Ron Kirkemo: Sketches

Ron Kirkemo completed 38 years teaching political science at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU), where he started the political science major. Believing a great university provides more than teaching, he developed a connection for the university to the global Kyoto Prize Symposium, created the university's Institute of Politics and Public Service, and led the creation of the Wesleyan Center for 21st Century Studies. He is continuing as director of the institute and is working to create a new center for ethical public leadership.

Share your background.

I grew up Nazarene in Eureka, California, a product of wonderful church families. I married Patti Brown from Washington, D.C., and we have three children. One son is a Nazarene pastor in Missouri, another is a civilian program manager at the U.S. Air Force Space Command, and our daughter is an artist living in Lancaster, Pennsylvannia.

What is political science?

The systematic study of government, politics, and policies. In a democracy, where groups of diverse people with different opinions make decisions by majority vote, politics is everywhere.

How can readers understand political science?

Think about living in a dictatorship"you have no say in anything, the "in group" gets all the benefits, and only one set of cultural values is allowed. Think about how responsive democracies work"conundrums, certainty, controversy, competition, choice, and change. That's politics.

Is that good? Where would the world be without politics?

Look at Iran, where religion trumps politics, or Myanmar, where politics is prohibited.

Yes, but does democracy really work?

Voters are criticized for lack of knowledge, but voters are not fools. Many candidates lose because money and strategy fail to brainwash voters. Self-proclaimed prophets exist who want their self-certainty turned into rules, and beliefs limited to theirs. But over time, elections are self-correcting mechanisms.

Explain international relations.

It is politics without government, where nations are free to act on their own narrow interests, with force if they choose. Nations can be devious, dangerous, and unpredictable, so if leaders misread the times, don't pay attention, or try too much change, wars and tragedies abound.

What about world peace and justice?

Those are wonderful moral goals, and there are plenty of ideas about getting a better world that I support and taught, but without a world government to make programs happen, everything has to be voluntary. Politics is the art of the possible.

Best part of teaching?

The privilege of having a room of students listen to my ideas, open whole new worlds of political reality to them, see them accept complexity, and watch their understandings mature as they shape their own ideas.

Worst part of teaching?

Students who are closed-minded and parents who want the lamp of learning to flicker a lot.

What is the impact of new informational technology?

It widens the information available, brings candidates and voters closer, provides "real time" news, and creates permanent campaigning. Sadly, it is also used to promote a cynical, narrow, and dishonest style of discourse, which poisons civic processes and inhibits good people from getting involved.

How many books have you written?

Four books and several chapters in others. I am working on a book called Embraced and Engaged: Grace and the Ethical Worlds of Foreign Policy. Its purpose is to inspire Christian students embraced by grace to become engaged in foreign affairs, and to explore the ethical issues of being a diplomat, spy, defense firm lobbyist, or political candidate.

What are your hobbies?

I have a favorite political speech, John F. Kennedy's remarks at Amherst College. It is a perfect speech for a college audience about students and universities giving back to our democracy. If I had an iPod, it would be the first thing I put on it.

I have a favorite poem, Tennyson's Ulysses, which says in part that "Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods."

Both represent the reason I have no hobbies, there is too much that can still be done to make a better university and a more reasonable world.

Holiness Today, July/August 2008

Please note: This article was originally published in 2008. All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at that time but may have since changed.