Does power corrupt morals?

This has always been one of the most interesting topics that I have been thinking about. Especially with the election just ending a few months ago. I believe that with power, comes certain responsibilities, and certain norms, that possibly could lead to opportunities to corrupt morals.

In the most recent election we learned a lot about the two major party candidates. In this election, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton had the most unfavorable ratings of any two presidential candidates ever! I think that this alone shows us that in some capacity that power will not always make people like you. But the first thing that comes to mind, is how they got into the powerful position in the first place. Lets take Donald Trump for example. He was a very successful business man in his own right. However even when he was a business man, he had his fair share of controversy. When he was a business man, he filed for chapter eleven bankruptcy a total of six different, separate times. In summary it means that Donald Trump owed money to people through the business he was head of, and he used the laws of the country to screw the people he owed money to. This is something that came with the power Donald Trump had at the time. He had the power to screw people out of money that they were earning. Secondly Hilary Clinton. Hilary Clinton came into power mainly because of her husband Bill Clinton, the forty third president of the United States of America. Hilary Clinton was a very famous first lady. She did a lot of work with the youth of the United States of American during her tenure as first lady. After Bill Clinton’s presidency was over, Hillary Clinton ran for the senate out of the state of New York. Then she spent a number of years in the senate. After that she ran for president of the United States of American against a man people may know, and his name was Barack Obama. Barack Obama won the presidency that year, and he appointed Hillary Clinton to the post of the Secretary of State. Then after years of doing that post, she won the democratic nomination and ultimately almost won the presidency. She had her own ways of getting into positions where her morals were in question. For example, the Clinton family has something called the Clinton foundation, where they would build houses, and feed the poor, and so on and so forth. And the government of Saudi Arabia gave twenty five million dollars to that fund. I do not believe that Saudi Arabia really cares about funding the poor in the United States of America. It looks like Saudi Arabia was trying to buy some kind of privilege from the Clintons if Hillary had won the white house. I believe this shows that two very different people from very different backgrounds act when they are under pressure and have power.

Another great example of the power going to someone’s head, is the very famous story of David in the Bible. David was a peasant and a shepherd. He was seen as “a man after God’s own heart”. Soon after he was appointed to be the second king of Israel. Then a long story short Saul (who was the first king of Israel) wanted to kill the young boy that was David. And David did not want to kill Saul, so David would hide in caves and in different cities across the region to keep safe from Saul and his men. So after a defeat in battle King Saul asks his amour bearer to kill him, but he refuses so he kills himself by falling on his sword. So David became King of Israel. However the power went to his head and changed his morals also. With the story of Bathsheba. “Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. 3 He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period. Then she returned home. 5 Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.” (1 Samuel 11:2–5). This is a great story about how the power and corruption went into someones head and it burned them later. Because after a few days God sent a message to the prophet and it said that God would kill that baby because of David’s transgressions toward the Lord and towards Bathsheba’s husband.

I believe that there are certain messages in the Bible that tell us about power and how it should be used to the glory of God. “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). Its pretty clear that God gave us things that we should be in control of here, however we should not take our power for granted because it should be used to advance God’s kingdom. God does not desire us to have this great life of power and money throught our life. He wants us to follow him, and to follow his plan not ours.

And I found an interesting quote in the book “Christian Perspectives on Sociology” and it was in chapter five, which is titles “status and roles”. It has a very interesting quote about how to contribute and what makes a status. “A status, then, requires that a person make a contribution to society and to others by conforming to their expectations.” I think that this quote is very interesting because it shows us that having a status means that someone is contributing to society. If someone were the president of the United States. That is a status. However if the president was not doing anything and just using his or her postion for their own benefit, then that person would not be allowed to be the president of the United States for a very long time.

I think there are some very interesting answers to the question, does power corrupt morals? “The answer is complex, but fairly clear. Leadership, at its core, is all about power and influence. Leaders use their power to get things done. A simple distinction is between two forms of power. Socialized power is power used to benefit others. We hope that our elected officials have this sort of power in mind and are primarily concerned with the best interests of their constituents.” (Riggio). I believe that this is a very interesting quote because, it shows that corruption is much more then just a simple action. However it is a choice, but it is also something that is not as simple as making a easy choice to take money or something along those lines. It shows us that leadership at its core is something that could be taken advantage of by anyone who makes the choice to take advantage of the situation. Out of all the people we have discussed, every single one has done something they are not proud of because it got them into a higher position or a higher social status. It made them money money, or bought them influence. Its something that we cannot change, and it is something that I dont believe that it will every change. I believe that it is almost how people intended the way capitalism is suppose to be. Who can screw over the most people and who will end up on top when its all over.

In conclusion I believe that absolute power corrupts absolute because anyone that is given to much power, will take advantage of it because humans are at our core evil beings that will look out for our own self interest, and will get what we want however long or difficult it will be. No matter who people have to stab in the back or screw over we will take what we want in a way that is not pleasing to our forefathers.

Marshall, Paul A., and Robert E. VanderVennen. Social science in Christian perspective. Lanham: U Press of America, 1988. Print.

M.A., Joe Navarro, Ronald E Riggio Ph.D., Jim Taylor Ph.D., and Art Markman Ph.D. “How Power Corrupts Leaders.” Psychology Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

Taylor, John, and John Taylor. The Bible. Rutland: Printed by Fay & Davison, 1813. Print.