"Hidden Agenda"

Giant Number Five - "Hidden Agenda"
By Bob Mumford www.lifechangers.org

These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts. Jude 12

Hidden Agendas are covered with words of peace and a heart of criticism. Similar to a snowball covered rock, it appears to be one thing, but when it unexpectedly hits someone, they are devastated. With this Giant in operation, we lie in ambush with undisclosed motives, watching for weakness and vulnerability, ready to spring the trap, which has been disguised and then set with lies or half-truths. We hide one thing in our hearts while proclaiming another. This Giant is a user; it seeks to use life, people, and every event for the express purpose of advancing our own interests.

In our day, hidden agendas are found everywhere–in social relationships, in politics, on television, and in the pulpit. Of the Seven Giants, Hidden Agenda may be the most destructive to relationships because it destroys unity and joy, violates trust and relational well-being, and sows seeds of rejection and suspicion. A hidden agenda is making up your mind before you go into a council meeting, then sitting through the whole meeting creating the impression that there is unity in the decision-making process. This is dishonoring to others. If we are only seeking someone’s approval for what we have already decided, we have a hidden agenda. Often the agenda itself is cloaked in Bible verses. This helps us see the ubiquitous nature of eros reappearing in ways that only God Himself can detect and destroy.

Some hidden agendas are overt, short term, and obvious; others are subtle, complex, and elaborate and may take years to play out. Judas Iscariot had a hidden agenda. Sayings like “all that glitters is not gold” show the prevalence of Hidden Agenda. When I was teaching at San Quentin Prison, an inmate once referred to Hidden Agenda as “sub-tile trickeration.”

The apostle Paul isolates three hidden agendas: “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” Hidden agendas are maneuvered, cultivated, and nourished in secret, clandestine and often self-deceiving ways. Once engaged, we cannot rest until and unless our hidden agenda has been accomplished. Hidden Agenda requires cultivating negative agreements against others, especially the one who is the target of the agenda. Quietly and efficiently, Hidden Agenda carries out character assassinations through negative agreement.

Analogous conduct of Hidden Agenda: subterfuge, wile, fraud, conniving, cunning, guile, crooked, perverse, twisted, calculating, devious, crafty, manipulative, shrewd, trickery, self-preservation, and double-minded.

QUESTIONS & THOUGHTS
• Describe an experience where you encountered someone with a Hidden Agenda. How did you feel?
• Why do you think Hidden Agenda is the most destructive to relationships?
• Explain how someone would use Bible verses to cover their own hidden agenda.