CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY
Sermon

Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely!  I’m sure you have heard this saying.  Now, research claims this statement as absolute truth! 

New research by Adam Galinsky explores the ‘moral hypocrisy’ in powerful people.  The following excerpts from an article at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University explains the research and its findings:

The year 2009 may well be remembered for its scandal-ridden headlines, from admissions of extramarital affairs by governors and senators, to corporate executives flying private jets while cutting employee benefits, and most recently, to a mysterious early morning car crash in Florida.

New research from the Kellogg School explores why powerful people — many of whom take a moral high ground — don’t practice what they preach.

In “Power Increases Hypocrisy: Moralizing in Reasoning, Immunity and Behavior,” Kellogg Professor Adam Galinsky and his co-researchers sought to determine whether power inspires hypocrisy — the tendency to hold high standards for others while performing morally suspect behaviors oneself. The research finds that power makes people stricter in moral judgment of others, while being less strict with regard to their own behavior.

The research was conducted by Galinsky and Joris Lammers and Diederik A. Stapel of Tilburg University in the Netherlands. The article will appear in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science.

“This research is especially relevant to the biggest scandals of 2009, as we look back on how private behavior often contradicted the public stance of particular individuals in power,” said Galinsky, the Morris and Alice Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision in Management. “For instance, we saw some politicians use public funds for private benefits while calling for smaller government, or have extramarital affairs while advocating family values. Similarly, we witnessed CEOs of major financial institutions accepting executive bonuses while simultaneously asking for government bailout money on behalf of their companies.

“According to our research, power and influence can cause a severe disconnect between public judgment and private behavior, and as a result, the powerful are stricter in their judgment of others while being more lenient toward their own actions,” he continued.

To simulate an experience of power, the researchers assigned roles of high-power and low-power positions to a group of study participants. Some were assigned the role of prime minister and others civil servant. The participants were then presented with moral dilemmas related to breaking traffic rules, declaring taxes, and returning a stolen bike.

Through a series of five experiments, the researchers examined the impact of power on moral hypocrisy. For example, in one experiment the “powerful” participants condemned the cheating of others while cheating more themselves. High-power participants also tended to condemn the over-reporting of travel expenses. But, when given a chance to cheat on a dice game to win lottery tickets (played alone in the privacy of a cubicle), the powerful people reported winning a higher amount of lottery tickets than did low-power participants.

Three additional experiments further examined the degree to which powerful people accept their own moral transgressions versus those committed by others. In all cases, those assigned to high-power roles showed significant moral hypocrisy by more strictly judging others for speeding, dodging taxes and keeping a stolen bike, while finding it more acceptable to engage in these behaviors themselves.  (Isn’t this hypocritical justification responsible for all those clergy sexual sins?)

Galinsky noted that moral hypocrisy has its greatest impact among people who are legitimately powerful. (This is why I have always been in favor of limited terms for all politicians!)  In contrast, a fifth experiment demonstrated that people who don’t feel personally entitled to their power are actually harder on themselves than they are on others, which is a phenomenon the researchers dubbed “hypercrisy.” The tendency to be harder on the self than on others also characterized the powerless in multiple studies.

“Ultimately, patterns of hypocrisy and hypercrisy perpetuate social inequality. The powerful impose rules and restraints on others while disregarding these restraints for themselves, whereas the powerless collaborate in reproducing social inequality because they don’t feel the same entitlement,” Galinsky concluded[1].

Frightening conclusions!  The abusiveness resulting from positions of power is not only found in the public arena.  I can remember a teacher who relished haranguing students until they were reduced to tears.  I had several bosses who loved to exert their power over others through humiliation.  I have seen husbands, especially those in whom power was limited in other areas of their lives, behave abusively toward their wives.  And the list goes on.......

We should examine our leaders with regards to their use and abuse of power.  To whom should we entrust power? According to this article, the very first  indicators of corruption are not discoveries of financial or moral impropriety, but attitudes of entitlement, pride and hypocrisy.  If you sense those attitudes, then the evidence of tangible corruption is not far behind.  And, as we have learned,  those leaders are not to be trusted.

But, we need to carefully examine ourselves, too.  How do we handle the power we have in our lives?  How do we view the authority and power we may have in our daily responsibilities. 

How do you handle the power in your life?  Click  on the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP3hg7XY7SU

We, as Christians,  need to remember that power is entrusted to us as a part of our responsibility to SERVE others.  And I believe this means that the highest calling and identity for a human being is to be a servant.  We are most like Jesus, not when we attempt or even claim to be all knowing or all powerful or omnipresent, but when we serve!  A revealing “power” passage in the Scriptures is Philippians 2:3-8:

We need to preach about the corrupting elements of power.  Think About It! 

Jesus didn't spend very much of his time preaching about sexual mores, but he did spend an extraordinary amount preaching about the hypocritical abuses of those in power against the poor and marginalized.

I wonder how the Christian people in the United States will vote in their next election?  Will  they vote for the politicians who would not only sustain policies to help the poor or vote for those who would increase their own riches at the expense of the poor?