When they passed The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA)
in 2007, it is quite unlikely that the U.S. congress anticipated that their
little bill would trigger a cereal grain price jump of 67.4% in 2012 over 2011,
or that the rise in food prices would plunge nearly 70 million people into
what the World Bank calls ‘extreme poverty’. The Houston Chronicle details the
extent of the problem here.
Good Intentions
What prompted the EISA? We are told it was the desire to reduce
dependency on foreign oil, scale back greenhouse gas emissions and keep the
price of gas down. None of these are bad ideas. While I am as easily attracted
to conspiracy theories as the next guy, I doubt the average elected
representative planned on starving the third world to reduce U.S. gas prices.
But the unintended consequences of the Act have caused and
continue to cause near-incalculable damage.
My oddball synapses make what is probably not the most
intuitive connection between this issue and something I read in Ephesians this
morning. Paul writes:
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord … Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right … Bondservants, obey your earthly masters.”The Cost of Submission
See, not intuitive. And I’m not thinking about the biblical doctrine of submission itself so
much as the consequences of it. Here’s where I’m going with this:
Submitting to those authorities to whom we have been called
by God to submit — to husbands, fathers, government, employers, elders — puts
us in a terribly vulnerable position, doesn’t it? And really, it’s not
submission if we only do it when we agree with the authority on a particular
issue.
But it’s rebellion if we don’t.
And rebellion puts us in danger of the judgement of God.
Paul says to children that they should obey in order “that it may go well with
you and that you may live long”. That’s a fairly serious reason to be characteristically
obedient as a Christian.
The Dangers of Responsibility
That’s one obvious corollary from Paul’s teaching on the subject. But here’s another for those of us who find ourselves exercising
authority over others:
Men, if your wife and children obey the plain teaching of scripture
and submit to your direction in their lives (and yes, I know that is not a currently
popular notion), that puts you in much the same position as those bumbling congressmen
screwing up the third world, doesn’t it?
As men, it puts us out there twisting in the wind, dependent
on the Lord to preserve both us and our families, employees and sometimes
churches from the unintended consequences of our choices.
That’s a scary thought. For some, it’s paralyzing. Because
we will have to give an account.
Frankly, many of the authority figures in our lives are not
that smart. And in many ways they often let us down.
We may find logical reasons to think about wrestling responsibility
away from people who use their positions of authority to act like idiots. After
all, we just know we could do a better job at it.
Okay, maybe we wouldn’t stage an actual coup or do anything
demonstrably wrong, but we might be tempted to beat them down verbally for
their stupidity or carp at them until they lose their confidence and stop
acting at all, or to gossip behind their backs or undermine them in some way.
And when we are tempted, it’s useful to remember that those
making decisions so very often encounter unintended consequences. Maybe they failed because they didn ’t pray enough about the choices they were making.
“I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgivings be made for all people … and all who are in high positions,” Paul says elsewhere.
Or maybe — just possibly — somebody else didn’t pray enough.
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