by Kevin Thompson
Today former Senator John Edwards finally confessed to an affair alleged by the National Enquirer. I mentioned this on last week’s Understanding Our Times broadcast. Let me share with you a few of the thoughts that came to my mind when I first heard the news:
1. Is he going to apologize for previously lying to the American people about this affair?
2. How can a man cheat on a wife who not only suffers with cancer, but has been his biggest political support?
3. Edwards standard stump speech while running for President included remarks informing us that there are in fact “two Americas” – one for the rich and one for the disadvantaged. To which America did this woman belong?
4. Edwards still denies the child in question is not his, though he did have an affair with the mother. If this is true, what does this say about this woman? Not only did she have an affair with a married man, but conceived a child out of wedlock with another man while seeing aforementioned married man. Wow. What does this say about the decision-making abilities of the man who would be President?
5. You would think this man’s political career would be over. However, consider these two words before jumping to any conclusions: Bill Clinton.
6. All politics aside, this is a sad moment. This is not a time to gloat or a time to cheer. Though I may have serious disagreements with Senator Edwards, we have to remember a marriage, an innocent child, and “another woman” are the ones who will feel the full weight of the consequences here. They need our prayers.
7. Let’s not be so quick to paint the scarlet letter upon these people, let’s remember something – every one of us is a sinner. You would think that a man of Edwards’s intelligence and aspirations would have known better. Even the best of people are capable of the worst of sins. While it is correct, appropriate and needed to call sin sin, Scripture reminds us in Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
