Responsibilities of Authority

Before I move on from the subject of authority and rebellion, submission and obedience, it is necessary to cover another aspect of authority, and that is its responsibilities. With authority comes responsibility. With responsibility comes accountability as well.

Thisoldman, in a comment to one of my posts, argued (I think) that authority must keep within the boundaries of the will of God or that authority is null and void; "it returns to the God who has given it." While in a sense this may be actually correct, I do not think it works well in a fallen society where authority is most always at least a little corrupted.

However, authority should be just. It should at least make an attempt to be righteous -- perhaps realizing all the time that it is possible for it to fall short. There should be no favoritism, no picking of favorites, no choosing of winners and losers. In reality, this is hard to do. We know that government authorities pick the winners and losers, at least to a certain degree. And all authority will, for authority sets parameters for living, or for working, or for citizenship, etc. To the degree one complies, one will win; to the degree one refuses to comply and rebels, one will face more and more authoritarian resistance.

But there are other responsibilities as well. A major one would be care and concern for the ones who are under authority. In the home we would call this love. In the community, or in the workplace, perhaps we would call this support. Care and concern could include things like concerns for safety, for making sure that the employee is properly trained and equipped for the job. My personal quibble with my employer highlights another, and that is that there should be clear boundaries of authority, one shouldn't be put into a place where in order to obey one authority he or she is force to be out of compliance with another.

In the home, security is a responsibility. One could also mention stability. A home should be a safe place, a place where there is sufficient supply of personal and physical needs. There should also be some sort of emotional stability: people should be who they are. Parental authority is to shape the children in the home; but any parent who has had more than one child to parent knows that each child must be dealt with as they are, for children are not cookie-cutters, and every child is different.

I have talked about training and teaching above, this is also important in the home. There should be proper guidance as to how to complete a task: what is the chore that needs to be done, and how is the one under authority to go about accomplishing the mission? The authority is also responsible to provide advice, support, necessary materials, and a helping hand as well if that helping hand is particularly needed.

Authority should also be grounded in honesty and integrity. It should seek the true well-being of the one who is under is care. It should not be manipulative or underhanded; it should make its purpose and its mission clear. Authority is also responsible for structure and order and the reduction of chaos. This is quite difficult if those under authority are characteristically and persistently resistant. It is perhaps this last responsibility that is most difficult to establish in the home, where the boundaries are consistently tested, and where there are tremendous pressures to negotiate, compromise, and where attempts are persistently made to obfuscate parental authority and boundaries.

Much of the way that an organization functions will be determined by those who are in authority, by those who have the positions of power. The success or the failure of the organization is often attributed to how well the operation is managed. Poor management often is linked to poor performance.

There is much more to say on this subject; I have only touched the tip of the iceberg. I will be anticipating your responses, should you be willing to give them.