A Lesson in Leadership – Sunday, August 01, 1943
Within the past week we have seen another dramatic evidence of the terrible disaster that can come into the lives of those who follow after false leadership.* History has given us altogether too many examples of the widespread human misery caused by those who have more power than control, more opportunity than ability, more ambition than altruism, more persuasion than honor, more personal influence than integrity. And leadership built upon such false foundation inevitably collapses—and the more pretentious it is, the greater the fall—but misery for all follows in its wake.
We are somehow reminded at this time of these descriptive words from the Psalms: “As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.” (Psalm 10:5-7.) We can sympathize with those people in those places whose mistakes have already been so tragically demonstrated—people who either didn’t know whom to follow, or who had no choice. And we can realize more keenly than ever before the grave responsibility of choosing leadership. It would be a simplified responsibility if leadership were always good. But unfortunately, leadership is a gift sometimes found among the good and sometimes tragically found among the not so good; and unfortunately, also, the full weight of tragedy does not fall wholly upon the leaders responsible. And so, all peoples must evaluate their leadership, watch the pattern take shape, determine if they can the direction in which the leader is moving, evaluate that pattern and direction in the light of history, weigh it according to the words of wise and inspired men, and by these standards determine whether or not they can trust the leader, whether or not his ways are committed to less power and more freedom, or more power and less freedom, whether or not the destination he has in mind is a destination at which they are willing to arrive.
If it is, they had best follow whole-heartedly. If it isn’t, they had best forsake such leadership while they can, or be prepared to pay the price that has been paid by countless peoples who have permitted themselves to follow after false leadership to the point where they couldn’t turn back. This is the lesson that the events of the week just past has rewritten on the pages of the world’s history.
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, August 1, 1943, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1943.
* The resignation of Mussolini was announced the previous week.
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August 01, 1943
Broadcast Number 0,728