It Lacks a Man like Sir Winston Churchill

Over the Christmas and New Year break I was greatly blessed to read a biography written well over sixty years ago on the life and work of British politician and statesman Sir Winston Churchill. I was also greatly blessed to discover the biographer to be a man of humility, honesty and integrity. Originally he had made it his aim to make the career of Churchill a moral object-lesson for politicians because, as he had conceived it, Churchill, “was a man who had spent his lifetime in escaping from the consequences of his own errors – who by his own astuteness as a politician had invariably succeeded in evading the forfeit normally claimed from the man who makes repeated blunders.”

He sketched out a list of the “blunders” as they were vaguely suggested by popular opinion, believing, “Honest men should know this volatile demagogue for what he was. Politicians seeking success might learn from him how to turn defeat into triumph.” He then set to work building up his thesis but, “the further I investigated the more remote the thesis seemed to be. In the light of all the facts it melted away as disconcertingly as the hosts of Sennacherib.” In other words, having started out with the conception of an astute politician guilty of many errors, he discovered the errors had disappeared and, “I was left to question the astuteness of the politician. But the figure of the patriot Minister emerged.”

I wonder how many biographers today could honestly and in all humility write of themselves, “This biography indeed exemplifies the triumph of fact over prejudice.” He proved no thesis and set forth no psychological character-study of Sir Winston Churchill, his biography is made up for the most part of facts on what the great man has done and what he has said – “with the slightest intrusions of the opinions of the author.” I’ve heard a lot about the “blunders” of Churchill down through the last fifty and more years, especially that of Gallipoli in World War One, where so many Australian and New Zealand soldiers, “gave their lives for the Home Country.”

Whilst people in both countries have always spoken admiringly of Sir Winston for his great leadership in World War Two, they’ve nearly always spoken disparagingly of him over Gallipoli … pity they were/are not in possession of the facts. Like most people of my generation in this part of the world I am familiar with his most famous quotes and snippets from his speeches, but to read those speeches in their entirety and in context of the enormous issues facing him and the Government at the time, it is not the blunderer who shows up, it is the man of tremendous character and integrity – the man of honor shows up! Yes, he took the blame for that disaster, but unlike so many others of that time, he refused to throw anyone else to the wolves.

No doubt Sir Winston Churchill had many failures over his long public career, but to call any failure a ‘blunder’ is a gross misuse of that word. He was pugnacious, often tactless and did not suffer fools gladly, but he was never stupid, which is one of the meanings of the word, ‘blunder.’ Sir Winston was a man of brilliant intellect, great courage and dogged perseverance, but it is his honor I want to talk about in this post because as stated above, he was a man of honor. In his famous, “Never give in” address to the students of his old school in 1941, he qualified it with, “never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” Blunderers ignore convictions of  honor and good sense!

Looking at political leaders, government senators, ministers and other so-called movers and shakers around the world today, there seems to be very few of them in possession of honor and good sense. Take my country Australia for example; we have liars and deceivers in leadership. A liar and deceiver can never be a person in possession of honor no matter how much they talk about the need for it in government and business. But our leaders are not the only ones; liars and deceivers make up today’s political climate everywhere … and that is why every one of them will never go down in history with a reputation for greatness such as Sir Winston Churchill has.

The word ‘honor’ means ‘personal integrity’ ‘allegiance to moral principles’. Where do we see evidence of those traits in today’s crowd ruling in the world? For the most part we do not. And that is why the world is sliding into hell in a hand-basket! Without discounting any of Sir Winston’s other personal characteristics, it was a commitment to personal integrity and an allegiance to moral principles that made him ever so sure that victory was a certainty for both his own and the allied nations and that equally, defeat was a certainty for Germany. In other words, in looking for personal integrity with an allegiance to moral principles in the leadership of that rogue nation, he found none!

