How he changed
Humility is a bulwark
Reporters for the Washington Post and the New York Times have posted articles on what brought Speaker Mike Johnson to a stance of supporting aid for Ukraine, Israel and our Pacific allies. Here are the links - How Mike Johnson Got to Yes on Aid to Ukraine and Mike Johnson's Evolution. My interest is in how what he did was an act of virtue--humility, perseverance, and courage.
Acknowledging virtue
Christians have a duty to see and acknowledge virtue in our political leaders when it occurs. Even when we disagree with that politician almost all the time (as is true for me in this case). Our tradition broadly says -- 1) you need to obey your conscience and 2) you need to inform your conscience. That approach means that Christians will end up on different sides of political and cultural issues. We aren't inclined to expect our clergy to speak from-above, telling us how we should align ourselves politically or how we should vote. The Pope and the Presiding Bishop are free to call for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza. And Faithful Roman Catholics and Episcopalians are free to disagree with them. Even to wonder about the morality of positions that could leave Hamas in control of Gaza (depending on what you mean by "ceasefire").
The process of change
The news articles looked into the process by which the Speaker of the House changed his view on supporting Ukraine in the war with Russia. They noted elements such as: how his change may come with a great political cost as he could lose his job over it, his meeting with national security officials in the Oval Office to discuss classified intelligence, that his son was about to begin at the US Naval Academy so he'd "rather send bullets to Ukraine, than American boys", his meeting with other Republicans with differing views, that he had moved from being a little known member of Congress to being second in line to the Presidency, he "knelt and prayed for guidance", another Republican said “All of a sudden, he’s realizing that the world depends on this ... This is not some little political game on the floor”, and he met with the leaders of several European nations that had boarders with Russia.
Here are a few of the Speaker's comments about what he considered in his decision making -- "Look, history judges us for what we do. ...This is a critical time on the world stage. I could make a selfish decision and do something different, but I'm doing here what I believe to be the right thing." “I want to be on the right side of history", “I really do believe the intel ... I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed. I think he might go to the Baltics next. I think he might have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies.”, He quoted John Quincy Adams - “Duty is ours. Results are God’s.” .. “To me, that’s a very liberating thought ... I’m going to do my duty, and the results are not ultimately up to me. I’m comfortable with that. We’ll see what happens, and we’ll lay the chips down on the table.”
The virtues
I think we might see several virtues in Johnson's work, even if we disagree with his position. The most obvious virtues in play were humility, perseverance, and courage. and maybe wisdom. As I review the traditional virtues I see a bit of each in his actions. (see the list in "The Kind of Person Being Formed" in chapter 5 of Fill All Things: The Dynamics of Spirituality in the Parish Church. My focus at the moment is on humility.
Frank Bruni in his column on Sunday, wrote about how humility "is a bulwark against arrogance, absolutism, purity, zeal", and “humility is the antidote to grievance. ..: We live in an era defined and overwhelmed by grievance — by too many Americans’ obsession with how they’ve been wronged and their insistence on wallowing in ire. This anger reflects a pessimism that previous generations didn’t feel. The ascent of identity politics and the influence of social media, it turned out, were better at inflaming us than uniting us. They promote a self-obsession at odds with community, civility, comity and compromise. It’s a problem of humility.”
The thing about humility is that it can be seen in specific behaviors. For those of us in the Benedictine tradition the primary behavior is in listening. It is how we engage the Promise of obedience. We listen. And that seems to be what he did. He listened to people he usually disagreed with, he listened to the intelligence experts, and he listened in prayer.
This abides,
Robert
From the Daily Office this morning
In the tender compassion of our God *
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the
shadow of death, *
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Benedictus Dominus Deus