Playing with Power

While reading this post, Walski's political Theory of Diminishing Integrity caught my immediate attention:

One enters politics with the noble intention of contributing to society. But to get anything accomplished, one has to rise up through the ranks of his/her political organizations. In trying to rise up thru the ranks, there is a very good chance one must compromise certain personal principals. The higher one rises, the more compromise one has to make, until one has reached the pinnacle of one's traversal (subject to The Peter Principle) - but by the time you get there, the compromises you've had to have made kinda makes you forget why you entered politics in the first place. Rising up to the top has inevitably taken a life of its own, and becomes its own raison d'etre.

Amen.

Question: Is it worth compromising certain personal principles in order to reach the top (in order to fulfill the noble goal)? As you compromise your principles, you compromise your character as well. Thus, by the time you reach the summit, it is very possible that your character would have gone through deformation, and you might have long forgotten your initial intentions as the temptation of power beckons you. Who knows what happens next?

Sad to say, Walski's theory is applicable to our ecclesiastical hierarchy as well. Many Christian leaders with good intentions rise up through the ecclesiastical ranks, yet in the process, choose to compromise certain personal principles in order to reach the top. By the time they reach the summit, they forget their initial agendas and are quickly sucked into the game of politics and power play.

Think more than twice before you choose the path of power. Not everyone is strong enough to withstand the temptation of power.

"With great power comes great responsibility."

Spiderman (2002)