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Can a Psychopath be a good Christian leader?




The rumination of the week.

This question was put to me a few weeks ago by a friend and clinical psychologist. I profess no expertise in this area and have left it till now to blog and ruminate on it.

The immediate thing that comes to my mind, when someone mentions psychopath, is serial killer! All the bad, amoral and violent sins rolled into one individual. However there is a body of academics that feel, that this neurological condition can result in there being good psychopaths walking among us. This neurological condition affects 1% of the adult male population.

A survey conducted by Forbes listed the top ten professions that you will more likely than not find psychopaths. Number 1 was CEO's (who wants to build a tower.) 2, Lawyers (no surprise there and many go into politics which also explains it) 3, Media TV/Radio personalities. 4, Salespeople (Those dreaded double glazing and solar heating people that hunt down and prey on old age pensioners.) 5,Surgeons (This surprised me, but on reflection maybe not) 6, Journalist ( They have just got to get the story.) 7, Police Officers. (never trust the Fuzz) 8, Clergy both traditional and evangelical, (Now this did surprise me.) 9, Chef (one Gordon- you know who). 10, Civil Servants (That explains why we are made to wait in long queues and then told to wait, they enjoy the pain it brings)

Interestingly, as a general rule, you don't find psychopaths among Care workers, charity workers, nurses or Accountants- for some reason, not sure if that includes bankers, I doubt it. Also interestingly enough both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been identified as psychopaths, one a businessman/CEO and the other a lawyer/ politician.

This brings me to the question in point. Can a Christian Leader be a Psychopath? Clearly if the present scientific thought and the survey done by Forbes are to be believed then the answer is yes!

Psychopathic traits include, being bold and confident, stress tolerant, risk takers, hugely loyal to those who work for them, and charming and charismatic visionaries. All of these things we look for in our Christian leaders. On the down side psychopaths lack empathy; they don't really care about how people feel. This is an essential perhaps in good pastoral leadership.  Having said this though, psychologists have found that psychopaths are really good at knowing how people think, what they want, and what they believe. While they themselves may not have these feelings, they are able to accurately mimic a feeling of empathy with those they serve. Psychopaths are more likely to get themselves into trouble and fall. This is not, in recent times, unusual in Christian leaders.

On this subject, for me the jury is still out. But one thing I do know is, we are all sinners saved by grace and that we all- to some extent or other have psychopathic traits.

You never know maybe we do have psychopaths preaching in our pulpits.




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