5/8/2011 - by Chuck Monan, Preaching Minister

I’m not a traditional politician, and I have a sense of humor.  I’ll try to soften it and become boring, maybe even very boring, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it.
~ Silvio Berlusconi

It is safe to assume that Berlusconi will never be able to be anything except the polar opposite of boring.  His holdings include television, newspapers, publishing, cinema, finance, insurance, and even sport, making him Italy’s third richest man, estimated to be worth $9 billion in 2010.  In addition to controlling most of the Italian media, he also has run the country as Italy’s Prime Minister off and on for the last seventeen years.

Berlusconi’s vast fortune and political power have likely contributed to his penchant for making outrageous remarks for which he is famously unapologetic, such as:

•    At the launch of the 2006 campaign:
“I am the Jesus Christ of politics.  I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for everyone.”

•    Promising to put family values at the centre of his campaign:
“I will try to meet your expectations, and I promise from now on, two-and-a-half months of absolute sexual abstinence, until [election day on] 9 April.”

•    At the Brussels summit, at the end of Italy’s EU presidency, in December 2003:
“Let’s talk about football and women.” (Turning to four-times-married German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.) “Gerhard, why don’t you start?”

•    On Italian secretaries (comments made at the New York stock exchange):
“Italy is now a great country to invest in ... today we have fewer communists and those who are still there deny having been one.  Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries ... superb girls.”

•    On Mussolini:
“Mussolini never killed anyone.  Mussolini used to send people on vacation in internal exile.”

•    On himself:
“The best political leader in Europe and in the world.”

    “There is no-one on the world stage who can compete with me.”

    “Out of love for Italy, I felt I had to save it from the left.”

    “The right man in the right job.”

    “I don’t need to go into office for the power.  I have houses all over the world, stupendous boats ... beautiful airplanes, a beautiful wife, a beautiful family ... I am making a sacrifice.”

    “I have little hair because my brain is so big it pushes the hair out.”

    “I am pretty often faithful.”

    “By definition, as a Prime Minister, I cannot be a liar.”

This last quote is about to be put to the test.  Berlusconi is going on trial May 31 in Milan on charges that he paid for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl and tried to cover it up.  He has stood trial on a number of business-related charges, but this is the first time the 74-year-old billionaire is being tried for personal conduct.

The Bible condemns the practice of different standards of justice for the rich and poor.  The prophet Amos thundered against the wealthy who rigged the courts in their own favor while the poor were trampled upon (Amos 2:7, 5:11-13).  Too often today wealth and power trump truth and justice.  “Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts” (Amos 5:15).

The world would be a better place if rich and poor alike took this to heart.