John's Blog

My Fellow Americans

Friends, Fellow Americans, Liberals and Conservatives, Democrats and Republicans,

We have a problem, and please let me stress, WE have a problem. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men's public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained when released Monday afternoon.

Craig's arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.

He has since denied being gay and claims to be innocent of all charges. However, the evidence does appear to be overwhelming. Republicans are looking to have his head on a platter and distance themselves from this scandal.

Listening to the news last night, I walked in just as some Republican I did not recognize was saying that Larry Craig has made the Republicans look like buffoons. Later last night I heard that the approval rating of congress is 18-19%. Congress appears to be stalled, can't agree on anything and none of our problems are getting solved. We have a crisis in health care. Our educational system is failing. There are national security issues that cannot be agreed upon. We have a very serious problem with illegal immigrants. And to top it all off, we have well over 150,000 armed forces in Iraq.

I have a question…Did it take Larry Craig for us to notice that congress is a bunch of buffoons? Have we all been asleep at the wheel? This guy didn't make anybody look like buffoons, they did it to themselves. Congress is a disaster. It scares me. The 18-19% approval rating is clearly deserved.

I have read recently in blogs that what a politician does on his own time is his business and should not be an issue. I say OK, as long as his behavior is not a distraction to his job. Is that too much too ask? I guess that I would also ask that his/her poor behavior not occur when he/she is on the clock. Shouldn't we be able to expect that from our representatives and senators?

Another thought that occurs to me is that this two party system is not working too well. I have seen good candidates in this presidential campaign that don't have a chance because they haven't gotten the right amount of media attention, regardless of their record and where they stand on issues. If they don't do well in certain primaries, they can hang it up, and they do. It's almost like you can sit there and watch the good ones fall away, and you knew it would happen.

And lastly, there is the division within the country. You are a Democrat or a Republican. You are a Liberal or a Conservative. These labels do not just describe how people think and vote, and what their political philosophies are, but these labels dictate what they will think. A liberal will accept all of the Liberal views and convince himself/herself that the Conservatives are in a conspiracy against them. The Conservatives think the Liberals are crazy and want to give the whole country away and raise taxes. So where does this feud get us?

I think it is time we started to do our homework. Did you know that if you Google "Obama's voting record" you can see every decision Obama made. You can check party platforms. Every candidate has a web site. You can virtually check up on any politician. Of course it would be prudent to evaluate the sources you come up with. If you get your Information from a blog it is most likely biased. The point is that there is a wealth of information available, and we should try to be informed. Have you ever watched J-Walking on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno? There are people walking around out there that can't recognize Dick Cheney when you show them his picture. As a nation we are not informed.

I totally disagree that character is not an issue. I think we should make every effort to avoid the candidate that is likely to bring disgrace to his office. Scandals are a distraction, especially if the offense occurred while they were on the job. I think we should elect people with character, and who are honest, and who will represent their constituents.

An article appeared in an online publication called Capitol Hill Blue in 1999. The article listed various problems that members of congress were involved in. This has resulted in an email which has floated around for years. So the list is a little dated, but I will bet that it is not much different today. It is listed in Snopes as "Multiple" (some true some false). The reason for this listing is that much of the information cannot be proven conclusively. However, there are enough problems identified that it is obvious what the problem is.

Here's our congress:

36 - have been accused of spousal abuse

7 - have been arrested for fraud

19 - have been accused of writing bad checks

117 - have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

3 - have done time for assault

71 – repeat, 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

14 - have been arrested on drug-related charges

8 - have been arrested for shoplifting

21 - currently are defendants in lawsuits, and

84 - have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year (1999)

And that is our illustrious congress. I think we need to get together and change something. The hell with Dems and Reps.

Below are two lists. The top list is Republicans and the bottom list is Democrats. These lists contain the scandals that have occurred in that party in the last several years. There are errors in these lists because some are just allegations and haven't been proven, and some are not all that relevant, like a guy married a woman that had been married 3 times, who cares? Also, these lists are not complete lists of all the scandals. There are more. I am posting these lists for one reason, to show the extent of the scandal our political system is suffering from. To give a sketch of the character of the congress we have elected.

I truly wish we could stop our bickering and divisiveness, put our heads together and elect some people that will do something. We can complain all we want, but here's the deal, your fellow Americans elected these people. This is not the fault of congress or one party or the other, this is our fault. If you put no effort into this, you reap what you sew. Let's get together on this folks.

A Few Republican Scandals

Copied from www.dkosopedia.com Some are old and some are new!

Thanks to Chooch for this list.

