Do Pray-Part 2 (Matt. 6:5-15)
During the recent presidential campaign some argued that we should not elect someone who is elite—more highly trained and experienced than most—but should instead elect someone who is ordinary—able to relate to the average man or woman. One author wrote this:[1] There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn’t seem too intelligent or well educated. This author argues that we need people in the White House who are elite, who are at the top rung in terms of experience, education, and insight. Others however, were arguing that that we need people in the White House who are not elite, people who are more like the rest of us.