Intro 

Every few years, Christians gather around a new “champion,” convinced that this leader — rough around the edges, morally questionable, allergic to humility — is somehow going to bring America back to God.
And every time I watch it happen, the same image comes to mind:

a chimpanzee holding a machine gun.

Not because the leader is an animal — but because we keep putting dangerous power into the hands of people who have never once shown the character to wield it well … and then we’re shocked when something gets destroyed.

It’s not persecution.
It’s not the culture war.
It’s not the devil.
It’s our own foolishness, dressed up as faith.

Power Does Not Sanctify the Person Who Holds It

In Scripture, power is morally neutral — a tool, a multiplier. It amplifies whatever is already inside the human heart.

Give a gentle shepherd a kingdom, and you get David.
Give a tyrant a kingdom, and you get Pharaoh.

Power doesn’t make anyone holy.
It simply reveals what they already are.

Which is why expecting un-Christlike leaders to produce Christlike results isn’t faith.
It’s magical thinking.

What Psychology Shows About Power and Bad Character

Modern psychology confirms exactly what Scripture teaches:
power doesn’t make a person better — it makes them more themselves.

1. Power Amplifies the True Self

Dacher Keltner’s “Power Paradox” shows that power lowers empathy and increases impulsiveness.
Whatever is inside a person grows louder with authority.

If someone is humble, power expands their goodness.
If someone is cruel, power expands their destruction.

2. Power Weakens Self-Control

Research from Galinsky and Gruenfeld shows that power reduces inhibition and increases risk-taking.
The brakes fail just when the stakes rise.

A chimp with a machine gun isn’t dangerous because the gun is evil —
it’s because the chimp has no brakes.

3. Power + Insecurity = Volatility

Jennifer Lerner’s work shows that insecure leaders respond with overcompensation, paranoia, and aggression.

Give an insecure, un-Christlike person authority, and they don’t become righteous —
they become unstable and controlling.

4. Power Breeds Hypocrisy

Waytz and Young found that power makes people believe the rules apply to everyone except them.

Un-Christlike leaders demand righteousness from others while excusing sin in themselves.
Jesus had a word for this: Pharisee.

5. Followers Often Make It Worse

Susan Fiske’s research on dominance shows that blind loyalty exaggerates a leader’s worst traits.

Sometimes the real danger isn’t the chimp firing the gun —
it’s the crowd cheering him on.

Winning the Culture Is Not the Same as Transforming It

Many Christians think cultural dominance equals spiritual victory.

If we can just get “our guy” elected …
If we can just pass “our laws” …
If we can just punish the people we don’t like …

Then the country will become holy again.

But Jesus never taught top-down holiness.
Revival begins in hearts, not legislatures.
The Kingdom grows through discipleship, not domination.

We are not advancing Christianity when we hand the Gospel message to someone who does not embody the Gospel.
We are simply rebranding power with Jesus’ name slapped on the package.

You Don’t Give Heavy Artillery to Someone Who Can’t Control Their Own Tongue

The tongue is a fire.
If someone cannot control their words, impulses, temper, lust, pride, or ego — why would we trust them with something even more explosive?

If someone cannot rule their own heart, they won’t rule a nation with righteousness.

Giving political power to the un-Christlike doesn’t create holiness.
It creates chaos dressed in Christian vocabulary.

Power Reveals the Heart — and It Reveals Ours Too

Supporting un-Christlike leaders reveals something about us:

that we value dominance more than humility

that we prefer strongmen over servants

that we trust worldly tactics more than spiritual fruit

that we cling to fear more than faith.

When Christians champion people who embody everything Christ warned us against, we’re not defending Christianity.
We’re confessing our unbelief.

Deep down we’re saying:

“We don’t trust Jesus’ way to work.
We need someone meaner, louder, tougher, and more ruthless to do it for Him.”

That is not discipleship.
It is idolatry.

The Kingdom of God Does Not Grow Through Threats

Jesus rejected every shortcut to power:

He refused the sword in Gethsemane.
He refused Satan’s offer in the wilderness.
He refused the crowd’s attempt to make Him king by force.

Because the Kingdom cannot be built through coercion.
It is built through transformation.

Good fruit does not grow on rotten trees.
Christlike societies are not built by un-Christlike leaders.

You cannot shoot your way into sanctification.
A machine gun does not make a chimp wise.
Political power does not make a sinner holy.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Some Christians don’t actually want a Christlike society.
They want a victorious society — even if it’s built on fear, cruelty, and domination.

But Jesus didn’t come to win a culture war.
He came to win hearts.

So we can keep putting machine guns into the hands of chimps — leaders without fruit, without character, without Christ — and watch them spray destruction into the world while we blame “the enemy.”

Or we can stop lying to ourselves.

You cannot disciple a nation through a bully.
You cannot legislate people into the Kingdom.
You cannot get Christlike results from Christless methods.

The Kingdom of God will never come riding on the back of a man who does not resemble its King.

And until we truly believe that, we will keep mistaking brute power for revival
and noise for transformation.

Because at the end of the day:

A chimp with a machine gun doesn’t become a soldier.
And a leader without Christ doesn’t make a nation Christian.

References

Psychology of Power,Keltner, D. (2016). The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence. Penguin Press.
— Foundation of the idea that power amplifies traits, reduces empathy, and disinhibits behavior.

Galinsky, A. D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Magee, J. C. (2003). “From Power to Action.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
— Shows power increases action-taking, impulsivity, and decreases inhibition.

Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Anderson, C. (2003). “Power, Approach, and Inhibition.” Psychological Review.
— Demonstrates that power reduces self-control and increases risk-taking.

Lerner, J. S., & Keltner, D. (2001). “Fear, Anger, and Risk.” Psychological Science.
— Insecure leaders react with aggression and paranoia; emotion shapes decision-making.

Lerner, J. S., Li, Y., Valdesolo, P., & Kassam, K. (2015). “Emotion and Decision Making.” Annual Review of Psychology.
— Confirms insecurity and anxiety magnify erratic leadership.

Waytz, A., Chou, E. Y., Magee, J. C., & Galinsky, A. D. (2015). “The Moralization of Power.” Current Directions in Psychological Science.
— Shows how power increases hypocrisy and moral exceptionalism.

Young, L., & Phillips, J. (2011). “The Paradox of Moral Attention.” Cognition.
— Demonstrates how people judge others harshly while excusing themselves.

Fiske, S. T. (2010). Social Beings: Core Motives in Social Psychology. Wiley.
— Explains how dominance, group loyalty, and blind followership intensify harmful leadership behaviors.

Goya’s “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters,” from Los Caprichos (1799).

Scriptural Citations 

Power reveals the heart: Luke 6:43–45

Character > strength: 1 Samuel 16:7

Leaders without self-control cause destruction: Proverbs 29:2; Proverbs 25:28

Hypocrisy of leaders: Matthew 23 (Pharisees)

Kingdom not advanced by force: John 18:36; Matthew 26:52

Transformation > domination: Romans 12:2; Mark 10:42–45