Saturday, June 7, 1997

Scandalous lives are disappointing, but those who live them are the ones who must answer for them

By JOY THOMPSON / Knight-Ridder Newspapers

Earlier this week, a reader called and asked what I thought about the President Clinton and Paula Jones scandal. To be honest, I really don't think about it much. I just shake my head and remind myself and others to avoid making the same humiliating mistakes.

The U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that the president can be sued for sexual harassment while in office. So now we have it: Bill Clinton - esteemed leader of the free world and alleged sex fiend. The reader who called though Clinton was being treated unfairly, and that Jones, now a Long Beach resident, was merely a gold digger. If she were sincere, she would have dealt with this years ago, when the alleged incidents happened.

"Jones should just forgive and forget, don't you think?" the reader asked.

Forgiveness is definitely a noble principle, but I believe that it and many other noble ideals are totally lost or misapplied here. First of all, sexual harassment is a serious charge, and I believe offenders should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, even if they are president of the United States.

At the same time, I realize how much partisan politics are fueling Paula Jones' case. Between all the politics and hypocrisy involved in this scandal, I doubt that the real truth will ever be uncovered or true justice will be meted out. That's why I have little patience with these and other incidents of scandalous behavior by public figures.

Official hypocrisy is a sad but real part of our country's heritage. However, in the past people were more willing to ignore or downplay certain moral indiscretions by leaders, at least while they were in office.

Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy are just a few of our nation's leaders who either had marital affairs or kept mistresses. Every time I mention Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a column, a local reader writes to remind me that the FBI caught him cheating on his wife. Often these sordid secret lives are common knowledge among staff members. But they are not made public until years later.

Today, everything and everyone is coming or being pulled out of the closet.

On the one hand, you have popular sports announcer Marv Albert accused of sexually assaulting a woman. Then you have Kathie Lee Gifford raving on national television about her wonderful Christian family and photos of her husband, Frank, frolicking in a hotel room with a former flight attendant.

And we can hardly forget the stories of prostitute-soliciting religious proselytizers such as Jimmy Swaggart. Geez! Some days the sleaze gets so deep, I feel I'd be much better off not knowing.

I want to yell: "For the sake of what little faith I have left in people's integrity, please, please don't ask, don't tell anything."

Then I remember this is their lives, not mine. Often the public image is maintained by smoke and mirrors. When one of these camouflage devices fail, the ugly truth is revealed. The moral flaws may have always existed; they just were never dealt with.

The public scandals make me grateful to be grounded in the real world. I am grateful to attend a church where the minister is not afraid to bring up the topic of sin. I am grateful to have friends brave enough to challenge my life and help me practice what I preach. I am grateful for what the Bible teaches about seeking good advice and avoiding compromising situations. (The book of Proverbs makes for an excellent study.)

Seeing the leader of my country having to face trial for sexual harassment is extremely disappointing. But then again, Clinton will have to answer for his life, and I will have to answer for mine. The challenge for all of us is to learn from the mistakes.

(Joy Thompson is an editorial writer for the Long Beach Press-Telegram. You can write to her at 604 Pine Ave., Long Beach, Calif. 90844.)

(c) 1997, Press-Telegram (Long Beach, Calif.).

Visit PT Connect, the World Wide Web site of the Press-Telegram, Calif, at http://www.ptconnect.com/

Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.