The World According to Oatney

The reactions all over the liberal blogosphere to Idaho Senator Larry Craig's guilty plea to a lesser charge regarding a homosexual encounter with a man in a Minneapolis public restroom at the airport are garnering the many and predictable liberal outcries of "hypocrisy" that come when such things occur and a Republican is involved. Let us note with care here that if Craig were a liberal Democrat, many a conservative and/or Republican would go out of their way to use the situation to their political advantage, labeling Senator Craig as a pervert-and perhaps not-so-covertly trying to label the national Democrats as the Party of Perversion. This is a political routine so predictable when something like this hits the fan that depending on the party and the person, one can accurately predict the reaction of both sides as soon as the story breaks.

Where the Left misses the point when they accuse people on the pro-family Right of "hypocrisy" is that the vast majority of these people are Christians. One thing that nearly all stripes of Christianity have in common is the recognition that humanity has a fallen and sinful nature, and that no man or woman short of Christ (and for Catholics His Mother) has ever lived a life free from sin. The need to atone for sin and seek God's forgiveness for our imperfections is the very reason that Christians believe Christ existed to begin with.

Just how all-encompassing do Christians believe God's mercy to be? In the time of Christ, tax collectors were among the most hated sinners of all, and with good reason. Like today's IRS, the Roman tax collectors robbed the people blind, and they did a step worse-they pilfered some of the money off the top for themselves. Frequently, they collected far more taxes than were actually due in order to make a handsome profit. They represented the height of public wickedness at that time. Yet Jesus took the time to illustrate that even a tax collector, called a publican in older translations, could receive God's mercy.

Luke 18:10-14:

Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven; but struck his breast, saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner. I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather that the other: because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.

God's mercy is so infinite, and the depth of His love so great, that anyone can be forgiven if they are truly contrite. Murderers can be forgiven, adulterers can be forgiven, anyone can be forgiven by God of any wrong, and in spite of what certain people say, so can Senator Craig. Senator Craig was never any freer from sin than the rest of us, and that means that he was just as susceptable to sin as all of us are. Christians recognize this weakness where sin is concerned because we have all sinned to a man or woman. (Yes liberals, I have sinned!)

Forgiveness of sin entails true contrition and a willingness to try and amend your life and remove the offending sin in question. It is not for me to judge whether Senator Craig has this true contrition and firm purpose of amendment. We do know that he swears he isn't gay.

Being forgiven of sin, however, does not mean that a person is then suddenly immune from the consequences of their actions. Indeed, Senator Craig's homosexuality or lack thereof has no bearing on the need for him to face the consequences for this wicked deed. Engaging in intimate relations with another man in a public restroom is a perverted, shameful, and uncalled for act. It would be equally perverted and shameful if Senator Craig had been discovered engaging in such an act with a woman in a broom closet at the airport. It is a disgraceful thing that constitutes conduct unbecoming a United States Senator, and tarnishes the honor and dignity of the Senate itself. Senator Craig may have asked Almighty God, his wife, and his family to forgive him, and all three entities may have done so, but this in no way removes the temporal consequences of the thing he has done-consequences that ought to be expected regardless of party or ideology.

Because Senator Larry Craig has engaged in conduct that is grossly unbecoming a United States Senator, I agree with Boise, Idaho Republican Precinct Captain Adam Graham that Senator Larry Craig should resign immediately.