(Elmer Fudd voice) huhuhuhuhuhuh...

(Quoting Homer Simpson as he stands in front of his house burning down from him lighting his diploma on fire in celebration) "I am so smart! I am so smart! S-m-r-t! D'oh! I mean, s-m-a-r-t!"
So I jumped ahead, working off memory, and a couple nights ago I typed out my essay for my Biblical leadership class. Reading through it, you can tell where I realized how many footnotes I needed to locate and put in. So I half-smurfed the rest of it, knowing it would be a re-write anyway. Still, the underpinnings for a paper that is entertaining, informative, and if I can be egotistical, pretty smurfing good are there. In fact, I think I will print it at the end of this...because it will never see the light of scholastic day.
See, this morning before I came to work, I jumped on the computer to look at my composition, having decided after last night's Spanish mid-term to send it pretty close to as-is, except actually completed and footnoted. When I did, I actually reread the assignment.
Essentially, it says to choose a historical leader and explain why they would be (in class context) a great leader. Then relate that briefly to some Biblical leader.
Here is the report I actually wrote: Compare and contrast a Biblical leader with a historical leader.
Looks like my Saturday just got a lot longer.

The Biblical leadership methods and traits shown by Moses have an interesting parallel in many facets of the life of Sitting Bull. Both men led their respective nations in times of movement from one land to another, both relied heavily on the spirit realm for guidance and authority, both dealt with sacred lands, and both had a serious connection to the charisma of ecstatic visions. This paper will compare and contrast their respective modes of leadership.
Moses was far from a born leader. It was only when he tapped into the Divinely inspired and therefore charismatic power of ecstatic prophecy that he developed into a man capable of challenging the enemies of his people. His first encounter with the Divine was itself an example of an ecstatic vision of the type that would remain with him to the day of his death.
I refer of course to the incident that has come down to us as Moses and the Burning Bush. This unfortunate appellation does not truly capture the importance of the occurrence. When Moses encounters a Burning Bush that is not consumed by flame he is entering into an ecstatic vision. He speaks with the Divine and is forever changed. Often overlooked in this incident is one of the elements that will mark his leadership.
God, speaking from the Burning Bush, commands Moses to remove his sandals because he is standing on "Holy Ground". This introduces the concept of the leadership of Moses being tied to a search for sacred land. He will lead the people out of a land of slavery to a land, already occupied, which is holy to the people of Israel. This connection to the land will be a central theme of his entire leadership.
The ecstatic connection only deepens as Moses grows into his leadership capacity. He has regular contact with God to the point where he is comfortable enough in his connection to the Divine to argue with God, to challenge the plans and orders God has for him. This implies a deeper charisma than the text perhaps allows and helps demonstrate why the people follow him to a place they do not know eating food that is not natural for an indeterminate amount of time.
Moses is a strong leader for many reasons. Included in this is his reliance on capable subordinates to lead a people too numerous for one person to handle alone. Although even some of his closest helpers, for example Aaron, at times led rebellions, he still continued to show patience for an often headstrong people and continued to use the assistance of various sub-leaders.
This leadership was exceptional due to the circumstances it began under and the continuously worsening conditions as the Israelites fled Egypt through numerous hostile lands with no clear destination in mind. Rather, the destination was clear to God but not the people and after they rebelled yet again, the time frame became indefinite.
From the standpoint of the people, they were heading to a place they did not know in an unspecified quantity of time eating food they had never heard of while following a man who did not lead. Under these circumstances it was amazing that they followed Moses at all.
It was primarily through his connection with the Divine that he retained his authority to lead. His talks with God saw visual proof of his charisma when his face "shone". The people saw again and again incontrovertible proof of his closeness to God when the Glory of God would surround the tent or when the Pillar of Fire by night or the Cloud by day was demonstrable evidence of the approval of the Divine. This lent an authority to Moses’ leadership that kept the people following him.
Many similar aspects occur in the life of Sitting Bull. He started out as a minor war chief, but soon his visions gave him power and credibility as a medicine man and leader of his people. It was in these roles that he truly made his mark.
The most prominent example of his visions had to do with the Battle of Little Big Horn. Sitting Bull had a vision of cavalrymen "falling into the camp of the people". Just a short time later Custer attacked the massed tribes on the Greasy Grass. Soon the battle ended in a tremendous victory for the Native Americans and the people universally saw it as the fulfillment of Sitting Bulls’ vision. They knew he had the connection with the Divine and consistently followed his visions.
This was neither the first nor the last time he had a vision that foretold the future. As a result he was a valued and trusted advisor and leader. The people followed him through some extremely trying times.
Much like Moses, Sitting Bull led his people in a time in which a battle was being waged over sacred land. To the Sioux, their land was Holy, given to them by the Great Spirit and belonging to them in perpetuity. They had no more choice than the Israelites about fighting for their land. In a time when faced by overwhelming forces, in the case of the Israelites it was the Egyptians and for the Sioux it was the United States, they turned to charismatic leaders with a strong connection to the Divine evidenced by elements of ecstatic prophecy.
Much like Moses, Sitting Bull relied on a cadre of likewise charismatic, ecstatic prophets. Even the most cursory examination of the life of Crazy Horse, Gall, and numerous other men associated with Sitting Bull reveals a heavy reliance on their ecstatic visions. These were couched in terms like "having strong medicine" but at heart they were the same concept; rituals designed to connect to their God and grant them a measure of power that tapped directly into the Divine Power.
Sitting Bull led through lieutenants and example Just as Moses was no warrior, Sitting Bull is not known to have participated in the combat at Little Big Horn. His leadership came form inspiring the warriors. This accords nicely with the leadership of Moses, for example the battle where he stood on a hill overlooking the actual fighting and raised his arms.
When the forces of the United States became too much for the Sioux to continue fighting, Sitting Bull led his people out of the United States towards the theoretical "Promised Land" of Canada. Much like the Exodus turned into a disaster for the Israelites that led to hunger and death, this exodus of the Sioux to Canada led to starvation and homelessness for a period of time.
The sacred food of the buffalo was gone, the natural foods the Sioux were used to gathering or hunting were no longer available. They faced privations as Canada did not want them and a return to the United States would mean a return to the virtual slavery they had fled from.
Again the leadership of Sitting Bull came to the fore as he negotiated with representatives of both governments in an attempt to provide food, shelter and security. His followers believed the power of his visions and he was able to secure assurances from the United States governments that were acceptable enough for the Sioux to return "home". Of course, the deceptions of the United States government soon rendered those agreements irrelevant, but that did not lessen the stature of Sitting Bull in the eyes of his followers.
Even at the end of his life the spiritual power of Sitting Bull kept him in a valued position of leadership among the exiled Sioux. It was this very power that caused the government of the United States to fear him. When another Native American tapped into the power of ecstatic prophecy and started the Ghost Dance the people turned to Sitting Bull for confirmation or denial of its truth. The accepted theory today is fear of Sitting Bull’s spiritual power led to his deliberate murder, sanctioned by the U.S. government but carried out by Native Americans who had lost faith in the power of Sitting Bull’s ecstatic prophecy.
So the factors Moses and Sitting Bull had in common were many. Both derived their authority from a connection to the Divine established through effective use of ecstatic prophecy. Both were involved in struggles against overwhelmingly superior forces over control of a sacred or Holy land. Both led peoples of limited internal structure and both used the aid of other gifted, charismatic, ecstatic prophets.
They differed in several areas as well. Moses lived with constant, physical physical demonstrations given by God for his continued authority.