It's a Long Way Down

The following quote concerning modern 'chief seats' is from Jim Wallis in book: God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It. Jim is a pro-life, anti-war, liberal Evangelical.

“Religious leaders are often among the most easily corrupted by power, especially when they get close to political power. Doug Coe, the principal leader of the annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., once told me that the best way to get religious leaders together was to invite them to a meeting with a powerful political—hence the sold-out success of each year’s prayer breakfast. He said most church leaders generally ignored Jesus’s suggestion to take the humble places at a banquet and wait until they are invited to ‘come up higher.’ Instead they jostle for the best positions and places at the events where the powerful gather. It regularly amazes me how good religious folk get so excited about sharing an intimate breakfast with the president and three thousand other people.”