Character

I'm in the midst of an ongoing Bible study about the life of King David.  Last week and this week I am leading the part of the study where David actually becomes king of Israel.  One of the questions I asked was something like, "What was it about David that qualified him to be king.".   The point of the question was to lay out just how inappropriate David was in terms of background and experience to be king.    The problem with my question was that I didn't anticipate the one word answer I got, which rendered everything else I had thought irrelevent.

The answer that was so simple that I didn't even think of we was....

CHARACTER


As I have been thinking about it since then, I've had the chance to reflect on the character of some of the folks running for president.   I think it's interesting that the two current front runners (Trump and Clinton) both have such significant questions about their character (or lack of) yet somehow manage to remain front runners.   On the other hand, the one candidate about whom there is virtually no question about his character languishes in 4th or 5th place, (Ben Carson).

I remember hearing a pastor talk about how the most important thing they look for in hiring staff at their church was character and how they felt like they could teach the job to anyone but couldn't teach character.

So, I guess we're left to contemplate why character seems to mean so little to the US electorate.