Tim Wildmon

AFA president

November-December 2007 – I do not understand my own actions. For I do not what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” — Romans 7:15

I was watching Larry King interview former President Bill Clinton the other night when King brought up the matter of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho. We all have heard the story about Sen. Craig, a Republican, being accused of soliciting an undercover police officer in an airport restroom in Minneapolis. Craig pled guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct, but denies he was trying to signal to another man he wanted to do things we don’t want to talk about here. But Larry King asked Mr. Clinton if he got any satisfaction out of watching Sen. Craig in this predicament since Craig “railed” against Clinton when he went through the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

President Clinton said he did not. He basically said he knows what it feels like to be the object of public scorn and takes no delight in others going through the same thing. Now Clinton is a smooth operator and you never really know if he is being honest or not, but he sure did come across as sincere when answering King’s question.

The spin that some Democratic strategists and liberal members of the media are putting on this is that here is this conservative senator who says he stands for family values caught doing something diametrically opposed to what he and the Republican Party say they stand for. Therefore, he is a hypocrite and – by extension – the party is a party of hypocrites, and therefore their claim to be the party of family values should have no standing with the American people. I have to say, that on the surface, that argument does seem to make sense. But let’s explore it a little deeper.

I quoted the apostle Paul to begin this column for a reason. Paul, arguably the most important figure in the history of Christendom, other than Jesus, wrote much about the need to live morally. And Paul confessed that he didn’t always practice what he preached. In fact, his owns words are those of self-condemnation. Now let me ask you a question. Does Paul’s confession discredit the Christian message he believed in so passionately? I don’t believe it does.

The fact is, we are all prone to sin and hypocrisy. But just because people fail to live up to a standard, does not mean the standard itself is discredited. And what bothers me is that this seems to be where some of the more secular and liberal pundits want to take the argument. The Christian finds his standards of behavior, attitude and thought in the teachings of the Scripture. For example, the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. To these moral values we ascribe and to these moral values we aspire. Why? Because that is what God says we should do. And there are great benefits to ourselves, our families and our society when we do live up to these standards.

But what about when we fail? And we all fail. We want to live right, but like Paul, we let our sinful nature control us and we do things we know are wrong. But when we live in a civilized society there are degrees of wrongdoing and degrees of punishment required depending on the nature of the wrongdoing and who the person is.

For instance, the people in leadership in the Christian church should be above reproach when it comes to living out moral values. If they cannot or do not live up to this standard, then they need to leave that position of authority. Yes, they can be forgiven and yes, they can be restored, but it severely hurts their credibility with the people they desire to lead on spiritual matters when they can’t walk out the walk themselves on a consistent basis.

For the political leader, I think the standard remains the same in terms of right and wrong, but I don’t believe they necessarily need to leave that position of authority if their sins become public. I am not saying they should not leave or step down. I am just saying a political leader is not the same as a spiritual leader and so it would depend more on the circumstances and severity of the wrongdoing.

But in terms of sometimes doing the very things we detest, we are all hypocrites. That is why the Scripture also balances the need for personal responsibility, accountability and punishment with the need for grace, kindness, compassion, and understanding – understanding that we all have weaknesses and are vulnerable to personal moral failure.