Adelphia Communications Corp.: Donated large sums of money to some of the most conservative members of Congress. They are also the first cable company to offer hard-core adult movies to subscribers. Daily Kos article

Edison Misla Aldarondo, Republican legislator from Puerto Rico, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for molestation of his daughter and her friend for eight-year period starting when they were 9. Full Article

Randal David Ankeney, Republican activist from Colorado, arrested on suspicion of sexual assault on a child with force. He faces 6 charges related to getting a 13-year-old girl stoned on pot and then having sex with her. Source Also accused of sexually assaulting another girl. Denver ABC Article

Dick Armey (R-Texas), former professor, has been accused by The Dallas Observer of sexually harassing female students.

Jim Bakker, televangelist with Pat Robertson at Robertson's Christian Broadcasting network. Committed adultery with Jessica Hahn [1] and then used charitable donations to pay her hush money[2]. Fellow televangelists say he's gay. [3][4]Indicted on 23 federal charges of fraud, tax evasion, and racketeering [5].

Merrill Robert Barter, Republican County Commissioner from Maine, pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy. Booth Bay Register Article

Bob Barr, Republican Congressman from Georgia. Sponsored the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, saying "The flames of hedonism, the flames of narcissism, the flames of self-centered morality are licking at the very foundation of our society, the family unit." Was married three times. Paid for his second wife's abortion. Failed to pay child support to the children of his first two wives and while married to his third and present wife was photographed licking whipped cream off of strippers at his inaugural party.

Merrill Robert Barter, Republican County Commissioner, pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy. Booth Bay Register Article

Robert Bauman, Republican congressman and anti-gay activist from Maryland, was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar. Source: Washington Blade

Parker J. Bena, Republican activist and Bush Elector from Virginia, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography (including children as young as 3 years old) on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000. Conservative Babylon

William Bennett, Drug Czar under George H. W. Bush, compulsive gambler who has had to wire as much as $1.4 million to cover gambling losses in a 2 month period. NY Press Article | Washington Monthly Article

Louis Beres, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon. 3 of his family members accuse him of molesting them when they were pre-teens. Editor and Publisher article

Howard L. Brooks, Republican legislative aide and advisor to a California assemblyman, was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography. Sacramento Bee article

John Bolton: George W. Bush's latest Ambassador to United Nations. Corroborated allegations that Mr. Bolton's first wife, Christina Bolton, was forced to engage in group sex have not been refuted by the State Department. Raw Story Article

Mike Bowers Former State Attorney General of Georgia, prosecuted the famous "Bowers vs. Hardwick" case, based on Georgia anti-sodomy laws. Admitted to a 10-year adulterous affair Slate article

Andrew Buhr, Republican politician, former committeeman for Hadley Township Missouri, was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy. Source

Jeffrey Buley (http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/36931.htm), New York Republican Party's top lawyer, and senior political adviser to Gov. Pataki (R), arrested for assaulting his wife in a drunken rage. They have two young children.

Ted Bundy campaigned for the Republican Party. Infamous serial rapist who murdered 16 women. Source: BBC

Jim Bunn Congressman of Oregon: With his success due in great part to support from the Christian Coalition, Bunn won his congressional seat, then immediately ditched his wife (and mother of his five children), married a staffer, and put his new wife on the state payroll for the unheard-of salary of $97,500. Conservative Babylon

John Allen Burt, Republican anti-abortion activist from Pensacola, Florida, convicted of sexually molesting a 15 year old girl at the home for troubled girls that he ran. Source: Pensacola News Journal

Dan Burton, Republican Congressman from Indiana who, while married, fathered a child by another woman. Salon.com Article

George W. Bush, Republican president, accused in a criminal complaint and lawsuit of raping Margie Schoedinger, who was later suicided. Accused by Tammy Phillips, a former stripper quoted in the National Enquirer in 2000 saying she had an affair with Bush that had ended in 1999.

Neil Bush, brother or G. W. Bush, in a March 2003 divorce deposition, admitted repeatedly having sex with strange women who just showed up at his room while on an Asian business trip. (Overshadowing the sex scandal; the business scandal--see link.) Washington Post article.

John Butler, Republican activist, was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.

Ken Calvert, Congressman (R-Ca), champion of the Christian Coalition and its "family values." Sued as an alimony deadbeat by his ex-wife. Said "We can't forgive what occurred between the President and Lewinsky." In 1993 he was caught by police receiving oral sex from a prostitute and attempted to flee the scene.

Charles Canady, Congressman (R-Florida), Judiciary Committee member. Lied to his constituents about his adulterous affair with Sharon Becker, which caused her divorce.

