The United States has produced more than its fair share of fascinating figures. Over the course of its storied history, it has produced a host of figures who have shaped the nation, the continent, and the world. Many of these have been its presidents and politicians, though others have been its inventors, its business leaders, or those who have in other ways shaped public morality. While each of these people has a public side, they also have a private side. And sometimes people who make a great impact publicly can live with great immorality privately.
In the late 1990s, the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal compelled Marvin Olasky to begin thinking about the effect private activities have on the lives of public leaders. In the context of that scandal, the White House insisted that Clinton’s private immorality had no bearing on his public role. The voting public seemed to agree that the two could remain neatly compartmentalized. “Many journalists at the time agreed with Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen that a president ‘conventionally immoral in his personal life’ can still be a wonderful ‘person in his public life.’ Can be, sure, because life is complicated. But how likely is that?”

Moral Vision

Olasky examined the issue in his 1998 book The American Leadership Tradition. But time showed that perhaps he over-corrected—that while many conventional journalists oversimplified by taking the “no effect” line, he oversimplified in the other direction. Not only that, but in his own judgment he was censorious and lacked nuance. In Moral Vision: Leadership from George Washingon to Joe Biden (which is a substantially revised and expanded edition of his former work) he takes up the issue again and does so through a series of short biographies of noteworthy Americans. “George Washington pledged in his 1789 inaugural address that ‘the foundation for national policy will be laid in the sure and immutable principles of private morality.’ I’ve tried to look at how we have followed through on that—or have not.”
He begins at the beginning, of course, with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Both were great men in many ways, yet both had significant moral flaws: Washington was a slave owner; Jefferson was not only a slave owner but was also committed to sexual immorality. Olasky is not iconoclastic toward them, as if their statues ought to be torn down and their names erased from the history books. Yet, on the other hand, he does not wish to pretend that their public lives would remain entirely unaffected by their moral flaws.
As he moves to Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, he grapples with the private and public lives of men who were responsible for the notorious Trail of Tears and the brutal subjugation of an entire people. Then he moves to Madame Restell who did so much to promote abortion among New Yorkers in the mid-1850s. He looks at the faith of Abraham Lincoln and whether it was consistent or inconsistent with his decision to wage total war against the South.
Grover Cleveland and John D. Rockefeller follow Lincoln, then Booker T. Washington and Ida B. Wells. As he reaches the modern era, he looks at both Roosevelts, Wilson, Truman, and Kennedy. In the postmodern era he pairs up Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, then Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It is safe to say that he is no fan of either one of the latter two.
As Olasky comes to the end of the book, he reflects on assessing character and some of the “tells” that may distinguish people of good character from those of poor character. He believes that fidelity in marriage is an important one, though not the only one. He highlights others as well—following through on promises, a concern for other people, honesty, and self-discipline. He even buzzes through the Ten Commandments to see which of them, when violated, has troubled the American people and which has not. In the end, he hopes that the book causes voters to consider not only a candidate’s positions or promises but also his character.

If this book has one practical benefit, I hope it will make groups reluctant to hand out voter guides that merely list candidate votes on particular issues, as if that should be the sole determinant in casting a ballot. This does a disservice to those looking for guidance. If I have done a disservice to readers by being less emphatic on some questions than I was in the first edition, so be it. I’m more aware of the complications of history and biography than I was twenty-five years ago, but I still believe in the centrality of moral vision, which is the sum of character, experience, and faith.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Moral Vision. Olasky is a talented writer whose work reminds me a great deal of David McCullough—about as high a compliment as I know to give. I appreciated each one of the brief biographies and was challenged by the constant focus on moral strengths and weaknesses. Some will agree and some will disagree with his conclusions, but I think all will benefit from considering them.

The God of love and peace be with you today.
Just a reminder that my book Pilgrim Prayers released recently. I have been receiving encouraging feedback from those who are using it to help them pray. Please give it a look!
This morning’s Kindle deals are headlined by J. Warner Wallace’s Person of Interest. You’ll also find a book for and about women as well one that deals with life’s “intentional interruptions.”

