Gordon Cheng / 2nd September 2004
/ The ones they wouldn't publish!
Faced with some snide newspaper comments about the defrocked priest who tackled the leader of the men's marathon at the Athens Games, I hoped the following letter might make it past the editor...
The ex-Catholic priest in the Olympic marathon represented no-one but himself. By contrast, the man he tackled who went on to win a medal brought honour to his Maker by saying “Maybe God put this man in my way to test me, to see what I could do.” Thus Vanderlei Lima, unlike the Games he was competing in, gave glory to God rather than human sweat.
Yours sincerely,
The Rev. Gordon Cheng
Gordon Cheng / 1st September 2004
An Australian Federal election has been called. Once again Australian journalists are agonising over whether matters of private morality ought to be introduced into the public arena. All the while, the major parties claim that trust in party leadership is a key issue in this poll.
An example of how this debate continues to confuse occurred over the weekend, when an article in a leading newspaper magazine claimed that a federal politician had been unfairly victimised over her adulterous relationship, simply because she was female. Other male politicians, the article claimed, have had adulterous relationships but have not had to pay as heavy a political as this woman. Why then should her private affair be dragged into the public arena and used against her so viciously?
Undoubtedly there is a double standard at work here. Men have gotten off easier in the past over similar behaviour, and it's right to raise the question ‘why?’.
But the debate is muddied by introducing the split between private and public. In this matter a ‘private’ lie (the lie to the husband or wife regarding the existence of another relationship) quickly became a string of very public lies—to party members, to journalists, to the public—about major public decisions that had been influenced by the hidden relationship. The same dynamic can be seen in retrospect in many other situations.
It is impossible to separate public from private life, as it is the one person is living both. Lack of integrity and faithfulness in one area will spill over into the other. As Malachi 2:16 says (with an admirable lack of double standard), “‘For the man who hates and divorces’, says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘covers his garment with violence’, says the LORD of hosts.”
