My mother was a member of the local chapter, and while I am not familiar with the structure of that group, I do remember them reading something outloud about the leaders being servants to the members of the group.

It’s a concept that’s been lost in politics: Public Servants.

Now it’s all sound and fuzzy warm soporifics, signifying nothing. We have no public servants in office any more.

And WalMart, bless its evil, money-grubbing, community destroying, osified and cancerous heart, is trying to use this concept? It stinks of slave wages and big-box consumerism.

The concept of servant leadership in the west can be traced back, at least partly, to Jesus’ teachings on leadership. He sought to teach his disciples that in order to be first they must “wash each other’s feet” (Jn. 13:14). Jesus preached that people must seek to serve each other in order to be true leaders. And again, Jesus said that “many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first” (Matt. 19:30). meaning that true leadership, according to Jesus, was leadership based in servanthood…

Critics might dismiss Servant leadership as yet another management fad to line consultants’ pockets, but its proponents counter that the ideals underlying it are timeless (witness its description in chapter 17 of the Tao Te Ching, ca. 6th century BCE), and the concept of Servant Leadership has been in development for over 40 years with involvement from AT&T and Harvard Business School.

In fact, growing up in Sunday School, we learned some of the concepts behind servant leadership, too, but in my liberal congregation it most assuredly wasn’t being used to justify wage slavery.

The motive, it seems pretty clear, is to obscure the commercial nature of the relationship. You’re not here because you have to pay the rent. No! You’re a member of the team! You’re here because you want to be here! That way we can pay you even less.

Which, to finally get to the point, is why the servant leadership concept is so perfect. First they try to pass off the wage slaves as all just members of one big happy family by calling them associates, and then immediately they let the mask slip.