Humble Hypocrite

Be honest.  Do you ever complain or argue?  Get angry?  Lose your patience?  Judge others?  Worry about life? 

As Christians we know we should avoid these traps but seem to be hardwired to fall into them.  There are lots of these lessons in the Bible and we all violate  some of them (if not more)  some of the time (if not more often).  If we were charged with hypocrisy we'd have to plead guilty.  Fortunately for most of us, our faults are kept private. We can confess them, repent, receive forgiveness and move on without enduring pubic humiliation.

Mark Souder didn't have that luxury.

Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson knew Mr. Souder.  Souder was his first boss when both worked for U.S  Senator Dan Coats.  Gerson wrote, "Souder was "deeply religious, highly intelligent and slightly neurotic" and he "was decent to me.  Not long after I started working there, my father died suddenly.  Mark drove from Washington to Atlanta to attend the funeral.  I won't forget."

"Mark later became a thoughtful congressman, carving out a serious role in drug policy.  He did his job with care and stubborn integrity.  He was not a bright-burning political meteor, but he was the kind of man worth having in the House."

The Indiana representative had been married for 35 years with three children and two grandchildren.  He was a family-values proponent and an evangelical Christian who promoted sexual abstinence education.  This made him a juicy target when he admitted having an affair with a staffer.  He resigned, apologized, packed his things and left Washington.

At least Souder acknowledged he was wrong and accepted the consequences.  Typically public figures hang tough and try to keep their jobs regardless of what anyone else thinks.  And in doing so the unspoken message is that violations of moral standards are of no particular significance.  Maybe it doesn't cost them their jobs and pensions, but it does weaken one more strand of integrity in our morally relativistic culture.  In an environment that tolerates and explains away all kinds of damaging behavior, Souder's sense of shame was refreshing.

Gerson put it this way:

"The failure of human beings to meet their own ideals does not disprove or discredit those ideals.  The fact that some are cowards does not make courage a myth.  The fact that some are faithless does not make fidelity a joke.  All moral standards create the possibility of hypocrisy.  But I would rather live among those who recognize the standards and fail to meet them than among those who mock all standards as lies.  In the end, hypocrisy is preferable to decadence."

Well said.

Mark Souder deserves mercy for confessing and apologizing for his behavior.  He also deserves gratitude for refusing to deny or excuse it.

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