May 21, 2025

“An increase in political power often spells a decrease in understanding, because political power inevitably attracts disinformation or highly selective information from those who want to use it for their own ends. The powerful will always have trouble deciphering the sincerity and reliability of the indispensable information that backroom counselors whisper in their ears, disorienting their decision making and adding to their isolation.”[1]

Within 4 months of being out of office, Joe Biden has been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer that has already spread to his bones. His Gleason Score of 9 out of 10 means that there is a very high probability that it will continue to advance and metastasize. Dr. Zeke Emanuel (oncologist and former member of the advisory board for COVID – 19 for Biden) said, that “He’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade.”

Many people are rightly asking the question of how could the President, who had access to the best health care in the country not be aware of his condition. We’ve seen this all through the Scriptures and history; most kings and powerful people surround themselves with people who will only tell them what they want to hear. It is rare for a person in power to have genuine advisors, like a Daniel who dare tell them what they need to hear.

It is not just kings and presidents who are desperate to hang on to power. So are their advisors. In order to walk the halls of the palace or White House, advisors have to be able to keep their jobs. If they tell the President the truth, they risk losing their job, their access to power, their esteem, and all of the perks that go with it. Advisors are highly motivated NOT to advise, but to massage egos. The fact that Joe Biden was surrounded by ego massagers is all chronicled in the forthcoming book, Original Sin (interesting title) that details the cover-up of his declining health.

Kings and Presidents are notoriously disconnected from the reality that most of us live in, but not our King. Our King came to us. There is a sense in which He “started in the mail room” and worked for years as a custodian before he started moving up the ladder. He came to be one of us, came to be with us, came to walk with us, eat with us that he might die for us. There is no King like our King. He does not hoard his authority, but has shared it with his church, that we might be local project managers for advancing his kingdom and preparing for his return.

We are right to wonder what our political leaders are not telling us. In some cases, they do not know because they don’t want to know and no one will tell them. But we are right to consider that our real King knows everything and shares with us all that we need to know. He really is that good and really loves his own.

Grace and peace,

Bob

Sunday’s Text:  Luke 12:1-7

1.The Beginning of Politics, Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes, Princeton University Press, 2017, p. 116.