Looking for Moral High Ground

I’ve been watching the Foley scandal in congress, though not as closely as I might. While Foley represented a portion of Florida, that portion is a long ways from the panhandle where I live. Our congressional race isn’t even close. At the same time moral standards are extremely important to me. I will tend to favor a candidate who disagrees with me even on significant issues, provided I believe that candidate has integrity and his oppponent does not. (I’m referencing two news stories for this, Ethics panel launches probe into Foley case and Poll: Voters say scandal will affect vote.)

In the present scandal and in several previous ones, both parties have tended to behave hypocritically. When the person who has fallen is a member of one’s own party, salvaging one’s political career takes precedence, and one tends to advocate forgiveness. When the offender is a member of the other party, the important issue is upholding moral standards, and maximum exposure of the bad behavior and appropriate punishment is the key.

Now of course those extremes don’t generally occur all that clearly, though I think political operatives sound pretty much like that. When it was Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, Democrats were busy defending the president, while Republicans went as far as impeachment, not to mention a long and expensive investigation. Now I will note that often by “defending” I mean indirectly, such as by redirecting the subject to inappropriate tactics used by those who are investigating or reporting. In my view Bill Clinton’s behavior should have been regarded as sexual harassment and inappropriate sexual behavior, though I didn’t see anything impeachable in it. Democrats who would normally be very sensitive about sexual harassment were rather forgiving of a popular president of their own party. Republicans made some loose morals and inappropriate behavior into a crime.

Now we have ex-Congressman Foley. His behavior is worse in that it occurs with underage persons, though on the other hand he hasn’t carried it through so far. What is the appropriate response? As soon as anyone found out about those e-mails, the appropriate authority should have taken action. If Speaker Hastert didn’t know earlier, he should have known, because he should have been informed. I am not going to join calls for him to resign simply because I don’t yet know what he knew and when. I could probably sift through the material and get a better idea than I have, but I’ll leave that for later. If he was not informed until last week, he needs to check into the process that allowed things to go that far before he was informed.

Republicans generally, however, seem to be less angry about this one than about prior failings by Democrats. Demoncrats seem to be more angry, and I see both as hypocritical. We, as voters need to hold our politicians to a higher standard, and do so across the board. We should not tolerate the behavior of a congressman who approaches congressional pages through e-mail, through IMs, or in person. We should not tolerate anyone in power who does not take swift and efficient action. Which party might gain or lose should not be part of our reasoning.

Today I received my “Breaking Christian News” e-mail, and in there Gary Bauer, of American Values is quote as saying:

“Hopefully, no Christian voter is under the illusion that the Democratic Party is full of sinners and the Republican Party is full of saints,” he says. “Both parties are full of sinners. Our faith teaches us that it’s a fallen world.”

He goes on to hope that this action of one congressman won’t impact the overall Christian voter turnout.

Now Bauer’s quote is something I would imagine that practically every Christian can agree with. We all, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and members of minor parties are sinners. We are imperfect. The problem is that pointing it out right now certainly appears to be a political ploy. The hope is to save the Republican majority in the house, and for that to occur it’s important that Christian conservative voters are not turned off by Republican misbehavior. I actually agree that this issue should be taken out only on those actually responsible–the one who committed these acts and anyone involved in covering them up. Right now people believe (see the article referenced at the beginning of this post) that the Democrats are better able to restore moral standards, but that’s simply because the latest wrongdoing was by a Republican. If this had happened to a Democrat, people would tilt the other way. After a few weeks, the impact of this one event will fade, and the numbers will balance out. It’s unfortunate that people are so swayed by emotion and so unsteady in their decisions. (Note that at one point 80% approved of the war in Iraq, now more than 60% oppose it. That leaves 40% who somehow changed their minds. I know people say that the facts changed, but I don’t think there was any reason to expect things to go much better than they have.)

“Everyone is a sinner” is one of those good Christian phrases that can be used two ways. First, it can help us be more forgiving. That is good, though not unequivocally good. Second, it can be used to destroy moral standards. We need to be forgiving, but we don’t need to elevate those without high standards into positions of public trust. In the church, we need to be forgiving, but we don’t need to lower our moral goals.

This morning in my devotions I was reading Acts 3 & 4. I’m writing a devotional on it for my wife’s devotional list, because it hit me over the head, spiritually speaking, when I thought about the lame man waiting and begging at the gate of the temple. He’s outside, just separated from the blessing. I thought, “How many people are there waiting at the gate of our churches, but for some reason unable to come in and be blessed?”

Then I also read Acts 3:26: “When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways” [Emphasis mine]. God hasn’t called us to forgive because we’re all wallowing together in a pit of sin and despair. He calls us to forgive as part of healing, as part of becoming holy. God doesn’t just call sinners, he calls sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32).

And that’s another one of those hard sayings. It looks pretty nice to see God calling sinners, weak people, failures, and losers. Jesus gives them a place. But he doesn’t just call them. He calls them to change. For those of us inside the church he doesn’t just ask us not to judge. He asks us both to have high standards and not to judge. It’s easy not to judge when you have no standards. Judge what? But as usual Jesus doesn’t let us by with the easy path. Love one another isn’t good enough. Jesus asks us to love one another as he has loved us. Oops! That love involved a cross! It’s not so easy now! Likewise “don’t judge” comes only a chapter after we are told to love our enemies, and then asked to “be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Now I’ve heard lots of ways to blunt that command, but none of them quite manages to make it easy.

We’re all sinners, yes, no matter what party. But that’s never an excuse for remaining that way. God’s call is to higher moral ground. He’s offering grace. He’s offering the blessing of turning us from our sins. But he’s not accepting excuses.