“You can think about money like having a big family. The blessings are many, but the responsibilities multiply just as fast. For as many new opportunities that money provides, it brings just as many complexities and demands. Where will you give? Where will you invest? How much do you spend and what do you spend on when budgeting becomes theoretical?”

John Piper discusses how Christians should think about personal finances as they prepare for retirement.

Carl Trueman: “Here is the cynicism of the postmodern condition on display. Kindness to others in the form of hospitality becomes yet another power play, another way of putting somebody else beneath us in the hierarchy, of asserting superiority. Nietzsche for the win.”

Faith Chang writes about some of what she is considering as she enters into the middle stretch of her life.

This is a helpful guide to raising or dealing with charges against an elder. “The church must avoid two extremes. The first is easily believing any and every charge raised against an elder. The second extreme is dismissing every charge. It is also very important to remember that while some in the church might be used by the evil one to bring false charges, my experience has shown me that there are even more in the church who are a great blessing to their elders. Such saints are to always be appreciated and never be taken for granted.”

Lynne Rienstra: “Crisis. It’s the gift none of us wants. Because when crisis comes, it broadsides us. It reminds us that in spite of our best efforts, we are ultimately out of control. Crisis exposes us as those who are in deep need and unable to help ourselves. It causes us to cry out to God. But what if at that very point, crisis turned out to be a gift?”

There’s nothing easier than looking at the world around us and feeling despair. Society is in open rebellion against God and it seems like that rebellion must soon lead to some kind of persecution against God’s people. 

Sin may seem pleasant to us now, but we must not forget how it will appear when we get past it and turn to look back on it; especially must we keep in mind how it will seem from a dying pillow.
—David Gibson

It has been a good few days for Christian writing and I’m glad to share a roundup of some of the articles I’ve discovered in my online wanderings.

Over at Westminster Books you’ll find a discount on Kevin DeYoung’s new book.
There is a number of Kindle deals to glance at today.
The Tearing Apart of Convictional Civility
“Something has changed in the air of evangelicalism in recent years. Once-aspirational words like ‘winsome’ and ‘thoughtful’ or descriptors like ‘nuanced’ and ‘kind’ now trigger an attitude of dismissiveness and sneering from many on the right.” Trevin Wax shares some really good thoughts here.
Preaching Is Culturally Determined
Eddie reminds us that the style of our preaching is culturally determined. I love this: “it is one of the anomalies of systematic expository preaching that preachers will take one of Jesus’ wonderful self-explanatory parables and turn them into three tightly argued (alliterative) points.”
By Faith Abel
“Why did God approve of Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s? It’s not a simple question to answer, especially if you limit yourself to the facts of the story as told in Genesis.” Rebecca offers a compelling take on the matter.
The FAQs: Report Reveals Sexual Abuse Cover-Up by Southern Baptist Entity
Joe Carter has one of his FAQs to provide a framework for understanding the report about abuse in the SBC. “On Sunday, a 288-page report commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention was released that finds allegations of sexual abuse were ignored or covered up for nearly 20 years by senior members of the denomination’s Executive Committee.”
Not Enough Wisdom
I enjoyed this article about a father and his daughter.
Help! I’m Addicted to Pornography
“Friends, porn is crushing us. Sexualization is everywhere. Rather than exalting sex, our culture is reducing sex by reducing everything to sex. Since God created the human body for sex, it is easy for us to succumb to this pull to sexualize everything. And when sex becomes ultimate, it means that sexual acts must be constant if we’re going to enjoy this life. Outside of sex with another person, that leaves us with the convenient habit of pornography.”
Flashback: 5 Warnings to Those Who Merely Pretend To Be Godly
There is in each of us a dangerous temptation toward hypocrisy, to be one thing but to pretend to be another.

If there is anything in the world that will make a man bestial in his habits it is the idea that he was descended from the beast. —De Witt Talmage