The sayings of King Lemuel
"” an oracle his mother taught him:
"O my son…do not spend your strength on women,
your vigour on those who ruin kings.
It is not for kings, O Lemuel"”
not for kings to drink wine,
not for rulers to crave beer,
lest they drink and forget what the law decrees,
and deprive all the oppressed of their rights…
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." (Proverbs 31: 1-9)
No doubt Proverbs 31 will resonate with Kevin Rudd " where a very wise mum advises her son, who aspires to be a good king, to avoid the temptations of women and wine. They will only serve to distract you, she says, from your God-given task of defending the rights of the poor.
Some argue the neutral public response to Mr Rudd's escapade in a New York strip club is a further sign Australians have shed their Christian heritage. Mr Rudd, so eager to win the ear of a notoriously hard-living but powerful media executive, gets drunk to the point he doesn't know what he is doing.
"Apart from being dangerous," says Paul Murray, former editor of The West Australian who admits sidestepping a similar outing led by the same News Limited lieutenant, "it's stupid". As a different proverb says, "Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise" (20:1).
So why do only 28 per cent of Australians say Mr Rudd showed poor judgment, while an extraordinary 85 per cent say the episode proves he is just "a normal bloke"? If anything, Mr Rudd's embarrassing failure has actually endeared him to the Australian public. What is going on?
One school of thought is that Australians are wedded to the tall poppy syndrome " we want our leaders to be human and not act pious or uppity. Peter Beattie, the now-retired Queensland Premier, applied this cultural truth, predicting the strip club incident would actually help Mr Rudd because it would prove he had "blood in his veins".
David Briggs, who runs the Galaxy poll, says it's more likely that voters are concerned by "issues of substance'. In this analysis, Australians are going to judge a politician's failures in governing more harshly than failures in their private life.
One thing is certain " voters' character assessment of Mr Rudd and Mr Howard will matter greatly come polling day. New research by neuroscientist Drew Westen shows that most people vote emotionally and for this reason policy details matter little. In political campaigns, "facts do not form opinions but rather reinforce previously held gut beliefs" about a candidate or party. Hence the barrage of negative advertising we will have to endure designed to reinforce our fears.
Given that the real truth of any political event will always be hard to see through the fog of spin and counterspin, how harshly should Christians judge the inevitable failings of our leaders?
From a biblical perspective, Briggs' view has some validity. A line is crossed when character failings stop the "king' from executing his or her main job: defending the weakest members of society.
Yes, his failure does make Rudd "a normal bloke'. What matters is what comes next: does he admit it, has he repented, and with God's help does he live differently? "Normal' men and women need help from God if they are to become leaders we can trust with authority.
