Rhetorically speaking....

I had this strange memory pop up today. When I was a youth minister in Winston Salem, our rector of 31 years retired. He was a great pastor, a pretty hard line traditionalist and ran a tight staff that he demanded a reasonable amount from. He managed vestries and building projects and diocesan policies pretty well considering. But he was a bad preacher. Not horrible, certainly not heretical or anything- just sort of short and folksy tidbits about the gospel and life. After an 18 month interim, we installed a new rector- a young fellow, bold, bright, and a fabulous preacher and writer- he had a real gift for wordcraft. But he was a horrible pastor and a mediocre administrator. He spent a good deal of money on what most considered frivolous items, and didn't respond to people's honest concerns- somewhat aloof and elite. He lasted 18 months and then we were again in the search process.
This has always been a great illustration to me of how people, and especially institutions respond to what is wrong by replacing it with the opposite. It made me quite depressed to think that maybe this election was simply about replacing a folksy, poorly spoken 'decider' with a well spoken but out of touch elitist. But then I revisited one of the earliest speeches that Obama made- and regardless of what happens, I am convinced that this will go down as one of the top speeches in history- and I was reminded that what has been missing for so long is someone to lead- not administrate- someone to lay out a vision and capture our imaginations and get us working together and to remember all that is good and possible in the US- not to hunker us down in a fear bunker and limits our hope to simply surviving the current crisis. There is power in words, and if I have to endure political rhetoric, at least this is the type I'd rather listen to.