Thoughts On Weinergate
We are a fallen race. There is no doubt about it. When our brightest and strongest succumb to the silly and ever-present temptations that goad us into embarrassing and out-right stupid compromises, we know full well we are a weak and desperate people.
The recent Weinergate debacle is a case in point. A young and multi-term congressman is found to be as narcissistic as anyone else in the general public. We have, in the past, expected our elected officials to set proper examples of themselves for others to emulate. Should we lower our standards and expectations? It is a twisted society that expects its leaders to operate at a level below it. Yet over and over we find those we look up to and trust to have feet of clay and hearts disingenuous.
Notice the reactions to such behavior. First, there is the knee-jerk, holier-than-thou judgmentalism. “I would never do that. How dare he expose himself like that!” I recall one congressman who scathingly denounced President Clinton for his indiscretions with a Whitehouse page all while he himself was engaged in an adulterous affair with one of his own staffers. He divorced his wife later and married the staffer. Such hypocrisy is palpable!
A second reaction is to yawn and say, “Everyone is doing it, so why condemn him?” Is this not giving up the asylum to the inmates? Have we no shame or standard of right and wrong in our nation? Must we either throw stones or completely look the other way? Is it really an either-or matter?
Frankly, I am pained when I see the sad lengths to which men and women will go to look for love in all the wrong places, or to massage their egos. With the internet there is an ever-present opportunity to not only text, but engage in what is now called sexting. Counselors are even asking the question, as if the answer might be nebulous, “Is having an online affair actual adultery if the parties are married?” One egghead even went so far as to applaud it as the safest sex possible in our era of STDs. Have we really arrived at this modern stage of Sodom & Gomorrah-ism?
We should weep for those caught up in Satan’s schemes, whether they be celebrities, politicians or the family next door. Rather than a rush to judgment and eagerness to engage in the gossip mongering, ought we not first offer a prayer for the fallen ones? Was President Clinton not worth at least that? And is not Congressman Weiner, a highly popular and successful seven-term pol, not worthy of our sincere concern rather than looked upon as an easy target for comedians and journalists to mock and humiliate?
Church, sin is sin no matter who engages in it. Right is right and wrong is wrong and we really don’t want to blur our vision regarding it all. There is no excuse for what Mr. Weiner did. Our own recent California governor has fallen into disgrace and has caused his wife and family untold emotional distress. Some of us seemed to take great delight in that sad news. Do we find satisfaction in seeing the high and mighty fallen? I hope not.
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