Responding to the Failures of Government

Ethical questions surrounding President Reagan’s arms-for-hostages trade with Iran are generating bipartisan soul searching on Capitol Hill. In interviews conducted prior to this month’s joint congressional hearings on the Iran-contra affair, Christian lawmakers pointed out painful ironies in the events. They also described opportunities for Christians to learn valuable lessons about the hazards of governing.

U.S. Rep. Don Bonker (D-Wash.) pointed out, “If anyone other than Ronald Reagan were in the White House, Christians would be saying, ‘Let’s get a Christian in there.’ … [The Iran-contra affair] is cause for introspection about what we expect from our leaders, about values and attributes we want to see them possess in their personal and their public lives.”

On the other side of the aisle, U.S. Rep. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) said he hopes the Reagan administration’s difficulties will result in wiser discernment among Christians. “We are not looking just for Christians in government,” he explained. “We are looking for competent Christians who understand the process and who will take the time to learn how the system works.”

Lessons To Be Learned

Some of the profits from the arms sales to Iran were reportly funneled to Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries, known as contras. Vast sums of that money remain unaccounted for, calling into question the secrecy surrounding the Reagan administration’s actions.

“There was a notion that we could conduct a lot of business in secret,” said U.S. Sen. William Armstrong (R-Colo.). “In the final analysis, very little remains secret. I think we ought to include on the federal payroll somebody who would come in every morning at 8, sit down across the desk from the President, and say, ‘Mr. President, sooner or later everything that you do today is going to come out in the open.’ That is so easy to forget.”

U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) said that while the Iran-contra affair has cast doubt on Reagan’s trustworthiness, the long-range impact may be good. “Some doubt is a healthy thing for everyone. It is healthy for people to question my decisions, because we all make mistakes,” Simon said. “Part of what is happening is a healthy swing back to a normal questioning of authority.”

While suggesting safeguards to help avoid further misguided policies, the lawmakers interviewed by CHRISTIANITY TODAY agreed that patience is needed on the part of Christians.

“It is important for believers who have come into the political process not to be so impatient,” Armstrong said. “This is not an overnight proposition. Christ said ‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,’ but he did not say everything would work out in four or eight years. There is no reason to think we will ever succeed with all of this, but we do have a tremendous agenda of issues of deep concern to Christians.”

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said the events surrounding the Iran arms policy call for renewed efforts on the part of elected officials to counteract cynicism at the grassroots. “There have been a lot of changes in the institutions of government to provide more credibility: the Federal Election Commission, the ethics committees, and restrictions on political action committees. Changing the institutions of government may cause people to be a little more cautious and careful, but I think the only way to reestablish credibility and overcome cynicism about government is for the individual himself to set higher standards.”

Simon called for continued political involvement on the part of Christians. “One of the ways we fulfill the command of Matthew 25 [to care for the disadvantaged] is through the world of politics,” he said. “People who have the temerity to call themselves Christians have special responsibilities. It doesn’t mean we automatically have any special insights into what is politically valid, and we can be just as wrong as anybody else. But we do have a responsibility to try to live up to our belief.”

U.S. Rep. Paul Henry (R-Mich.) said a dose of disillusionment may be a good thing if it results in renewed humility and realism among Christians in public life. “There is a terrible danger that Christian activism has developed around the notion of trying to manipulate God rather than being manipulated by him,” he said. “That is not to say Christians should not assert themselves, but they ought to do so in a mature, responsible fashion. Christians need to get over the temptation to assume that the Christian commitment, in and of itself, assures public virtue. It should, but it doesn’t.”

By Beth Spring.

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