It's interesting how fictitious movies can reflect the currents of
reality. I often find myself viewing films, music videos, and visual
arts from the sensory perspective of how reality can actually be
stranger than fiction.
I also find myself meditating on how classic literary and film projects like
"The Giver" and "The Godfather" apply euphemisms that reveal so much
about humanity while euthanizing the darker side of human nature.
Both films cloak violence in terms like "lose" a person rather than kill a
person; "release" a baby or elderly person rather than kill the person; and
assigning a "consigliore" — a new word to me — to eliminate perceived
threats to a system or a dynasty.
Reflection on recent conversations with police and military personnel
led me to consider how keepers of the peace sometimes use excessive
force. I remembered facing guns, dogs, bombs, water hoses and billy
clubs in the 20th century civil rights era; which ironically is being
replayed in Ferguson today.
Still ruminating . . . the innocent womb babies flashed across the scene.
Raw, ruthless power causes them to lose their lives before they can see
the sunlight.
Now come young people like Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin,
Lakisha Wilson, Tonya Reaves; the beheaded American journalists
and British aid worker, the black on black killings in Chicago,
and on and on.
Enter the consigliere factor. The word consigliere is Italian — meaning
counselor or adviser — most famously for an organized-crime boss.
In medieval times, nobles and or consiglieres of a conquered court would
make themselves available to the new monarch. Only the most trusted and
knowledgeable nobleman could become a consigliore, serving several
generations of ruling families.
Today, some powerful figures might depend on the services of
consiglieres. Since the "Godfather" movies made the term infamous,
though, political candidates who would don't use that word for their
advisers.
Various celebrities also use the services of a consigliere to help
navigate their careers. Their agents, publicists, directors, and the
like may have their own agendas, so it is not unusual for in-demand
celebrities to seek the opinion of trusted advisors before signing any
contracts.
Often the adviser, whether in politics-land or celebrity-ville, is a
close friend or family member. If the advisor is not as wise as he or
his patron thinks he is, things can become very rocky.
So let me tie all of this together.
Maybe too many of today's important decisions are being guided by
powerful consiglieres, who lean on their own limited wisdom instead
of God's. Most likely, this has been the case since the fall of man.
The founders of America tried to rein in this prideful tendency of
human exaltation. Early in America, with all our faults, was one
nation under God. Somewhere along the way we have forgotten
God and relied on the so-called experts who do what is wise in
their own eyes.
Have we become a nation guided by consiglieres?
Before I sound too negative toward consiglieres, advisers, or
consultants, let me point out that Proverbs 15:22 reminds us,
"Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."
Yet, Proverbs also tells us, "Do not put your trust in princes, in human
beings, who cannot save."
The best course of action, to end sickness, poverty, war, racism and
all problems, is to seek many advisors who look to God for wisdom,
not to their own understanding.
According to consigliere 101 however, the expert alone knows best.
She or he believes he is the source of wisdom and he is only too happy
to tell us what to do. So, when the consigliere tells a soldier or law officer
to see people as threats, it is easier for the officer to empty a clip or a
magazine into a target than it is to remember that the target is a
human being.
After all, it's easier to use excessive force to kill a target than an
acknowledged fellow human being.
Of course, some people really are threats.
Police and soldiers face real danger to their lives and safety on a daily, if
not moment by moment basis. And just as they need to remember that those
they serve are created in God's image, so must we, the public, remember
that law and military enforcement officers are made in God's image, are
meant to serve us, and are often willing to give their lives for us.
What I am concerned about is the mindset that is created when we forget
God. Life becomes less significant, less sacred.
Now, I'm wondering if Planned Parenthood and the abortion lobby are
guided by the consigliere factor. Think about it. According to the
abortion lobby, the baby in the womb isn't a human being, he or she is
a threat to the mother's emotional health or finances or reproductive
freedom. So, eliminate the threat.
I may be whistling into the wind here. People may think I'm being
silly, but it seems that we are putting our confidence in the wrong
place these days. We seem to be depending solely on human advisors
and weapons of war.
We are forgetting that the Bible is the final authority.
We need to go back to striving to be one nation under God. We need to
know the Prince of Peace who will mete out truth and know justice.
We need to really mean "In God we trust."
Dr. Alveda C. King grew up in the civil rights movement led by her uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She is a pastoral associate and director of African-American outreach for Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries. Her family home in Birmingham, Ala., was bombed, as was her father’s church office in Louisville, Ky. Alveda herself was jailed during the open housing movement. Read more reports from Dr. Alveda C. King — Click Here Now.