I don’t particularly care that Anthony Weiner sent pictures of his namesake to female friends via Twitter. It would not be my choice, but it is a free country and he is free to make as many juvenile decisions as his little adolescent heart desires. Merely having bad judgment does not make you ill-suited for public service. We have kept much worse offenders in much higher offices for much longer.
In the end, the problem is not what he did but that he thought he would not get caught.
I tell kids in the church all the time, “be careful what you put out on the internet because once it is there, it is there.” The warning has become almost cliché, but it is not untrue. I know many pastors who have seen their ministries in a particular church unravel because of an ill-timed Facebook post or a Tweet written in anger. Beneath the creepy and beneath the layers of adolescent lust that are exhibited in Rep. Weiner’s exhibitionism lies the true sin in this whole sad affair.
Pride.
What Weiner showed (metaphorically at least) is his belief that he among all people could avoid the light of the truth. He seemed to think that he is immune to the light that shined on Sen. Larry Craig, Sen. David Vitter, Sen. John Ensign, Gov. Mark Sanford and Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger. And lest he think his membership in the Democrat Party or his liberalism inoculates him to being subject to the truth coming out, don’t forget Sen. John Edwards, Gov. Jim McGreevey and President Bill “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” Clinton.
The truth will out.
Everytime.
Sometimes it takes a while. But the truth will out.
As a matter of public debate, this “scandal” will go the way most of them go. There will be a week or so of bloviating from the opposition, the media will take advantage of showing soft core porn as news, the talking heads will run out the clock on the Jersey Shoresque drama and things will eventually go back to normal. What debate there is will focus not on the events of the scandal but which side can claim the highest of the low ground they share.
We live in an era of great and deep need in our communities. People are in real pain and in need of their government’s full attention. When public servants spend their time arguing about who is the least creepy, when elected officials attention is focused on not getting caught or embarrassed, it is no wonder that it seems that the people have been forgotten. The inexcusable arrogance of Rep. Weiner is not an isolated incident. Of the current members of the United States Congress (including some elected to this congress who have left) no less than six have been caught with their brains in their nickers. And each one thought that he was special enough to avoid getting caught. None were.
I make no claims of perfection nor am I by any means immune to the sin of pride. In fact, pride is probably the strongest club in my bag. None of us escapes the realities of sin and election to public office is surely no inoculation to human sinfulness. In fact it may truly increase your susceptibility to infection! I am not a prude and what consenting adults choose to do is not my concern (no matter how stupid it may be!) I do believe that public lives deserve some measure of scrutiny. However, when our shared attention remains on the prurient details of this sort of event and we ignore the underlying reality of pride that got us here, we risk ignoring the greater threat to our public good.
If the saying is true that pride goeth before a fall, when it comes to our elected officials perhaps we should take a moment and wonder whose fall their pride proceeds. Is it just their own or might we be joining them?
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