“With great power comes great responsibility.” Since his debut with Marvel Comics in 1962, Spider-Man has embodied this principle. Whatever power you have been given—whether economic power, physical strength, or a powerful position—you have a moral obligation to use it to serve your neighbor. And you are forbidden from using it for self-serving ends.
This ethic is so tied to the adolescent hero created by Stan Lee that many call it the Peter Parker Principle. But, of course, it wasn’t invented in 1962.
It is woven into the fiber of our common humanity. It is also taught by Jesus in the words: “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required” (Luke 12:48 ESV).
No matter who you are, this call of duty stirs your heart and ennobles your soul. When you see others violate this principle, you are outraged, and justly so. When you yourself violate it, you feel the shame.
On a personal level, everybody possesses powers that call for responsibility. Some have intellectual power and others have physical power. Still others have economic power. Whatever power you have, your first responsibility is to restrain yourself from harming others.
You are equally responsible for putting them into action when you have the power to protect someone from imminent harm. If you have the power for good and fail to use it, you are just as responsible as if you had used it for evil.
Governments also have powers. These are unlike personal powers in two ways.
First, government powers are vastly greater than any powers that individuals can possess. While individual citizens fret about hundreds of dollars, governments have billions at their disposal. While individuals defend themselves with bodily strength and skill, governments have armies and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.
Second, government power can be exercised anonymously so that personal responsibility is avoided. When John cheats me in a business deal, or Bill punches me on the street, I know who’s responsible. But when the government misspends my money or does me injustice, I might never know who was responsible.
America’s founders were keenly aware of these twin difficulties. They had experienced the evils that happen when unaccountable governments wield vast powers. And they responded in two ways.
First, they limited the powers of government strictly by dividing them up among states, counties, municipalities and the various branches (legislative, executive, and judicial). Second, they sought to make every individual government actor personally known and personally accountable to the people that he or she is supposed to serve.
That is what Election Tuesday is about.
Elections transfer the vast powers of various governmental positions into the hands of people who have no more right to wield such powers than you do. They are just like us—sometimes noble, sometimes craven. Sometimes they follow their braver angels and sometimes not.
Human beings are encouraged (sometimes frightened) to do the right thing just because they know that other people are watching. Transparency laws are about personal responsibility. And every so often these fellow citizens who wield marvelous powers have to come out of their cubicles and stand for re-election.
Candidates for office don’t stand before you as the Marvelous Spider-Man who works in anonymity to save the city. They stand before you with their masks removed—as Bill or Joe or Mary—with all their personal strengths and foibles. They ask you to judge them as trustworthy enough to wield the awesome powers of government for another couple of years.
An array of common people has spent months and years baring their souls before you and asking for you to judge their character. They have run for federal, state, and local offices. Now, it is up to you to make that choice.
You, and you alone, have been given that power. If you exercise it for selfish gain, or if you exercise it unwisely, or if you refuse to exercise it at all, other people will pay the price.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Nobody can pull the lever for you. When you stand alone in that voting booth, you are wielding a power that few people in history have ever been given. You are not merely a cog in a machine. You are a moral agent—just exactly as the official who asks for your vote is not a cog in a machine, but a moral agent who is personally responsible for his or her actions in office.
No matter who you are, this call of duty should stir your soul. You are ennobled when you consider that, among the billions of people on this planet, you matter. Your choices matter. Your actions will not be swallowed up in obscurity. But your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will one day know how you acted to shape their world.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