I don’t know what Sir Winston’s relationship with God was like, but it is very clear  he relied on God’s help and encouraged his people to do the same often. He acknowledged that the Bible was the authoritative word of God and believed the truths and principles revealed within to be eternally unfailing if embraced without compromise. That is one grand reason why he would never at any time, at any cost entertain the idea of a peace settlement with the Satan-possessed Adolf Hitler. Whatever he may not known of God, he did know that God would stand behind His every word. How very different it is with today’s leaders in the so-called free world.

If he were alive today Sir Winston Churchill would have little in common with the majority of them. He would quickly spot them as frauds and pretenders – men and women of no personal integrity, no honor, immoral, amoral, unprincipled, compromising, full of lip-service, full of self, servants of self but never servants of the people they were elected to govern for. He would see them as enemies of their countries, every bit as much so as Hitler was an enemy of his country. He would early discern their forked-tongue speech just as he early discerned the same in Hitler when others around him were asleep to what Hitler’s real intentions were or afraid to speak out against him in any case.

I wonder what he would say to them about their half-hearted approach to the so-called “war on terror”? I believe he would say the same things he said in 1936, about the reluctance of Great Britain and other Western European countries to understand and fully recognize the threat posed by Hitler, “And so they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.” How about this … “There is nothing in the world more pitiable than an irresolute man, oscillating between two feelings, who would willingly unite the two and who does not perceive that nothing can unite them.”

He had nothing but disdain for those, “who eagerly and cravenly sought to yield to any terms, accept any conditions, embrace any humiliation, merely to be allowed to survive.”  The poison of political correctness never entered the heart or mind of the great man of honor. How sad for today’s world that it lacks a man like Sir Winston Churchill … how sad that there seems to be no political voice anywhere in the world committed to personal integrity with an allegiance to moral principles and guts enough to boldly stand up for what is right. It’s doubtful we will ever again hear the voice of a leader in the Western world exhorting his people to, “Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

“I don’t know what the world is coming to!” It’s the catch-cry of the multitudes everywhere today as they try to grapple with issues beyond their control such as corruption in high places, high unemployment, governments spending beyond their means, horrendous national debt, increasing crime and violence, hot wars, cold wars, erosion of free speech and personal liberties etc. Well, for an accurate description of what the world is coming to, all one has to do is go to the last book of the Bible and with humility, read the prophecies of forthcoming judgments of God upon the world from Revelation 6:1-19:6. 

You see, what one sows, is what one reaps Galatians 6:7. If you sow the wind you will reap the whirlwind Hosea 8:7. Someone else put it this way: “Sow a thought and you reap an act; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” It’s true. It works for good and it works for bad!  World leaders who have no honor – those with no commitment to personal integrity and an allegiance to moral principles reap the bad and all end up in the same place – eventually. It’s also important to note however, what is at the top flows down to the bottom. Look what happened to the people of Germany … but look what happened to the people of Britain and its allied nations.

For all his greatness however, the very best that Sir Winston Churchill stood for and achieved was good for this world only. His power and influence was enormous but never enough to take anybody into God’s world, only Jesus Christ possesses that. Back in Sir Winston’s time everybody knew what was right and what was wrong, they just needed someone with honor, good sense and guts enough to stand up and say it. We lack such leaders today. But even if we didn’t, their power and influence would not be enough to take us into God’s world either. On the other hand, their power and influence is enough to drag you into Satan’s world should you allow yourself to come under it – it’s called the lake of fire Revelation 20:14.

What to do then? Stop listening to liars and deceivers. Stop lying to and deceiving yourself. There is such a thing as right and wrong … read the Ten Commandments.  Acknowledge that you’ve broken them and ask God for forgiveness. Turn to Jesus Christ the Savior and have your sins washed away in His blood, shed on the cross for you. Make Jesus Christ Lord of your life. Submit to the Scriptures of the Bible. Stand up for what is right; stand down from what is wrong. Pray for your leaders that God would reveal Himself to some of them and that they too would commit to personal integrity and an allegiance to moral principles – honor. “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight” Proverbs 12:22. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” Luke 5:32.