Food For Thought is a public theology & Bible advocacy blog for Eternity from Sophia Think Tank’s David Wilson, who gathers top Christian thinkers to take a closer look at how the Christian faith addresses matters in society at large every week. This week, City Bible Forum’s Robert Martin talks character…

Does character really matter?

Last week Federal Parliament was dominated by the Federal Opposition persistently questioning the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, over her conduct as a lawyer in the 1990s. Many questions have been asked over Gillard’s actions and numerous suggestions of misconduct, fraud and deception have been made.

Some commentators have dismissed these probing attacks as irrelevant and question the very newsworthiness of the allegations. Ben Eltham claimed,

The current controversy about Julia Gillard’s role in a scandal in the AWU in the early 1990s has little relevance to her fitness for office, and no relevance at all to public policy.

Whilst this topic does have little to do with current public policy, it does have a lot to do with the character of our leaders. And this is precisely the motivation for the Opposition’s attacks. Tony Abbott was quoted as saying,

“I have this piece of advice for the Prime Minister: this is not about gender, this is about character and, Prime Minister, you have failed the character test.”

Whether or not Julia Gillard has failed the character test is not the purpose of this post. I am observing the role that character plays in leadership. Julia Gillard’s performance, her achievements, and successes are not considered when potential flaws in her character have been identified. Why is character so important?

Only a couple of weeks ago in the US, the CIA director, David Petraeus resigned from his post, admitting he had an extramarital affair. This was a surprising resignation because he hadn’t been implicated in any criminal activity. Petraeus accepted he had made an “extremely poor judgment by engaging in an affair”.

It seemed that Petraeus’ performance in his role was excellent. He won plaudits for his role in leading the ‘surge’ in Iraq and implementing a counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. His work also won high praise from freshly re-elected President, Barack Obama. Yet Petraeus described his behaviour as “unacceptable” for the leader of the nation’s main intelligence agency and he resigned.

It seems that running the CIA required more than technical ability – it also needed exemplary character. Why is character so important?

The importance of excellent character among leaders was observed by the ancient philosopher Aristotle, who claimed that the perceived character of the persuader was central to his ability to persuade. He wrote,

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided. (Aristotle – ‘On Rhetoric’)

Aristotle observed that we believe and trust people more readily when they are of good character. Perhaps this is why good character is so important for our leaders? We are more willing to follow those of good character.

The Bible outlines the qualities required of good leaders and they are virtually all character based – there is very little on competence or skills. 1 Timothy 3 speaks about a leader being (among other things) ‘above reproach’, ‘temperate’, ‘self-controlled’, ‘hospitable’, and ‘not given to drunkenness’. These are all character traits. The only particular ‘skill’ required in this role is the ‘ability to teach’. Perhaps the Bible is on to something? Perhaps it recognises that good character is foundational to good leadership?

The Bible also demonstrates that character is important because we would like to emulate or imitate our leaders. The Apostle Paul exhorted the Corinthians to ‘imitate me as I imitate Christ’ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Paul sought to follow Jesus, the ultimate example of a man of exemplary character. Jesus was a great moral teacher and exemplar. He was a man of love and compassion, which he demonstrated most clearly through his self-sacrificial death on the cross. He was a man of unquestionable character. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the enduring popularity of the Christian message – that Jesus was indeed a leader of exemplary character?

So, character does matter. Good leaders require more than skills, vision, competence and achievements. Good leaders require character which inspires trust, and character which is worthy of imitation.

I wonder how our leadership (and our country) would change if an essential job requirement for leaders was an exemplary character worthy of imitation?

Food for thought…