The Miracle of the Poor Shipbuilder and his Unlikely Friends

Near the end of the last century, the most evil and murderous in human history, there was an incredible convergence of  strong moral leadership from 4 improbable leaders around the world that freed hundreds of millions of people from the evil of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and a Global recession. Only a few years before even talking about battling Communism was considered unsophisticated and foolish and the evils of that system were mostly ignored, often excused and sometimes even promoted in the West.


One, the daughter of an English storekeeper and lay Methodist preacher. The other an actor and the son of an alcoholic salesman and lay preaching mother. The other 2 Polish. One a shipbuilder, Union leader and son of a carpenter, the other the son of a non-commissioned Army officer, was a manual laborer and Catholic priest. The lives of these unlikely heroes through the coincidental vicissitudes of life or intercession of Providence (depending on your perspective), intersected and together they destroyed the most evil system of slavery in the history of man.  Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Lech Walesa and Pope John Paul II redeemed the 20th century.

Last Friday Lech Walesa spoke in Chicago at a campaign event for Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrzejewski, and this is what he said:

"The United States is only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it. Militarily.  They also lead economically but they're getting weak. But they don't lead morally and politically anymore.  The world has no leadership.  The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations.  There was the hope, whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States.  Today, we lost that hope."

If he has lost hope, what hope do we have? 

The same hope of a shipbuilder and Union leader in Communist Poland. The hope of a Catholic priest that lost his entire family by the age of 20 and endured Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II. The hope of an average girl in Britain living in a humble flat above her fathers shop during  the Battle of Britain. The hope of the young boy during the Great Depression, who rescued his drunk and unconscious father from the snow before he froze to death on his front lawn.


None of those people came from elite families. None but Margaret Thatcher were particularly highly educated in the traditional sense.  None came from money, position or fame. All possessed unbending optimism, unapologetic moral and ethical clarity, and deep personal faith. Perhaps most importantly they all possessed an indefatigable work ethic. Optimism, moral clarity, faith and a work ethic forged in the Great Depression, World War II, the slavery of despotic Communism and significant personal difficulties in their lives. 


We cannot all be President of Poland, the United States or the Prime Minister of Britain. Most will never become the leader of a great world religion. But some among us will. We can only hope the strength, moral clarity, optimism and faith formed in today's adversity will be manifest in them as it was in those 4 moral titans of the last century. 

That is my hope.


Dr Dave