Columns

Their demons make them do it

By ROBYN BLUMNER
Published December 3, 2006

In Dante's descending circles of Hell, hypocrites were cast into the eighth and penultimate level in honor of their contemptuous status. Dante dressed them in golden vestments, while inside, their robes were lined with lead.

I think Dante was too kind. On the scale of despicableness, the hypocrite is king. People who hold themselves out as moral leaders or pious preachers, yet act immorally in private, are as bad as any bottom-feeders of society.

My thoughts turned to moral hypocrites recently as the scandals involving former Florida congressman Mark Foley and evangelical leader Ted Haggard unfolded.

Let me say at the outset that I do not think homosexuality is immoral. To the contrary, my credo holds that adult same-sex couples in loving, committed relationships are acting on the same moral plane as similarly situated heterosexual couples.

But Foley and Haggart were not simply homosexual, they were high-minded scolds, who claimed license to judge and denounce the acts of others while engaging in the same or worse themselves.

While Foley was text messaging young male congressional pages under his care with sexually explicit suggestions, he co-chaired the House's Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus and backed legislation to crack down on online predators. Foley famously got his knickers in a knot over a nudist camp for young people that had been operating in Florida trouble-free for a decade. He claimed the camp was exploitative and that being surrounded by nudity would inflame teenage sexuality.

What is apparent now is that teenage nudity would inflame Foley's sexuality. He presumed that his own disturbing predilections tortured others in the same way.

I've always believed that those people who trumpet virtue the loudest do so because they have trouble keeping their own behavior in check.

Individuals whose minds are not oppressed by sinful thoughts don't need an external threat of legal sanction or Judgment Day to act ethically. It comes naturally. In my view, people who are inherently predisposed to living the Golden Rule are less likely to try to impose a code of virtue on others.

But when one is engaged in a constant internal battle, when the proverbial devil is ever-present whispering in one's ear, then loudly proclaiming righteousness might be one way to try to shout him down. Someone so diverted by dark impulses must believe that others are equally inclined. And it is natural for someone like that to look for an external rulebook to govern behavior, whether grounded in religious or secular law, since their own compass is so faulty.

This is, of course, the age-old existential question: Is man inherently good or evil? I think it depends on the man. But I also think how one answers this question often has something to do with one's own nature.

Disgraced evangelist "Pastor Ted" Haggard is the kind of person who probably believes man is inherently evil. He made a career of remonstrating against sin, because he thought humans would stray into wickedness if given half the chance. That's because he would.

Last month, Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was removed as senior pastor of an evangelical congregation of 14,000 due to "sexual immorality." A male prostitute accused Haggard of hiring him for sex nearly every month for three years and disclosed that methamphetamine was used during the liaisons. Haggard, a married father of five, made some lame partial denials, but also admitted to being "a deceiver."

"There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life," Haggard wrote in a letter to his former congregation. Again, to me, Haggard's homosexuality is not immoral; his infidelity and towering hypocrisy is.

Haggard joins so many others whose public displays of piety masked personal vice, most famously Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker. But there are plenty of lesser known cases such as Dr. David Hager - a sanctimonious Bush appointee to an FDA board accused by his ex-wife of anally raping her - as well as untold numbers of child-molesting priests.

Jesus, like Dante, had little tolerance for hypocrites. The biblical account has Jesus particularly suspicious of worshipers who proclaim their faith publicly "that they may be seen." He suggests the truly faithful will pray "in secret."

Human nature hasn't changed much in 2,000 years. What was true then is true today: Those who make a big show of reproving behavior in others are often overcompensating for their own baser instincts.

[Last modified December 4, 2006, 17:30:30]