They discipline themselves to look beyond the immediate needs of the day and the sheep, and to maintain an interest in the health and the problems of the landscape. And that is what we do as a church, if we are trying to emulate the good shepherd. Then there is the dangerous part of shep-herding. Any faith worth the name is a faith that keeps us on the edge of danger. Ministry to real people doesn't protect us with easy answers, it doesn't keep us inside the church.
Good shepherds push the sheep to range more widely and taste the food.
Be careful, candidates, what you ask. Because I read a far more complicated and embracing platform in the Gospels than I have seen either in the Democratic or Republican party. The mistake, it seems to me, that these two candidates may be making is that they have radically individualized something that is a group experience. They think the good shepherd is their personal patron. If so, that is quite different from the mission of the state.