THE STATESMAN
by Kyle DesJarlais
2007

Devoted to the will of God, uncompromising in his stand, principled in his defense of truth, and utterly unwilling to sacrifice righteousness to achieve a goal–these qualities all typify the statesman. The image of a statesman is evoked from such men of America’s past as Patrick Henry, George Mason, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis. Statesmen are the kind of men who may not have been popular in their age, but men who would rather serve the God of truth and be innocent before Him, then bow to the will of their opponents in order to have peace. They stick out like pictures on a wall from the rest of the pages of history. While possibly not being men whom the world would rally after, they are the kind of men God wants in government to not only defend His order, but also exemplify it before the multitudes of men whom they serve.

The statesman is the kind of man who would say with God’s prophets to Israel and the Apostle Paul, “Yea, let God be true and every man a liar.” He zealously affirms the truth even when all other men are not willing to accept it. His faith in God is much stronger than his faith in man because the statesman realizes that God places certain men to stand alone in order to rally around them people that will stand for God’s Word. In contrast with the modern politician, who attempts to serve a lifetime in the legislature by being a spineless compromiser, the statesman leaves his reelection up to God. He campaigns not on what the people wish, but upon what God demands of him. Statesmen truly follow God’s admonition to them in Psalms 2:12: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little.”

Unlike Niccolo Machiavelli’s character The Prince from the Italian Renaissance, the statesman repudiates the unethical stratagem that states the end justifies the means. He believes that not only his goal must be right, but also his method of bringing it to pass. Recognizing that God will judge him if he does not keep to his oath to the constitution he is sworn to uphold, the statesman has a healthy fear of God’s wrath upon him in the event he perjures his oath. When all around him men are compromising to supposedly gain a “greater good”, the statesman will always value his peaceful spiritual existence that comes from walking honestly before his God.