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Good Morning, How do you persuade someone to come round to your point of view and what are you willing to do or say to win them over? It’s a problem I once faced as an advertising copywriter; it’s a challenge faced by preachers; by Tweeters, and it’s a thing every politician in the world has to wrestle with and weigh. Recent allegations about government whips overstepping the line have certainly raised questions about where the line might lie. When does persuasion become coercion and can we tell the difference? Can you exercise political power without force or compulsion? The whip has to ensure MP’s vote in the way the party leader wants them to and to get the government business through. They need to be persuasive and psychologically astute, more Freud than Tony Soprano. A tough word here; a harsh look there; even the promise of preferment is allowed. There are rules, even if they are invisible. Sometimes it is difficult to see the difference in our own lives. We can all fall into the trap of pushing things too far. But wherever there is a concentration of power the dangers are amplified. Even now, as Russian forces mass at the Ukraine border we can see the terrible risk of crossing these lines. Tanks can be persuasive. But the shells they fire are worse than coercive. Of course, the aspiration to power and its inevitable struggle with conflicting aspirations is part of what politics is about. There has probably never been a phase of history without it. Countries have always wrestled with the dilemma of how to lead, how to govern. How to persuade others of the rightness of their cause. How can we keep the distinction between persuasion and coercion from getting lost? Dare we ask if faith has any direction to give? When Jesus set about preaching the good news, people were invited to a programme of persuasion. Yes, there was aggression, witness him turning over the stalls in the Temple – making a whip with cords! But for every rebuke there were words of hope. And if not words he chose action, using his power to heal. He didn’t win over all his hearers. Nor did he say what people wanted to hear. Sometimes he said nothing to make his case. But He demonstrated that the real foundation of power is loving service. And as such He offers a way forward for those in power as much as those who have none. He showed that it is possible to persuade someone of a truth, without coercing them into believing it. After all, this was the one who was whipped for refusing to coerce others into believing in Him.