INSULTING OF THE PRESIDENT

 Pride, that sin that God hates, prevents us from saying, “I was wrong and I apologize; please, will you forgive me?” We saw this pride firsthand, live, and in living color on national television during the heated presidential race between Gore and Bush.

That was a contested election that wasn’t decided until December because of the infamous hanging chads, and who knows what else went on in those equally infamous smoke-filled rooms.

There was one man a cable news network chose to interview, a choice which turned out to be wrong, wrong, wrong. They say that politics makes strange bedfellows and it does. But politics in the heat and passion of the moment makes people say pure nonsense. And that’s what this passionate fellow spouted for one and all to hear.

He was in a white-hot heat about his belief that votes in FL were being suppressed and, he said that the votes of a particular minority group were not being recorded by the voting machines in the Sunshine State.

And then it happened, the newsman interviewing him asked, “How does a voting machine know when a member of a minority casting his or her vote?” The speaker quickly realized that what he’d just said was both nonsensical and impossible; he'd been caught.

What did he do? He looked to his right. He looked to his left as if pleading for help for whoever of his party might be standing there off camera. No cavalry was coming to his rescue. All the viewer heard and all the speaker heard was nothing . . .  pure cold marble silence. He had no answer.

What did he do? He looked at the camera and, instead of admitting he was wrong, he said, “I stand by my statement.” The interview was over. He left never to be heard of again. That was a good thing.

Humility involves admission of wrongdoing, confession of sin, letting people know we make mistakes. There was one man who was known as a humble man. He made a serious blunder which haunted him for the rest of his life: he did something that one is never to do with the president in office. He talked about and physically demonstrated what they talked about. That's a no-no. He admitted he was wrong, apologized, but his error haunted him for the rest of his life.* He never got completely over it and the president said, "I never want to see that man again."

He admitted another wrongdoing--he would, at times, fall into the perils of political partisanship, taking sides that alienated millions from his message. He apologized for that late in his life. Then there was the time during which he thought no one would hear his remarks, he said some denigrating things about the Jews that, unbeknownst to him, were recorded and later the world heard them. "I was wrong," he said. Upon retiring, he admitted he’d neglected his family and that he watched too much television.

It’s good to remember his humility in our day of leaders and the well-known who are always right in their own eyes. 

Billy Graham set us a good example of humility.
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*For what Billy Graham did in regard to President Truman on that day, go to: https://www.presidentialcrossroads.com/harry-s-truman-meets-billy-graham/