Mark Robinson is running for governor in N. Carolina. He is their first lieutenant governor who is African American. He has recently gotten into trouble for a number of things, including lauding “Mein Kampf” as a good read and calling himself a “Black Nazi” on an internet porn site. As of yesterday, he had only three staff members left, and his candidacy is looking pretty shaky. And this is just the beginning of the problems he has gotten into. This thought isn’t about his politics; we see politicians of all sorts saying and doing idiotic things all the time. We should be used to this by now. No – Today’s Thought is about how Mr. Robinson identifies spiritually. He says he is a Christian.
Clergy throughout N. Carolina have chastised, pleaded with, and prayed for Mr. Robinson, and almost all of them have taken strong stances opposing him; except for the bishop of the church he attends in Raleigh. Yesterday, I did a podcast titled, “How Do We Reconcile Really Bad Behavior with Proclamations of Being a Christian?” I accept that none of us can see what is in another person’s heart and mind, so it is important to be careful when asking this kind of question. We don’t know all that anyone else has gone through, and we need to take some time to give grace, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because we need that grace too! Still…
I have always believed that we are all sinners; our flawed nature is part of who we are, and people who think and pray deeply about this try to live their lives improving who they are. The task, however, is that while we accept our imperfect nature, we should try to not be hypocrites about it. To deny our need to live today and tomorrow in better ways than we have lived our yesterdays is the height of hypocrisy. To not believe we ever have to say we are sorry or confess that we have done wrong is to live in complete denial. And while almost every person who knows Lieutenant Governor Robinson has walked away from him, he has stuck to his story. He continues to believe the hurtful rhetoric he spews. He has trapped himself in his own mythology and refuses to shake free of it.
Ultimately, the person he is hurting the most is himself. I don’t expect him to be perfect or to agree with me, but I do expect him to be honest with himself and the rest of us and admit where he needs to be better. I hope and pray that he has a real Come-to-Jesus moment. That’s all any of us can do – be better and grow into who God hopes we will become. Or end up alone, shamed, and left with a legacy of foolish words and behaviors. Mr. Robinson has the freedom to choose, and I hope he chooses wisely.
Prayer – Holy God, thank You for the room to grow, and for the grace and forgiveness for the messes we have made. Amen.
Today’s art is “Hypocrisy of a Smile” by Jon Baldwin.