Harry Truman

As the election of 2024 draws closer, we are hearing more and more about the family of President Biden. We are also hearing pundits question if one set of laws applies to politicians and another set applies to the rest of us.

 The public’s trust has taken a beating in the last few elections. Restoring trust should be agenda item one, but instead, we hear from the left that conservatives are racist imbeciles. Meanwhile, conservatives claim that leftists are mindless Marxists.

It is hard to resist these currents, but isn’t it time to ask some different questions of the man or woman who wants to be the leader of this country and the free world?

Paul of Tarsus, a prolific church planter, needed good leaders to follow him to lead the congregations he planted to follow the teachings of Jesus. In 1 Timothy 3:1-5, he lists the qualities of a good leader. Although he doesn’t use the word integrity, the entire passage oozes with the concept. 

3 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. ² Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, ³ not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. ⁴ He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, ⁵ for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 

Paul of Tarsus as painted by Rembrandt

Now I know the nay-sayers reading this are beating their chests and screaming, “We are not electing church leaders, we are electing a President!” I hear that, but don’t we want someone who has integrity?

In my life, the White House seems to have become a magnet for womanizers and “pay to-play” scoundrels who line their pockets with contributions that can be “plausibly denied.” We need men and women of integrity leading us instead.

I hope the upcoming debates draw from the ideas of Paul of Tarsus. Paul reasoned that a man who does well as a father by managing his household will likely be a good leader. If we look at President Biden and former President Trump, do we see functional or dysfunctional families?

We have all seen weddings and most include public vows of fidelity. How then are we to trust a man or woman who is unfaithful to his or her spouse to be faithful in office? Words and pledges matter. 

The Democrats allege that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner profited from his time in the White House. The Republicans allege that Hunter Biden is the bagman for a Biden pay-to-play racket that has enriched the Bidens for years.

Harry Truman, a former President who aimed for integrity in his life said, “Show me a man who gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.”

Ned Cosby, a regular contributor to American Thinker, is a pastor, veteran Coast Guard officer, and a retired career public high school teacher. His newest novel OUTCRY is a love story exposing the refusal of Christian leaders to report and discipline clergy who sexually abuse our young people. This work of fiction addresses crimes that are all too real. Cosby has also written RECOLLECTIONS FROM MY FATHER’S HOUSE, tracing his own odyssey from 1954 to the present. For more info, visit Ned Cosby.