My Sheeple Before Me

God’s Laws always come first and foremost.
You can characterize that in a lot of ways, but you should assume it means that I put the mystical revelation of God in my Spirit first. I’ve stated often enough how that can’t be put into words easily, so if I say I’m committed to His Laws, you’ll get the picture. That means I live by His revelation, I cling to His moral fabric in Creation and I filter all questions through morality first.
Fundamental to that revelation is placing a very high value on the sheeple I serve. Not on their whims — God forbid — but I place emphasis on what God says they need from me. This consumes most of my attention. It’s the reason I spend so many hours writing, and not a few hours hunting down writing tools. But I write what my sheeple need to read. Often I write in hopes of giving verbal substance to moral concepts about their needs. When I complained about Open Source abusing users, that was pleading the case for my sheeple. When I write computer HOWTOs, I’m offering help to my sheeple. When I tell you anything commercial software producers have abandoned can be found and downloaded for free if you really want it, I’m doing what I can to bless my sheeple. There’s no moral violation that I can discern.
If these things did not provide tools for my mission, I wouldn’t bother. The Army had a false motto, sheer propaganda, but it expresses reality as God sees it: “Mission first; people always.” Translation: The mission comes first, but people’s needs are part of the mission. You’d be stupid to believe for one second the US Army actually operated that way, but it’s how I operate. When I did it while serving, it got me into all kinds of hot water, as it does with every other government agency I’ve encountered.
On the other hand, I am first to denounce the notion of human rights. It’s anti-biblical, a Western intellectual construct raised up in defiance of God’s revelation. There are some sheeple God placed under the control of others folks who are accountable to God, but not accountable to some abstract notion like human rights. There is a certain amount of harm to people which is simply the result of the Fall and it can’t be fixed by anybody. Thus, I don’t subscribe fully to the ethics of “zero aggression.” It’s a nice ideal, but it won’t fit everywhere. You have to give God room to move in your spirit in ways you’ll never comprehend. I can solemnly testify at least once I’ve been moved to violence in a way which didn’t fit that rule, and I’m totally at peace with it still. That’s because people don’t come first; the mission does.
What does it take, in your best estimation, to make your mission? That’s what you do, regardless how much or how little sense it makes by human reason. Reason is the manager, not the owner.
If something my sheeple want will kill them, I tend to let them have it, anyway. I figure people are accountable to God first, not me. It won’t matter what I believe is in their best interest. Voluntary compliance is the fundamental leadership principle that I can put into words. If I can persuade, I’ll try, but if it doesn’t hurt my mission, I’ll let it go. There’s even a certain amount of latitude in cases where their choices hurt others, because some things are simply a sheeple’s choices and no one can take that away. I’ll treat your kids as my own, but I can’t justly interfere with the very generous latitude God gave parents to decide things.
It’s not as if I make myself some saintly martyr in our colloquial meaning. It’s only hard because Western Civilization is so stupid and hateful. It could be worse, indeed, but it could most certainly be easier. This moral imperative of voluntary compliance is highly inconvenient for me. I have to absorb a lot of unexpected variations from my plans. Doing that gracefully requires a significant amount of preparation in my soul. In short, I almost never get what I want and dare not push for it.
The shepherd’s calling is something you should avoid at all costs. When it has you, nail yourself to the Cross, because you’ll be driven contrary to your own interests every step of the way.