In Us All

The papers and the news media carry another story about a public figure who has this wonderful prefect image who has been caught doing unacceptable things. This time it is a Congressman from New York who is married, with a young son, who was the picture of a very moral and upright citizens who sent a nude picture of his upper half to some woman he met on a Craig List personal ad.

Of course, everybody is shocked, disappointed, frustrated and a bit angry at him. He has ruined another role model for goodness and virtue. "Why can't we all be like him?" was the word around his community. He is such a wonderful representative of our community and our values. And now this.

Here is but another piece of evidence in the debate about whether human beings are basically good or whether we are all flawed and have in us an element of evil. The Christian Theology claims that we were created good and have fallen and we are all tainted by evil. That is why we can baptize babies. Being human, born into the human community, we all have an element of darkness and selfishness in us from the beginning. That there is always a dimension of evil in all that we do. We do good deeds with a small hope that others will applaud us. We love our families as an extension of self-love. "There is none righteous, no, not one." We have a horrible time accepting that and living with that. Remember how shocked we were when we heard Nixon cuss?

The psychologist would remind us that when we repress things they do not go away, but show up in other places. When you try to suppress your fantasies they erupt and come out in other places. Some one once told me that evangelical preachers often are rather rotund and are very dapper dressers because those are the two forms of the sins of pride and gluttony that are acceptable in our society.

There is evil in all of us. It is not helpful for us to pretend to be perfect. There is evil in us. There is little reason to be surprised when evil appears. The only surprise is some times where and how it appears. The congressman was much better looking dressed than stripped.