the fallen

i am not impressed with political leaders or religious leaders who take a "hard line" stance for any topic - because they always fall from grace. it is the "speck and beem" thing Jesus told us about. spitzer is just the latest in a long line of "leaders" who have stood hard on what they saw as a moral issue, only to fall to that same moral issue. when i was a kid my grandfather taught me that, "those who scream the loudest against something, are usually what they are against." i have seen this many times, and more so over the past few years -

leaders who shout "anti-homosexual rhetoric" are caught with gay prostitutes, paying for some pretty kinky stuff. leaders who stand on a "anti-drug" campaign, only to find themselves in rehab working on "personal demons." leaders who shout for a "moral center" are found to be so far to the left, or right, that they lose all creditability. this seems to be the way of the world, shout against and fall into the sin you stand against. but when they do fall, they aways ask for the grace they refused to show others - i am reminded the the swaggart/bakker thing, where swaggart rode bakker about his "sexual immorality" only to stand before his own congregation a short time later asking for forgiveness and grace - yet he offered bakker none.

the hard part for me is not what they are against, or that they have fallen, but that they lived a lie for so long that it is hard to see value in anything they have ever shared - i mean, if they lied that big about who they were sleeping with [and paying big bucks for it] then how can i trust anything they promised? if they lied to the people closest to them, their family, how can i, a stranger, trust anything they have to say? i have lost all confidence in our political leaders, our religious leaders and anyone who claims a "moral right" for any reason - because they all have fallen way short -

now, we can "caulk this up" to them being "human" and they are, but actions must match words. if those we seek to be leaders are not sharing with us a reality we can see and express - who is there to trust to lead? leaders keep complaining that people are not supporting them, well it could be we are just waiting to see who falls next.

just some thoughts i have been having today as i read the spitzer stories - and how they relate to all the flash backs that seem to be going through my mind of past "leaders" great and small.