it nevur haz ben possibul to stay pure "all hav sinned & fallen" ergo ... 

These stories you've heard about aren't really that new. People have had mistresses for centuries, it is only that now they have come to light, and people are talking about them. It seems it isn't possible to stay entirely pure and I don't think it's ever been possible; if you are asking for us not to be tempted (from the smallest to the largest charge), you asking for us to not be human. For even when we reflect on our faults or potential faults, it already shows us we've fallen....

I agree that we can only pray for ourselves and each other, and hope to walk in better light than our own.

Next time, I will share a few practical things I do in my own personal life to avoid being put into situations where I would be tempted to step out of bounds, particularly with the opposite sex. 

Some of points:

1.  Sanford did what he did willfully and repeatedly.  He did not suffer from a weak moment.

2.  Politics is full of pimps, cheats, sex maniacs and hoodlums who get returned to office time and by the voters.

3.  When voters realize that the governments, state, federal and local, are nothing more than legally sanctioned organized crime syndicates then they won't be so surprised at the conduct of their duely elected crime bosses.

The Founding Fathers created a system of checks and balances that greatly impeded the efficiency and power of government because they knew what government really is:  a crime syndicate.

Nevertheless, over time the majority of Americans have grown to trust and rely on government.  This is the real issue, not whether some moral cretin of a politician is porking someone other than his own spouse.

@MizconstruedJa@xanga - thats what i was going to say =)

Yes, indeed we can stay pure and above reproach.  It requires us to live in the Spirit of God, to Trust in His glory and Strength, and to allow him to remove Sin from our life, and submit and commit to removing any and everything in our life that leads us to sin-- regardless of if it is sin or not.  (Ex. any particular TV show that puts you in a sinful mood lol. )

Good post though.  Indeed we ALL need to be praying intensely for our Leaders.

@ultravioletskies08@xanga - OK, I forgot him. But what makes him any worse than Mark Sanford? Both cheated on their wives, both were ostensibly running for President. At least Edwards got out of politics, now. Stanford left his state without a Governor for five days, and lied about where he was. Edwards is an adulterer, but Stanford is an adulterer who betrayed the oath of his office. Edit: Oh, well, he deleted his comment but someone referred to John Edwards.

People have "sinned" since the concept of sin was even created, this isn't new kid. 

It shows that someone who spouts a bunch of religious mantras is not automatically exempted from sin. Why is it that so many religious people, especially men, use their "Christianity" as a crutch to hide this kind of thing?
 The fact that we are so shocked when a public figure we highly admire falls into sin is part of the problem. By placing high profile leaders above reproach, we give them the tools to say things that make us blindly follow them, as well as forget that they are humans. People do themselves a huge favor by not running after leaders- whether they are evangelists, celebrities, politicians, etc.-who look like spiritual giants, trying to get their direction and meaning in life from them. People are not infallible, thus, it is pointless to look to any human being as a spiritual authority equal to Christ. By not worshipping at the shrines of people who seem to 'have it all together', we also dismantle their ability to deceive people through their words while secretly sinning to the extent described above. Humans will sin, and that's why we're not supposed to put humans on a pedestal.

Please do more than just pray.....

..vote those hypocrites out of office if they fail to do the right thing by resigning from their positions.

This is nothing new. It's nothing short of gullible to believe someone who says he or she stands morally higher than their political rival. Look at the Catholic church. Pedophilia has existed behind the pulpit probably for centuries but only in the last couple of decades has sunlight begun to reach into that dark place. I imagine that with the availability of information, the speed at which we can get information, the ability to use the worldwide web to check the validity of any story or fact, we will see many more realities come to light. 100 years ago the Sanfords of the world could continue undetected. They could continue using finger pointing strategies to harm others while claiming themselves to stand for the moral high ground for their own political gain without much fear of being caught in any undefensable way. Giuliani's wife found out about the affair he was carrying on when she saw him admitting the affair to the press. I think the greater issue here is that religion and morality is so twisted that we are lost in life, embracing distorted beliefs which inevitably take us further and further from the truth of life. Because he wanted to be with another woman Gingrich tried to trick his wife into signing divorce papers while she was still groggy after coming out of cancer surgery. Just another example of a person waving the flag of family values and moral values for political gain. It served as a smokescreen for his real life. 

It's not just in politics. Look at Wall Street. I worked for one of the big investment banking firms doing computer graphics. I remember hearing an executive saying to her colleagues in the summer of 2001, "Washington has finally deregulated. They are finally leaving us alone and allowing business people to do what business people do". I heard that and knew we were in trouble. It took a little over 7 years to do what they did. This is why checks and balances are so important in everything. Sometimes people will believe in the righteousness of their beliefs so strongly that they feel justified to overlook facts and even decency in order to promote their cause. Again, that is why we need checks and balances. 

In the 1980s the Vatican publicly stated that they officially recognize that the world is round but tied to that statement was the statement that followed which was....still, it was wrong for Galileo to have contradicted church doctrine. That was said in the 1980s! Among the blatantly obvious ironies is the irony that if not for Galileo and a man named Columbus who believed Galileo's theory, there would not be one Christian living in American right now. It's not lost on me that Native Americans probably wished we were all still living in Europe thinking the world is flat. 

Anyway, there is nothing new in the behavior of people. Just light shining more readily on our behavior. Maybe it will push us to drop the pretense and dogma and learn about ourselves.

The conduct you described is totally normal in this world. 1 Corinthians 5 talks about a son sleeping with his father's presumably new wife. Sounds like a Jerry Springer show item. There were other moral failures mentioned in the Bible.

The biggest argument is usually whether they are really Christians or merely run of the mill hypocrites.  Christians do a lot of dumb stuff.

What I have experienced in my life is when I was born again on Feb. 13, 1965 some sins dropped off immediately. Some took some time. Then there were to  2 or 3 that I just did not have victory over consistently. Finally at age 75, the Lord is giving me victory in those areas.

I think some well know Christian publicly known people get nailed by the media. However, i moved 20 times in 40 years and always went to church. I saw some worship leaders fall, pastors, teachers and elders. We don't even discuss the 50% divorce rate in most churches. It is hard to believe they all meet Biblical standards.

I am more worried about my purity.  Any of us can fail--hopefully, not on World Wide News!

blessings

frank