FLASH
An Image Challenge for Conservatives:
mushrooming numbers of Republicans involved in sex scandals
first following the gay and ethics scandals of 2006
Senator Larry Craig of Idaho in 2007
and NOW South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford
is the Christian Right's moral reputation ruined?
Judgentalism
- and -
Self-Righteousness
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The Accuser
Is there still redeeming virtue to be found
in America's
Christian Conservatism
God Help Our Land
Has the Ken Starr "moral indignation" (anti-Clinton) pendulum started coming back the other way?
The year just past has not been a good one for the political fortunes of America's religious right. It seems light years from the heady days of Ken Starr and the vociferous era of digging up dirt on Clinton Democrats. In those days, Republicans' shining armor was still shining. They were the moral champions, the pure saviors of their version of "good, old-time purity." What has happened.
In 2005 it was Joe Scarborough, a worthy and upcoming Republican, caught in his little scandal with Lori Klausutis, and subsequently forced to resign from Congress, and embarassment to his fellow Conservatives, who had just lowered the congressional ethics standards. But the Scarborough-Klausitis scandal was only the beginning for Republicans.
The long-brewing DeLay scandal finally spun out a range of indictments, resulting in DeLay's resignation from Congress (2006). Rampant bribery of congressmen tainted the reputations of Democrats as well as Republicans, but Republicans seemed to be worst hit. The entire Jack Abramoff escapade seemed to grate on the public nerves particularly hard in the light of Republican success in watering down ethics rules that, we are told, were in place for generations past. The Abramoff scandal was all about money, influence, and power. Right and wrong seemed not to matter -- only winning counts.
And finally, sex scandals seemed to pile on sex scandals. Sex and lust and secrecy. What do you know, Republicans are human beings, too!! The Republican party that tooted the biblical trumpet year after year during the Monica Lewinsky impeachment of President Clinton, now seemed beset by a series of scandals distinctly their own.
There was Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida, caught in a scandal concerning the congressional page program. Then came the cover-up by Dennis Hastert, and his "forgetful" memory of having been told. (How many times?) Then came one of the most outspoken and articulate spokesmen on behalf of Republican causes, the popular (Colorado-based) preacher and conservative leader, Pastor Ted Haggard. This scandal for Republicans hit particularly hard, since Haggard was such a high profile and effective spokesman for conservative issues, including, paradoxically, ardent opposition to the gay agenda. Ted Haggard was "known" for his weekly telephone call every Monday with President Bush, who has since backed away from whatever close association he formerly had with Reverend Haggard.
Haggard has finally admitted that he is guilty before God of some kind of "sexual immorality" (which he did not spell out). A male prostitute had gone public with their liaisons, outing him. Latest of all, still another religiously conservative Colorado preacher has been exposed for sexually embarassing episodes. This time it is evangelist Paul Barnes pastor of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel, a church he founded in suburban Denver.
In a tearful videotaped message Sunday to his congregation, the senior pastor of a thriving evangelical megachurch in south metro Denver confessed to sexual relations with other men and announced he had voluntarily resigned his pulpit.
Then, the Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Douglas County preached to his 2,100-member congregation about integrity and grace in the aftermath of the Ted Haggard drugs-and-gay-sex scandal.
Now, the 54-year-old Barnes joins Haggard as a fallen evangelical minister who preached that homosexuality was a sin but grappled with a hidden life.
"I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy," Barnes said in the 32- minute video, which church leaders permitted The Denver Post to view. "... I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away."
His wife, Char, cradled his hand. Barnes declined an interview request through the church.
Desires in Conflict
Another sex scandal to rock conservatism was unfolding on the west coast. The Mayor of Spokane Washington, a rock solid Republican named Jim West, represented the hard right Republicanism during his long tenure in the legislature. West, a former Boy Scout leader and Army paratrooper, later a Sheriff's Deputy, was known for his macho image and abrasive style.
As a conservative legislature, he joined with others in sponsoring anti-gay legislation, including one that would have banned gays and lesbians from working in schools and day care centers. He also proposed a law that would ban all sexual activity among persons under the age of 18 (the bill failed).
Thus, when it became known that he had solicited gay sex online, a scandal ensued. West claimed, with perhaps some justification, that Spokane's local newspaper, The Spokesman-Review, was conducting a vendetta against him. He criticized the "sex Nazis" who try to regulate private sexual behavior. Subsequent investigation by law enforcement turned up no apparent illegality, but the stain to his reputation remained.
In December, 2005, West was recalled from office by the voters of Spokane.
Where will it all end? In August of 2007, the highly respected (if moralistic) conservative Larry Craig, of Idaho, has become latest in this long line of good, solid Christian conservatives to fall from grace. What is going on, asks James Dobson associate Tony Perkins of Family Research Council. We have a possible response. The Ken Starr holier-than-thou (anti-Clinton) pendulum has finally started coming back the other way. Maybe "you reap what you sow" can actually work AGAINST the self-righteous "moralists."
God help us all!
From Joe Scarborough, to Schwarzenegger to Giuliani to Jeb Bush
The Matson - Mowder Gay Murders, rural northern California
The cowardly "masculinity" that lynched Matthew Shepherd
Eros Defiled?
The romans said
hoc si crimen erit, crimen amoris erit
[if this be crime, it is the crime of love]
Aleister Crowley once (somewhat wryly) commented:
'Part of the public horror of sexual irregularity so-called is due to the fact that everyone knows himself essentially guilty.'
To quote Emma Goldman:
Man is much more a sexual creature than a moral creature.
Sex is inherent
Morality is grafted on.
Havelock Ellis wrote:
Sex lies at the root of life, and we can never learn to reverence life until we know how to understand sex.
Eric Hoffer has wryly remarked:
There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.
Even to this day, science really does not understand human sexuality. Gore Vidal wrote, "There is no such thing as a homosexual or a heterosexual person. There are only homo- or heterosexual acts. Most people are a mixture of impulses if not practices."
Joycelyn Elders, FIRED by President Bill Clinton for the crime of calling for more openness and honesty regarding sexuality, recently commented that as a nation:
"We just don't like to talk about sex ... Our silence has really been deafening, and the people who suffer the most are our young."
Sometimes what is called for is not so much harsh judgment, but rather understanding, and mercy.
Abraham begged God not just once or twice for the Cities of the Plain, but SIX TIMES he interceded for God to spare the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And Jesus himself made an interesting comment which is surely appropos. When a woman was taken in adultery, Jesus enemies sought to entrap him by asking whether she should be stoned.
Jesus said, He that is without sin let him cast the first stone.
Sometimes mercy is called for. My heart goes out to someone like the late Jim
West, and the others. All we like sheep have gone astray. No one is without flaw or frailty. As human beings we all have lapses, times of fatigue, or stress, weakness and failing. What the world needs now is a dose of the kindness and compassion that alone can redeem this sad race of ours.
A mystic and saint once said, "You will never have real mercy for the failings of others, until you know and realize you have the same failings in your own soul." Worth remembering are the words in the paternoster. dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. We must forgive others.
Early impressions of Bush Presidency
Freedom of Conscience: why it was America that led the way?
Blinded By Might - how the hard Right blew it (the 2008 wake-up call)
The mystic planting: America's secret founding promise