There is a common saying that goes thus: “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This statement is credited to Lord John Emerich Acton (1834-1902), an English Catholic historian. But Lord Acton is often misquoted. His actual statement is “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This statement is contained in his 1887 letter addressed to an Anglican Bishop in which he underscores the dangers of power concentrated in one hand.

In other words,  Lord Acton did not say “power corrupts”, but “power tends to corrupt”, which means that power, by itself, does not automatically corrupt, because one can be powerful without being necessarily corrupt. In truth, there is always the tendency of power to corrupt, when the person in power loses his head, and becomes arrogant or self-centred. But, it is absolute power - power without control, or without checks and balances - that invariably corrupts absolutely, sooner or later.

If we say that power automatically corrupts, it means ALL men and women in power throughout the world, without a single exception, are corrupt one way or the other. But this is pure fallacy. The Pope is one of the most powerful and influential leaders on earth, with a dominion that covers all the four corners of the globe, beyond the jurisdiction of even the most powerful Presidents or Heads of State, but he is officially referred to as the “Servant of the Servants of God”, which makes him the Chief Servant of the people of God, the humblest and most incorruptible of all those in power.

Like Jesus Christ, who bends down to wash the feet of his disciples, the Pope always stoops low to serve entire humanity and guide all towards eternal salvation. Hence, we can say categorically that it is not power per se, but power without Christ, whether absolute or not, that corrupts absolutely.

Having disposed of that popular misconception, we can now look into the issue of power itself. There are different categories of power: political power, social power, economic power, religious power, and so on. The one constant factor is that all powers belong to God, and are meant to be freely given by the people, not snatched through violence or corruption. Divine power is the sole source of power in heaven and on earth, and it is only through God that power is conferred or withdrawn.  According to William Shakespeare (in Measure for Measure), “It is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant”. In other words, power is sweet to use, but easy to abuse as we see in our current-day world. Power is meant to be used to elevate others, not to oppress or tyrannise them.

But political, economic, and religious powers are the greatest of all powers on earth, having control over the lives and souls of millions of people at the same time. A single action or inaction of the powerful is capable of spreading joy or misery to the vast majority of people solely dependent on institutional authorities for their economic, social, and spiritual well-being. This is why all those in positions of authority - be it in politics, the Church, the school, social organizations, and so forth - need to be extremely cautious in the exercise of power over their subjects. The abuse of political power is capable of sparking a World War.

The earliest form of political power was monarchy, in which power is normally concentrated in one hand, and thus subject to abuse. Hence, speaking the truth to power has always been a great challenge since dictatorship has always held sway from the beginning of time. Even Prophet Jonah risked disobeying the Lord rather than delivering the bitter message to the sinful people of Nineveh (Jonah 1:1-17).

Two notorious dictators in the time of Christ were Caesar and Herod. Caesar was the title of every Roman Emperor. When the Jews planned to put Jesus in trouble with the reigning Caesar, they asked him to justify the payment of tribute to Caesar which prompted the famous response of Jesus:  “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Our Lord here demonstrates the need for tact and diplomacy in dealing with such brutal dictators. One of the charges against Jesus during his later trial was disloyalty to Caesar by admitting to being the King of the Jews (Mark 15:2).

As for Herod, Christ encountered two of them: Herod the Great attempted to get rid of the Baby Jesus at birth; Herod Antipas was involved in his later trial, and was responsible for putting John the Baptist to death for bluntly speaking the truth to power. John had chided him for taking over Herodias, the wife of his half-brother, Philip. Thus, John the Baptist became one of the earliest martyrs of Christ for his courage in confronting naked dictatorship. 

One of the fundamental roles of Church ministers is to speak truth to power, without minding whose oxen are gored.   These days, we have pastors who compromise their positions and justify obvious falsehood either through conspiratorial silence or deliberate distortion of facts. Failure to speak up in the face of falsehood is a grave sin of omission. Evil thrives when good men keep their peace.

Modern day Africa is replete with dictators and corrupt, sit-tight leaders who impose themselves on the people and repress all forms of protest and revolt. They fail to realize that power is transient and ends sooner or later.  If a man decides not to leave power, power will ultimately leave him. The greater the power, the greater the temptation to abuse it. At the peak of fasting, the devil tempted Jesus with food, forgetting that terrestrial power can never withstand divine authority.

So, whenever a Christian finds himself or herself in a position of authority - whether as a class or school prefect, a union leader, a religious head, an appointed minister, or an elected representative of the people as governor or president - he or she should bear in mind that someone was there before them, and they will eventually vacate the position for someone else, whether they like it or not. What matters are the memories you leave behind, the records of your achievements or non-achievements, and the legacy of people you helped to raise up or pull down during your time in office.

Telling the truth to power demands courage, truthfulness, and dedication. But it also requires tact, wisdom, and diplomacy, as demonstrated by Jesus, each time the Pharisees attempted to make him commit himself on sensitive issues. Actions speak louder than words. The best form of reprimand is to lead by examples rather than precepts. An incompetent pastor whose Church is corrupt and disunited lacks the moral right and courage to speak truth to power because charity begins at home.