I am appalled at the coverage of Governor Mark Sanford's infidelity to his wife and sons. I am appalled at the moral posturing. I am appalled that we think we have the right. As members of the human species, I believe we do not have that right. Not now. Not ever.
Humans make mistakes. Small ones. Big ones. Gargantuan ones. All human beings make mistakes, but not all humans are held to the same moral standards. If you're just an ordinary citizen, you can make mistakes that traumatize the lives of those around you, and you don't appear on that rabid dragon known familiarly as cable news.
Governor Sanford cheated on his wife. In 27 years of spiritual counseling, I have met hundreds of humans in the same situation. I can assure you that they are already punishing themselves more than anyone else can punish them. My instant question is always, "Alright, what do you want to do now?"
Now is the only time for atonement. Now is the only time where forgiveness begins. Now is the only time for confession. Now is the only time for clearing the air. Now. Now. Now.
And cable news, bless their hearts, is no help -- at all.
What this latest infidelity has me wondering is: who died and made the cable pundits the morality police? Why do we insist upon holding our public servants to a different moral standard than the one to which we hold ordinary citizens? Whose morals are they, anyway?
My answer so far (subject to inspiration) is that they're the morals of a tiny minority of folks who consider themselves "real" Christians. They're the Christians who never make mistakes because they're ... what? Perfect? I don't think so.
The truth is that this pseudo-real Christianity is patriarchal in nature. In fact, it's based in patriarchy. Patriarchy wrote its history, and, as we all know, it's the winners who get the honor of writing history. But are they?
Not this time. For as long as we rigidly deny the existence of a Divine Feminine, a (gasp!) female face to Deity, we, as a species, will be morally stunted. Patriarchy allows for no errors, not even a margin for error. But the Divine Feminine, sometimes known as Shekinah, sometimes as the Holy Spirit, sometimes as Quan Yin, sometimes, even in the darkest patriarchy, known as the Blessed Virgin Mary, that Divine Feminine is a yielding, accepting, forgiving aspect of God. She knows humans make mistakes, and She loves us anyway, inclusive of error ad infinitum.
What Governor Sanford has done is wrong. What the cable news media have done with his wrong is a travesty. There's only one answer: forgiveness and reconciliation, yielding to the feminine face of God, and asking for wrong to be transformed (somehow) into right. I can't even begin to tell you how God does this, but I know from my own life that She does.
I also know that it only works when we take off our Morality Police hats, and our pseudo-religiosities, and give in to Divine Love. And we will have terrorists and troubles around the world until we finally figure this out and get it done.
For spiritual nourishment, visit Susan Corso's website at www.susancorso.com.