...Not As They Do

"Tis the season for pre-election surprises, some of them well deserved.

Nationally, a powerful evangelical minister in Colorado Springs that was a vocal proponent of a statewide ballot initiative to ban on gay marriage was outed yesterday by a man who accused him of paying for sex from him over the past three years. As a result, Ted Haggard has stepped down from his post at his 14,000-member church and resigned as president from the National Association of Evangelicals.

Haggard claims he is innocent, but his accuser, Mike Jones, reportedly has both voicemails and a letter from Haggard that he says proves the trysts occurred. Haggard was also accused of using methamphetamine in his presence. Haggard has also admitted to another minister that some of the allegations may have some truth behind them.

Locally, the campaign of incumbent Republican Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison was rocked by allegations that he had an on-going affair with a local optometrist's wife. They are apparently still dating now that the couple has divorced.

Obviously, both of these long-running affairs are morally wrong, and I'm sure our friends on the left will enjoy mercilessly beating them up over their conduct as we run up to the elections on November 7. We will find out at that time whether or not Colorado's gay marriage ban and Harrison's bid to remain sheriff are torpedoed by these politically timed, but still apparently valid charges.

Nobody is perfect and we all have some sort of embarrassment or skeletons in our closets. Being human, we all make mistakes, and most of them are forgivable.

But there is a special kind of hypocrisy in publicly advocating one position while privately undercutting it with a contrary and continuing pattern of behavior, and that is what troubles me about both of these cases, Haggard's moreso than Harrison's.

Sheriff Harrison had just lost his wife of almost 36 years months before his affair began, and was probably emotionally vulnerable when his affair began. That doesn’t excuse it or justify his behavior in any way, but makes it at least something that most people can understand, if not condone.

Haggard, however, has apparently risen to a position of prominence based upon the deep-seated and long-running deception of many, advocating one position in public and practicing another in private.

God will forgive all of us who truly seek forgiveness, but among mortals, many will find Haggard's duplicity much harder to forgive.