Helen Chenoweth, Congresswoman (R-Id.). Admitted to a six-year adulterous affair with a married associate. In 1995, Chenoweth had denied the affair when asked about it by The Spokane Spokesman-Review, but now she claims a pardon from a higher authority: "I've asked for God's forgiveness, and I've received it," she revealed.

Keola Childs, Republican County Councilman from Hawaii, pleaded guilty to sexual assault in the first degree for molesting a male child.Honolulu Star-Bulletin Article

Kevin Coan, Republican St. Louis Election Board official, arrested and charged with trying to buy sex from a 14-year-old girl whom he met on the Internet. Source: Newmax

Roy Cohn, continually condemned gays and gay rights. Was a closet gay who died of AIDS. Wikipedia Article

Carey Lee Cramer Political consultant and anti-Kerry ad producer, tried for molesting two young girls, one of whom lived with him, and was 8 yrs old; the other starred in an anti-Kerry commercial. Diary Diary. The Monitor.

Dan Crane, Republican Congressman from Illinois, married, father of six. Had sex with a minor working as a congressional page. Salon.com article --Bkmeyers 08:36, 3 October 2006 (PDT)On July 14, 1983 the House Ethics Committee concluded that Rep. Dan Crane (R-Ill.) had engaged in sexual relationships with minors, specifically 17-year-old congressional pages. In Crane's case, it was a 1980 relationship with a female page. wikipedia.org article

Paul Crouch Televangelist, Former President of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). Paid $425,000 in hush money in an attempt to cover up a gay affair. Christianity Today article

Randy Cunningham: Federal prosecutors are investigating allegations that Congressman and confessed-felon 'Duke' Cunningham was periodically supplied with prositutes.[6] Cunningham pled guilty to corruption charges, and is currently serving jail-time.

Richard A. Dasen Sr., Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, convicted of sexual abuse of children, promotion of prostitution and several counts of solicitation, enough to add up to a sentence of 126 years in prison. Investigators estimated that he spent up to $5,000,000 on prostitutes. Missoulian Article on the trial | Missoulian Article

Richard A. Delgaudio, Republican fundraiser and Bush pioneer, was found guilty of child porn charges. WBAL Channel article

Peter Dibble, Republican legislator from Connecticut pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl. News Channel 8 Article

Brian J. Doyle, Deputy Press Secretary for U.S. Department of Homeland Security. On March 12, 2006, Doyle contacted a 14-year-old girl whose profile was posted on the Internet, and initiated a sexually explicit conversation with her. The girl was actually an undercover Polk County Sheriff s Computer Crimes detective. Doyle knew that the girl was 14 years old, and he told her who he was and that he worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. During future online chats, Doyle gave the undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl his office phone number and his government-issued cell phone number, so that they could have telephone conversations, in addition to their online chatting. Doyle used the Internet to send hard-core pornographic movie clips to the girl and used the AOL Instant Messenger chat service to have explicit sexual conversations with her. [7]

Nicholas Elizondo, Republican director of the "Young Republican Federation" molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison. Halfway down this Bakersfield Californian article

Larry Dale Floyd, Republican Constable in Denton County, Texas Precinct Two. Arrested for allegedly crossing state lines to have sex with an 8-year old child and was charged with 7 related offenses. Age 62 at time of arrest. Dallas News Article | Atrios Article

Mark Foley, US Representative from Florida, engaged in sexually-explicit SMS text-messaging with 17-yo males, former pages. He had been chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. details He was protected by US House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

John Fund, of the Wall Street Journal, a prominent anti-abortion columnist and GOP fund raiser. He lost his position after it was revealed that he impregnated the daughter of an old girlfriend and then encouraged her to abort his child. American Politics Journal Article

[[[Steven Gaines]], Pastor in a Southern Baptist Church. For a year, he kept secret the allegations that another pastor in his church had sexually abused a young family member years earlier.

Jeff Gannon Partisan blogger with no journalism credentials and a fake name who got invited to Bush's Press conferences. Is also a pimp and a gay prostitute. Truthout Article. See also dKospedia's page on Jeff Gannon.

