A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
In 1966, Robert Bolt's play was made into a movie of the same name. A Man For All Seasons was a movie about Sir Thomas More. More, a member of the elite Privy Council of the Roman Catholic Church, refused to give his okay to King Henry VIII's divorce to his wife and subsequent marriage to Ann Bolyn. Ultimately, his refusal to go against his beliefs and conscience led to his being beheaded. But along the way, he stood out as an inspiration to the "common citizens" of England and spoke some very profound words. One of those, which is especially timely right now, was in reply to Cardinal Woolsey who chastised More, telling him "if only you could see facts flat-on without your horrible moral squint, you might have made a statesman." More replied with words our politicians should remember even today, "I think that when statesmen forsake their own private consciences for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos."
We need more men like Thomas More...more men who are men of integrity, who refuse to bow to the ways of the world, who refuse to compromise their Biblical convictions, and who refuse to be anything less than the man God has created them to be, calls them to be, and whose family, church, and society needs them to be.
(Source: from a sermon by Mike Gilbert, "A Man For All Seasons" 7/19/08)