Biography
Albert H. Quie has served his native state of Minnesota as a state senator, United States Congressman and Governor. He retired from elective office in 1983. Currently, he is State Director for Prison Fellowship in Minnesota and North Dakota. Mr. Quie also serves as Chairperson of Search Institute and Justice Fellowship. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"Use of Power" 
As we look at power in the recent election we know, that was a large number of people seeking power. And it was fascinating to me, on the morning after the election, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia was asked what he thought of the election and his answer was, “How sweet it is.” I thought at the same time of another good friend of mine, Robert Dole, who no longer had the position — he no longer had the power. It’s fascinating watching people using power. I have friends who have moved ahead and made lots of money, and lost their family. I have farmer friends who were in powerful positions and have lost their farms.

What is power? One of the best definitions that I know is that power is the ability to tell people to do what you want them to do. If you can get people to do what you want them to do, that’s power.

There are three ways in which power is expressed. First, it’s in a person. People have power and seek power. It begins soon after birth. Watch a child learn that when they cry their mother will come running. Watch that same sibling search for power that exists. Or remember when you came out from church, you didn’t pay any attention to who crawls into the sub-compact car, but if you saw a Seville sitting out there you wondered who’s driving that Seville.

There’s also power in property. The ultimate of powers is the bomb, and we watch two super-powers seeking to have that power, and are now trying to get control of the tremendous power that they have.

But we also know that there is power in another part of our society, and that is in organizations. That’s why single-issue groups have become organized, because that’s a power. And you watch the power of the corporations and supermarkets that put local “Ma and Pa” stores out of operation. The three sources of power: Person and Property and Organizations.

Now, how do they use that power? There are three ways in which they get people to do what they want them to do. One is to convince people. That’s what advertizing is about. That’s what charismatic preachers are about.

The second is to compensate people. If you pay people, they’ll do what you want them to do. You wonder why it is that, after a long strike, and after all those bitter feelings, the employees will come back and be supportive of the corporation. It’s because they’re paid to do it. Compensation does that.

And the third way in which power is exercised is through coercion. Usually you think of governments and coercion. You wonder about that? Just think of when you drive down the road and in the rear view mirror you see that red glass ball on top of a car the first thing you look at is your speedometer. You don’t have to think or anything, immediately your eyes go there. You know the government coerces you, and that’s power as it brings its impact on people’s lives.

Now let’s look at the one about whom it says in the Bible, “all authority has been given unto him in heaven and on earth.” In the fourth chapter of Matthew we read about when Christ was tempted to turn stones into bread, that was economic power. And it is fascinating that Christ responded by quoting scriptures.

And then in the second temptation in Matthew, the devil picked up on that and he quoted scripture in tempting Christ. Again, Christ refused, quoting the scriptures. But in that second one, when he was up on the high pinnacle of the temple, that was the spectacular of religiosity! And he turned that down.

And the third one was to show him all the kingdoms of the world, and said they were his if he’d bow down and worship him. To me it’s fascinating, coming from political life myself, that the devil would offer it to him, and Christ spoke of the devil as the Prince of this world. And again Christ, quoting the scripture: “You shall worship the Lord your God and only him shall you serve.” In the previous one he said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” In the first one he said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Now what is it that Christ is speaking about? Is that different than we practice? We know that when God gives us gifts we must utilize them. If one has gifts in the political life you must play your role in that. We are all involved in the economic sphere. Then what is this difference? Well, to me the difference is expressed as I previously mentioned in reference to Senator Dole, when you don’t have position — you don’t have power. Power is outside yourself.

Economic power is dependent on money. If you don’t have money — you don’t have power. Ask any unemployed person, or if you are unemployed, you know that you’ve lost the power you had with money.

Spiritual power is different. Spiritual power is inside oneself, and when one gives Spiritual power to someone else one gains Spiritual power, and when one gains Spiritual power you give it to someone else. There is a difference. What is that difference? The difference is love — AGAPE it’s called in Greek. Caring for another person, doing something for another person. Christ spoke of it when he used power. He said, “for you it must be different, not to lord it over those over whom you have authority as the Gentiles do, but to be a servant, just as the Son of God came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Now, here’s a way one can test whether we’re following with Spiritual power, or if it is the power of this world. If what you are doing unites people, heals the situation, brings people together in unity, has a redeeming quality — you know it’s coming from God. But if it’s destructive, brings about disunity, tears people apart — then you know it isn’t coming from God.

The word in the economic sphere is to give, and the word in the political sphere is to serve. And that’s what God calls us to do, to give of the gifts that he has given us and to serve our fellow human beings. That came to me very clearly in some experiences that I have observed. To me, one of the most glaring spiritual experiences occurred between a man who is not a Christian and a country which we don’t look at a Christian. And that’s when Anwar Sadat left his country of Egypt, the enemy of Israel, and when I had visited Anwar Sadat in 1976, Anwar Sadat spoke of the last war in this way, “When I started the war ...”. I’d never met a guy who ever admitted starting a war before. And yet, endangering his personal and political life, he went to Knesset. And if it wasn’t for that act, and I consider it a Christ-like act, it never would have been possible for President Carter to develop the accords that brought Egypt and Israel as close together in peace as the accords did.

