What does a "moment of decency" look like in your life?

I listen regularly to the podcast "The Gist" put out by Slate and hosted by Mike Pesca.  With the news this week about Sen. John McCain having brain cancer, Pesca took a moment during his regular monologue about current events to note that McCain was a "decent man."  As proof, he cited one particular instance from the 2008 presidential campaign when at a town hall meeting a questioner describes her fear of an Obama presidency because in her words, "He's an Arab." Instead of capitalizing on that "birther" fear among some in his base, McCain took a moment to refute the woman and to state that Obama was a good person, a good family man and a good American with whom he disagrees quite a bit.  Especially in light of President Trump riding into the White House in a campaign that began with calls for Obama to reveal his "true" birth certificate, McCain's honesty--what Pesca calls "a moment of decency" is notable.

(Now before I get e-mails from all the liberals in our church, I am well aware that McCain went on in that campaign to make Sarah Palin his running mate, and she is in many ways one of the people responsible for our current political situation where fiction is wantonly paraded around as fact, let me assure you that I haven't forgotten about Palin.   I have also not forgotten about the many ways I disagree with John McCain on oh so many issues.  Yet, at the same time, I am able to hold all of that in tension with McCain's heroism as a P.O.W., his strong stance against the Bush administration's use of torture, and his moments of decency going against his own party.)

Mike Pesca goes on in the podcast to share about other "moments of decency" in politics where someone chose to move against their own self-interest.  He cites Bernie Sanders saying "I'm tired of hearing about your damn e-mails." to Hilary Clinton in a debate, as well as when the Gore campaign received leaked Bush campaign debate prep materials and then turned them over to the FBI.  (He does pause to ponder the fact that all the examples he cites were from losing campaigns.)  Pesca goes on to contrast President Trump's statement that "anybody would have taken that meeting" in which his son was offered dirt on Hilary Clinton by the Russian government.  Really, would "anybody" have taken that meeting?

It's all well and good to keep at arm's length the question of what a person does when they have an opportunity for a "moment of decency"--when they can choose to do the right thing even if it goes against their self-interest.  Talking about presidential candidates is a nice parlor game.  Yet, this got me thinking about the ways each of us--who are likely never going to run for president--act when we are put in the posisition to make a moment into a "moment of decency" or a moment of self-interest put over and above decency.

It matters what choice we make when we have the chance through commission or omission to score points on someone we do not like or feel threatened by.  Do we stand by and let that rumor get passed along about a coworker whom nobody in the office likes?  What about when the rumor is about someone who is up for the same promotion as we are?  What about that unfair statement said at a family get-together regarding that sibling or cousin whom you don't like?  Do you remain silent and let it pass?  What about that person at work, school, in your family or among your friends whom just bugs you?  Are you willing to let something happen to him or her that is unfair or ignore statements about that person which you know aren't true?

If you're like me, there is a not so insignificant part of you which feels a little bit superior when someone you don't like gets run down.  In fact, it feels so good that I'm tempted to pile on and twist the knife another turn as it passes by.  

In many ways that matter, our culture rewards people who do not buck a herd mentality.  We love to scapegoat others, because that means we aren't the one getting scapegoated.  In so many ways, our "adult" interactions seem to have evolved little beyond the middle school cafeteria.  We jostle for position in a hierarchy that ultimately does not matter.

Despite the age in which we live where each person gets to declare their own brand of truth (what Stephen Colbert used to call "truthiness"), it appears truthfulness, integrity and yes, decency, matter just as much as they always have.  Despite the cacophony of Christian celebrity preachers who peddle their own form of "truthiness", the Bible is full of admonitions regarding how to act when your potential "moment of decency" occurs.

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."--Exodus 20:16 (one of the Big 10!)

"So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another."--Ephesians 4:25

"If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless."--James 1:26

"Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,
    but those who act faithfully are his delight."--Proverbs 12:22

"Those who desire life
    and desire to see good days,
let them keep their tongues from evil
    and their lips from speaking deceit"--1 Peter 3:10

"Truthful lips endure forever,
    but a lying tongue lasts only a moment."--Proverbs 12:19

and of course

"Do to others as you would have them do to you."--Luke 6:31

Oh, and about a bazillion more.

I'm preparing my sermon for Sunday on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-42 which is Jesus' parable of "the wheat and the tares" or "the wheat and the weeds."  A man's enemy sows weeds in a man's wheat field.  When the weeds are discovered, the man declares that at harvest time, it all will be cut down and the wheat will be harvested and the weeds will be burned in the fire.  Jesus goes on to explain that the wheat are the "children of the kingdom" and the weeds are the "children of the enemy."  The latter will be thrown into the "furnace of fire" at the end of the age by God's angels.  It sounds very neat and tidy, but if I'm honest despite my habit of reducing complex human beings I don't like or ones I disagree with to flat caricatures, none of them is a wholly evil person.  For that matter, as much as I want to think well of myself I have to admit I'm a mixture of good and bad choices, selflessness and selfishness.  I'm more than a little scared to look at a tally sheet of moments when I chose my self interest over doing the right thing vs. "moments of decency."  At my better moments, I'm wheat, but at my worst moment I'm a weed.  Stay tuned Sunday to see if i can make any sense of this story.

In the meantime, like John mcCain we may inevitably make mistakes of judgment and even compromise our own self-proclaimed principles, but hopefully alongside those stains on our character we can hold up moments of decency too.

Grace and Peace,

Chase