Hypocrisy Watch: Conservative Values, Liberal Lifestyles
Before you become a crusader for moral values, you'd better have your own house in order. The liberal website Daily Kos has published a list of conservative leaders who didn't exactly live the lives they espoused for others. While the list is obviously politically motivated, and I don't vouch for the data, I link it here because it shows how not living up to your "values" hurts a far bigger cause than yourself. In a media-driven culture, you can't sweep things under the carpet anymore and years of work building a reputation and career can tumble down in an instant. At an even higher level, not practicing what you preach can terribly damage the cause itself. Especially when it comes to issues of faith, we need the guts, fortitude, and discipline to live transparent lives.
This is a problem for every belief system, that is, it's populated with hypocrites. It's a great argument for Christianity, a belief that God saves us though we're wretched, we can't save ourselves.
I wonder sometimes when I hear the story of a successful pastor brought to earth when he has sex with an underage girl if we've forgotten to believe in the bad guys, Satan and his ilk. Doesn't it make perfect sense that he would target God's best and do so from a position intended to exploit their greatest weakness?
Phil, my only push back would be your use of the term "liberal lifestyle."
I'm pretty squarely in the liberal camp and doing the things described in that list are certainly not part of my lifestyle. nor any of my friends (as far as I am aware).
I am certain you didn't intend to equate liberalism with sinfulness.
Appreciate your work and your thoughtful posts. Just poking you a bit.
Jim, you need to make the distinction between "liberal" - Morally unrestrained; licentious and "Liberal" - Of, designating, or characteristic of a political party founded on or associated with principles of social and political liberalism. Phil was obviously using the term in the more archaic (in this day and age) sense of the word - people who engage in generous behavior, oftentimes less-moral behavior in the title and the political term for the newspaper description.
Your post makes you seem like a person who is extremely intelligent, so I'm presuming you stated it mostly in humor, but some folks might not get the distinction.
...and so as not to further confuse the issue, we shouldn't bring up what classical liberalism is all about (politically & economically speaking)!
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