I’m not at all sure I can keep the following post entirely G-rated. If you are easily offended or grossed out, please come back tomorrow. I’ll have gotten this story out of my system by then.
Anthony Wiener, who resigned from Congress in disgrace after sending photos of his genitals to a number of women who most definitely had not requested them, is now running for mayor of New York City. A few days ago, he turned up at the Greater Springfield Memorial Church, in Queens, to kick-start his campaign.
We are indebted to the pastor of this church for his extremely simple explanation of Wiener’s way off-the-wall behavior. The ex-Congressman, said the pastor, just plain “made a mistake.”
Nothing was mentioned about making the same one over and over again. Showing up late for a movie because you misread the schedule, or locking yourself out of your car–those are mistakes. Sending obscene pictures of yourself to women–again and again–seems more like something you would do on purpose.
But, no, it was just a “mistake,” said the pastor in the pulpit. And he went on to say, “Moses and St. Peter made mistakes, too.” He also likened the disgraced politician to the Prophet Ezekiel.
We are beginning to wonder just who is making mistakes. What kind of pastor raises a notorious pervert to the level of Moses, Peter, and Ezekiel? Is this man quite all there? Or was he trying to bring Moses, Peter, and Ezekiel down to Wiener’s level? Imagine yourself sitting in a pew, knowing what Wiener did (again and again) to bring shame down on his head, and listening to your pastor liken him to Moses. And St. Peter.
I mean, what’s he going to say next week?
I think I’d better leave that to your imaginations.
Well, this is unbelievable and disgusting… or maybe just the norm for religious leaders these days? It reminds me of the answer given by one of the most high profile “Christian” TV leaders just the other day when a woman had emailed him for advice about how to forgive her husband for cheating on her. He gave the flippant answer: just forget about this, and remember his good points, after all he is a man, and men do these things,
the old argument “boys will be boys”, and then proceeded to cast her as being the one in the wrong by advising her to give him more attention, more love, more adulation so that home would be so attractive that he would not want to stray. I shook my head in disbelief at the cavalier way he treated this grieving woman. Shameful. This pastor’s treatment of Wiener’s behavior is also very shameful.
*sigh* This is the kind of thing that makes the whole Church look bad. For some reason that doesn’t seem to bother anyone in the clergy. Whether it’s Methodist ministerettes conducting goddess-worship ceremonies, or Catholic priests preying on little boys, or a Presbyterian Church USA featuring Moslem and Hindu prayers and worship of native American “nature gods,” those who are supposed to be the shepherds of Christ’s flock are going to have an awful lot of explaining to do when they face the Last Tribunal.
PS–R.J. Rushdoony used to write about this very thing all the time, back in the 1970s; and I know women who have experienced this themselves, with their own pastors.
Erlene, I’m curious–who is the theological TV prat you’re referring to? If you don’t feel like mentioning him in public, feel free to answer in a private email: you have my address.
I don’t mind at all naming this man. He is a very well known TV broadcaster; Pat Robertson. If he was bold enough to make those statements on TV, why not name him? That was following his comments about his doubt about the age of the earth, and scientific opinions that it was billions of years old, when the Scripture states clearly that God created the earth in 6 days. Unbelievable.
If he didn’t exist, the enemies of the Church would have to invent him.
Weiner ran for mayor of NYC because of the money, power, prestige, etc. it yields its occupant. Lately you have to be a billionaire to buy the job. And this pastor wants to be in with the power holders for his own benefit. I was reading today in St. Luke where a vast multitude was following Jesus, so He turned around and told them unless you pick up your cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple, and some other tough sayings. The result? A bunch of them stopped following Him.