Sin doesn't choose sides, or political parties, or denominations

Sin doesn't choose sides, or political parties, or denominations

In light of what has been written about the Foley Gate or follies, and even waht I have written, I wanted to add these two articles from The Christian Science Monitor and God's Politics a blog by Jim Wallis and Friends. We are all tempted to sin, and we do, including me. So here is they are for your reading and comments.

Congress is consistent at corruption

Some lawmakers act as though they are beyond the reach of rules meant for others.
By Daniel Schorr
WASHINGTON
Foley's folly - the sexually suggestive messages that Rep. Mark Foley (R) sent to one or more former congressional pages - is only the latest manifestation of Lord Acton's axiom that power tends to corrupt.
In the case of our Congress, the corruption is of two general sorts - money and sex.
The money corruption hardly needs to be spelled out. Just mention names such as Republicans Duke Cunningham and Tom DeLay, or lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Trading votes on pending pork has become a routine part of the legislative process.
But the big ones are remembered - like the 1981 sting operation called Abscam, in which a senator and six representatives were caught in a trap when they thought they were being handed cash by an Arab sheikh.
In the case of scandals with sexual overtones, there was, for example, Rep. Wayne Hays (D) of Ohio, exposed in 1976 as having put his mistress on his official payroll. She later admitted she couldn't type, but typing was apparently not part of her duties.
The sex-linked scandal I remember best involved Wilbur Mills, the powerful Democratic chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He was caught in 1974, carrying on around the Tidal Basin with an Argentine striptease dancer. Like former Representative Foley, he attributed it to alcoholism.
Then there was Sen. Robert Packwood (R), accused of sexual harassment by 10 women in 1992.
In all of these episodes there was a sense that lawmakers, once ensconced in office by the voters, were acting as though they were beyond the reach of rules meant for others, from parking in "no parking" zones to making advances to 16-year-olds. There is a sense of "you can't touch me," until some scandal explodes that is too outrageous to ignore.
But if the past is any guide, power will continue to corrupt, perhaps absolutely.
• Daniel Schorr is a senior news analyst at National Public Radio.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

It is interesting that Daniel Schorr doesn't mention Ted Kennedy's tryst that cost a life.

Diana Butler Bass: Sin Is Neither Republican nor Democratic

A couple weeks ago, I was having lunch with a neo-conservative Christian friend, a person with whom I disagree, yet whose faith and intellectual perspectives I respect. In our wide-ranging discussion, we wound up talking about the politics of sexuality, and he made the off-handed comment that students in mainline Protestant seminaries were “more likely” to engage in pre-martial sexual activity than those in evangelical seminaries—that sexual misconduct occurs more among liberals than conservatives.
“Sexual morality or immorality is NOT linked to either theology or politics,” I argued back. “Sexuality is part of human nature. Whether left or right, all Christians struggle to be faithful people and live out our commitments to chastity or monogamy. Human sexuality isn’t a liberal-conservative thing.”
He laughed, realizing, of course, that every Christian theologian from St. Paul and St. Augustine forward has pretty much said the same thing.
Making sexuality a political issue, as much of the Religious Right has done, distracts from a host of other issues, such as poverty, war, and environmental concerns. But it also obscures the fact that Christians agree (as my friend and I do) on many things regarding this intimate part of our lives. We agree that sexuality is a gift from God, that love and commitment are foundational to sexual expression, that marriage is the best vessel for human sexuality, and that authenticity, honesty, fidelity, and mutual regard form the basis of Christian sexual relationships. Sex is, theologically, an ultimate expression of self-giving and surrender, qualities that resemble those in Christian spirituality. As the medieval mystics taught, humanity sexuality is a metaphor for our relationship with God.
We also know, as the Christian tradition teaches, that all of this is hard. Sexuality is difficult because it is potentially holy and potentially sinful at the same time. In the midst of this powerful mystery, we are merely human. And none of these things—honesty, holiness, fidelity, or mutual regard—come easily to us. Thus, to politicize sexuality divides us at the very point at which we are united—our shared human nature and our shared quests to live in faith-filled grace.
Which, of course, brings us to the terrible revelations this past weekend about (now former) Congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.), caught in an explicit email tryst with a teenage page.
In the last two days, I have heard people (in both the media and on the streets) politicize Mr. Foley’s misconduct, exalting in the lurid revelations about the hypocrisy of “Republican moralists.” Ah ha! God’s own political party is covering up sin in its midst! Elmer Gantry lives! Those who live by politicizing sexuality, die by sexual politics.
This is NOT a Christian response. If Christians are to be involved in political life, it needs to be a political life of pastoral compassion. Mr. Foley’s alleged activity and subsequent resignation will have lifelong consequences for some unnamed (thank goodness) teenage boy. As in the Roman Catholic Church sex scandal, the victims are the people who must relive the abuse every time a pundit makes political points by bringing up the whole sordid mess. Our prayers and sympathies go out to those hurt by sexual misconduct of all sorts. Our churches must do better ministering to the victims of disordered sexuality.
And then there’s Mr. Foley himself. Who knows what sad personal struggle exists between his private sexuality and his public crusade against sexual predators? I had never heard of this congressman before, but his story is nothing short of spiritual tragedy—allegedly acting out of one persona in private and another in public, violating and degrading his own humanity in the process, evidently victimized by his own hubris, power, and lust, consumed by several of the “big seven” deadly sins.
Christian political compassion extends, as it extended in Jesus’ own teaching and ministry, toward both victims and oppressors (theologian Miroslav Volf refers to this double action as “exclusion and embrace”), for each has to bear the cross of twisted humanity. Our hearts naturally extend to the innocent victim in the story, and in the case of Mr. Foley, we do well to remember with pastoral concern his young victims (as well as all victims of sexual abuse). Yet oppressors cry out for Christian compassion as well, even when they are members of Congress. In pastoral mercy, we do well to remember the counsel of Proverbs 24:17:
“Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble.”
God is, as scripture tells us, the author of all goodness. God never rejoices in sin, and we know that sin is not the exclusive possession of any political party. The darkness that stalks us is neither Republican nor Democratic. It is part of the human condition, that which makes us all cry out for compassion—and that compassion is an apt starting point for a Christian politics of grace, not partisan vindictiveness.
Diana Butler Bass is an independent scholar and author. Her latest book is Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (Harper, September 2006).