James Baldwin once wrote, “The most dangerous creation in any society is the man who has nothing to lose.” When a man or woman feels they have nothing to lose, they will risk everything. There is no fear in one who believes that the worst outcome is less than losing what he stands for. A truly dangerous leader is one who is guided by deep seated truths developed in the furnace of hardship.
In the mind of most men, danger is anathema to safety. The more dangerous, the more potential loss of comfort. Thus, few men venture out into dangerous territory for loss of security. They are content to live within the sheltered existence of people pleasing, posing, and protection. Such are most of the leaders in 21st century America.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was a dangerous leader. Formerly an enslaved man in Maryland, with no formal education, Douglass learned his alphabet at the knee of a slave owner’s wife. He not only learned to read but began to teach other slaves to read, using the Bible as his textbook. Douglas would go on to establish businesses, a college, and became a prolific inventor.
Rather than enjoying the comforts of his freedom, he gave his life to the Abolitionist Movement and badgered Lincoln to write the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. He continued to fight for the rights of all people and especially women’s right to vote until his death in 1895.
For the 24th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, in 1886, Douglass delivered a rousing address in Washington, D.C., during which he said,
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
Dangerous leaders like Douglass are needed today. We are the most divided as a nation since the Civil War. The corporate media, tech elite, and military industrial complex control the narrative. Censorship of free speech abounds as the new American oligarchy controls tech moguls in deciding what is misinformation or the newest term disinformation, whatever that means. Captive agencies, like the FDA, CDC, NIH, FBI, and CIA, under the direction of a few, preach a new kind of science and democracy based in a soft totalitarianism that presses upon the masses their oppressive dictates.
Misplaced Faith
In one of the most important American speeches of the 20th century, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his Farewell Address, warned Americans against misplaced faith in political, scientific, and tech professionals:
“The potential for the rise of misplaced power exists and will persist…We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. In this revolution, research has become central; it also become more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of the Federal government…The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. We must…be alert to the…danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientifically technological elite.”
Jesus once said “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). Dangerous leaders are men and women who live their lives, not in lies, but truth. They are dangerous because truth is worth dying for. Let’s pray for dangerous leaders to rise up.
Pastor Steve