A person in our nation who did that in his life and wrought a tremendous change in the hearts of people in our nation was Dr. Martin Luther King. And if you watched, as I did, that film of his life, you. saw a man with all the problems that human beings have, all of the struggles that human beings have, did not want to provide the leadership himself, but yet, he followed God. And he didn’t use the power which came to him in that position to aggrandize for himself and take it away from someone else. To me, he came as close as anybody I’ve seen to follow the admonitions of Jesus Christ as he dealt in this political world. And while we have not come to complete racial unity in this nation, the difference between now and thirty years ago is amazing to me. These are lives that have changed the way people think.

In my own life as governor, I spent my first three years struggling with the opposition because the legislature was of a different political party. One of the things we wanted to make certain of was that the opposition would lose when we won so that the next time we would gain even more seats. It wasn’t until I was willing to die politically, announce I wasn’t going to run for re-election — it wasn’t until that time that my chief enemy in the state legislature and I were able to come together. And there was a spiritual connection that developed between us. When we had our last fiscal shortfall in the state, this man came to me and said, “Governor, if you’ll lay out the way, we could not only solve this now, but into the future, I’ll commit my caucus to you.” That’s like Tip O’Neil saying to President Reagan, “If you’ll lay out the way we can solve this deficit problem, not only now but into the future, I’ll commit the entire Democratic house to you.” I saw Roger Moe, the leader of the DFL in the senate of Minnesota, the AGAPE, the Christlike love. And it brought about healing and unity, and it brought about a change and a solving of our problem. Now that’s what I’m talking about — a change that can really affect.

There’s no way that we are going to be able to solve the problems of this world with improved technology. There’s no way that we’re going to be able to solve the problems of this world by educating more and more people, because there are twice as many people in the United States now who are going to college than there were 20 years ago, and we’re still having serious problems. There’s no way we’re going to develop systems and organizations sufficient enough to solve the problems of the world. There’s going to come a people acting in the same powerless way that Jesus Christ acted in his life when he gave himself for us.

I also want to bring up to you another aspect of service and the use of power. A friend of mine went before Congress and talked about his program, “Cities and Schools”. Bill Milliken is his name. He was asked about the real principle of their program. One of the things he said was that the Bible says it is better to give than to receive, and therefore we permit people to give. That’s another searching for power — that we constantly give on our part, and not let other people give.

Remember the story of the woman who wet Christ’s feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair? Or the woman who used expensive perfume and the disciples said, “You ought to sell that and give the money to the poor.” What was it about that? Christ also tried to point out the other direction how one ought to respond when somebody gives to us. That’s why he spoke of the ten lepers — only one said thank you. He did this to Peter when he was washing Peter’s feet. Instead of Peter saying, “I want to do it for you”, he wanted Peter to learn how to thank a person for what they did. How many wives become alienated because a husband doesn’t remember to thank her for all the wonderful things she has done in caring for him and the children throughout their lives? That’s really what we need to learn. Learn how to be thankful for what people give to us.

There are two things everyone needs to know in their life. One is that somebody cares for them, and the second is that you have done something of value for someone else. Now this isn’t something that just comes by a strike of lightning, because when Christ said, “To do the work of God is to believe in him whom he has sent”, that means a lifetime work. That means as we work in our life this becomes more and more a part of our life. It doesn’t come from exhortation, it is something that flows through us, that comes from the Spirit of God. We find it when we share with other people, and in that sharing and in that relationship, and then that understanding of what Christ wants us to do comes through.

It can change the way people act. I have seen businessmen who have totally changed in their relationships. I went to one businessman who was tough and got his business to really sing. And then he ran into financial difficulty, and then he came back again. I went to visit him and what I found there were employees who were staying beyond their eight hours. I came really to visit him and to shake hands with all the people coming to work in the change of shift, and also as they were leaving. That’s what politicians do. I said, “Where are all the people that are coming off work?” He said, “Well, we had some big task and they decided to stay.” I said, “Did you tell them they had to stay?” He said, “No. They are working in teams and sharing with each other, and if they get done early they can leave early, and if they want to take longer to finish a job, they can do that.” I found that whole relationship of love and serving and being thankful for the work that they had done had developed with them. It’s an amazing thing.

If you want to read a fascinating book, you ought to read the book entitled, Stronger Than Steel, by Wayne Alderson. It is the story of how he put that practice into his own steel mill where he was an executive. This is the kind of relationship that God nurtures in people’s lives.

As we are living in this world, we spend our time working with power, seeking really to have an advantage over another person and telling them what to do. It happens, as I mentioned, in childhood. It is the biggest struggle that exists between a husband and a wife. It’s the problem of people feeling alienated in their business, or in their church, or any of the relationships that people have with each other. But in Jesus Christ we can find that relationship as we understand how God, in His amazing mercy, gave His son to die for us and to take our sins.

Out of that forgiveness we then receive the Holy Spirit, who nudges and nurtures us, and brings us the meaning of the truth. And the Holy Spirit, then, can guide us to live in powerlessness in order that the greatest thing that could ever happen on this earth can occur.

We will never shoot enough people to save this world in war. We will never be able to develop, through structures and organizations and technologies, the ways to do it.

It only will come in the hearts of human beings as the love of Jesus Christ is expressed to other people.