have left undone those things which they ought to have done and done those things which they ought not to have done

Barlow Herget of State Government Radio featured the following commentary on GOP hypocrisy on his radio show:

I’ve tried to resist, but the temptation to comment is just too great. I’m talking, of course, about the recent sex scandals involving self-righteous politicians in the Old North State.

Maybe the Devil made them do it, but I see the Hand of a Higher Power bringing justice to the smug and proud. In recent years, especially in the South, there has been an overt attempt by pious politicians to exploit religion for their own ends.

The Republican Party as a whole has been successful in winning a majority of churchgoing voters. Fundamentalist Christians in particular have voted overwhelming for Republicans. That’s not some liberal cant. That’s a fact.

There’s nothing wrong or undemocratic about that voting pattern. Republicans have best represented the views of such voters.

What’s been wrong are the suggestions--and it’s more than suggestions from people such as former and disgraced House Majority Leader Tom Delay of Texas--that their opponents are godless infidels.

People can disagree honestly over how to fix our broken health care system or how to interpret Roe v. Wade. But it’s not American to question people’s faith because they disagree with your political solutions. Such absolutism is the path to the world of the Taliban.

Thus, when these preachy politicians, to paraphrase the ancient words of the Episcopal Prayer Book, “have left undone those things which they ought to have done and done those things which they ought not to have done,” there is divine humor in it.

Representative David Almond of Stanly County campaigned as a “family values” Republican. He was run out of town by his own party after a complaint by his female legislative assistant was filed against him for what is reported to be sexual misconduct.

Then, there is 74-year-old, former Republican Representative Coy Privette of Cabarrus County. He is a Baptist minister who brought conservative religious politics to the capital in his war against mixed drinks. Reverend Privette has been charged with hiring a prostitute and has resigned from his position as president of the Christian Action League.

In Washington, Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana confessed his sin of being a customer of the D.C. Madam. This is one of the holier-than-thou crowd who denounced President Bill Clinton’s sexual misconduct and vowed nothing was more sacred than the institution of marriage.

And let us not forget Reverend Ted Haggard and Congressman Mark Foley, Republican moralizers both.

Their downfalls underscore that we all are fallible. The lesson to self-righteous politicians—Republican or Democrat—is that if they are going to talk the talk of family values, they’d better walk the walk better than these hypocrites.