It seems that it has been a recurring occurrence; a politician or religious leader who is particularly outspoken against society’s sexual immoralities is caught doing exactly that which he spoke out about.

It is mind-blowing when you think about the amount of hubris, and grandiosity that it takes to stand at a podium and speak out against specific behaviors and then step away from that podium and perform those very behaviors!

Yesterday’s exploding story of New York Democratic Governor Elliot Spitzer’s alleged involvement in a prostitution ring is but the latest example of this sexual hypocrisy. Governor Spitzer has been known as “Mr. Clean” having prosecuted many prostitution rings when he served as Attorney General for the State of New York.

In all of these cases, the public is usually stunned, questioning just what were these people thinking and how did they think they were going to get away with it when they live under a microscope and the scrutiny of a probing media.

Here are a few examples of others that thought they did not have to live as they preached:

• Jimmy Swaggart, America’s leading television evangelist, resigned from his ministry after it was revealed he had been consorting with a prostitute. You might remember when he stood in front of a congregation of 7,000 and sobbed, pleading, “I have sinned against you and I beg your forgiveness”. Mr Swaggart’s confession is all the more scandalous since he himself unleashed fire and brimstone against rival TV evangelist Rev Jim Bakker a few months ago for committing adultery with minister and secretary Jessica Hahn.

• Jim Bakker, another TV evangelist and host of the PTL Club was defrocked and fired after committing adultery with his secretary Jessica Hahn.

• Larry Craig, Republican Senator for Idaho pled guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested in a Minneapolis airport bathroom for solicitng sex with an undercover cop. Craig served on the House Ethics Committee. In 1989 Craig was reported to have led an extended effort that pushed for more severe punishment of Representative Barney Frank for his involvement in a gay prostitution scandal. In 1999, Craig became sharply critical of U.S. President Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Speaking on NBC’s Meet The Press, Craig told Tim Russert: "The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy - a naughty boy. I’m going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.” 

• Mark Foley, Republican Congressman from Florida who resigned from Congress in 2006 after allegations surfaced that he had sent suggestive emails and sexually explicit instant messages to teenaged boys who had formerly served and were at that time serving as Congressional pages. 

These are but a few of some of the more notable examples of the self-appointed legislators of morality who have been caught with their proverbial “pants down.” Most of these hypocrites continued their quest for decency and application of good morals in all daily affairs even after their public outing!

The above editorial proves, once again, the belief and principle which The Lang Report and this author preach and live by; that behavior does not lie!  

Beware the Hypocrisy in Ourselves and Others!