Jack W. Gardner, Republican Councilman from Pennsylvania, had been convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl. when the Republican Party, knowing of these crimes, put him on the ballot. Article with documents

Richard Gardner, a Nevada State Representative (R), admitted to molesting his two daughters. Review Journal Article

Newt Gingrich, Republican from Georgia, married three times. Gingrich campaign worker Anne Manning admitted that she gave Newt oral sex while he was still married to his first wife. Informed one wife he was filing for divorce while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer treatments. Salon Article

Philip Giordano, Republican mayor from Connecticut sentenced to 37 years for forcing two 8 and 10 year old girls to perform oral sex on him in his City Hall office. NBC Article | Newsday Article

Matthew Glavin, President and CEO of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, big player in the Clinton Impeachment, and many anti-gay jihads, has been arrested multiple times for public indecency, one time fondling the crotch of the officer who was arresting him. Full Article

Marty Glickman, Republican activist, was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a juvenile and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

Mark A. Grethen, Republican activist from Virginia, convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children. Orlando Weekly article

Jon Grunseth, Republican businessman and candidate for Minnesota governor, withdrew his candidacy after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter, and tried to grope one. "I've made some mistakes" he said. USA Today article

Dr. W. David Hager, Bush appointee from Kentucky, member of Focus on the Family's Physician Resource Council, player in movement to ban the morning-after-pill. Had an adulterous affair, before divorcing his wife he sexually abused her, including sodomizing her in her sleep. Article

Ted Haggart, pastor of a 3,000-member church, who preached often against homosexuality, spoke with President Bush frequently, and was held up as a pillar of "family values." Turns out he had a sexual relationship with a male prostitute, who he also paid for meth-amphetamines.

Mark Harris, Republican city councilman from Wisconsin who is described as a "good military man" and "church goer," was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Dennis Hastert protected Mark Foley for over a year, keeping private the news that Foley had engaged in sexually-explicit conversations with teenage boys.

John Hathaway, Republican Senate candidate from Maine, was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media. Source: Casco Bay weekly

Howard Scott Heldreth, anti-abortion activist who gained fame during the Schiavo media-circus, was convicted of two charges of raping a child in 2002. page at Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Sexual Offender/Predator Unit

Mike Hintz, a First Assembly of God youth pastor from Des Moines, Iowa, introduced by Bush on the campaign trail, and promoted his policies. Says he supports Bush's values. Two months later, this married father of four turned himself into police, charged with the sexual exploitation of a child. Article | Commentary Also signed an ad (that called for criminally prosecuting business that sell porn), together with another pastor who was repeatedly busted for public masturbation.

Neal Horsley, anti-abortion activist from Georgia. Has called for the arrest of all homosexuals. Admitted on the Fox News Radio's The Alan Colmes Show, that he's had sex with mules. Put photographs on his Web site of naked men engaging in homosexual acts and a nude woman engaging in bestiality amid shots of grotesquely maimed fetuses. Drug dealer convicted of possession of hashish with intent to sell. He calls for "the establishment of a new government, one that can obey God's plan for government."

Henry Hyde, Republican Congressman from Illinois, Judge who oversaw Clinton's impeachment proceedings, prominent opponent of reproductive rights, who had an extramarital affair with a woman who was married and had three children, during the course of which she and her husband were divorced. Salon.com article

Don Haidl, Assistant Sheriff of Orange Country, in violation of California's rape shield law, led a smear campaign against the child his son poisoned and then violently gang-raped on videotape, adding up to 24 felony counts. He said that his son "acted accordingly" because the child was a "slut". The full gruesome story, with many newspaper articles.

Tim Hutchinson, divorced his wife of 29 years to marry a congressional aide he was having an affair with.

Paul Ingram, Republican Party leader of Thurston County, Washington, pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison. Source: The Olympian Article

Bill Janklow, former S. Dakota Governor and Congressman, arrested for drunk driving, disorderly conduct, assaulting an officer, and indecent exposure in 1974. Pardoned his son-in-law for multiple drunk driving convictions in 2002. Resigned congressional seat due to a felony manslaughter conviction in a reckless driving incident (running a stop sign at 70 mph)in 2003 that resulted in the death of farmer, Vietnam veteran, and motorcyclist Randy Scott, 55, of Hardwick, Minnesota. Janklow served 100 days of a possible 11-year sentence. Janklow sought and received immunity from civil damages on the grounds that he was traveling on business related to his role as a congressman when the killing of Scott occurred. Janklow also petitioned to get back (and was granted) his license to practice law in the state of South Dakota. Link from American Motorcyclist Association webpage - [8]

Bernard Kerik, had two simultaneous adulterous affairs.

Earl Kimmerling, from Indiana, sentenced to 40 years in prison after he confessed to molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her. Anderson, IN, Mayor Mark Lawler and Republican State Reps. Jack Lutz of Anderson, IN, and Woody Burton of Greenwood, IN, supported him.Source

• Randy Steven Kraft Republican serial killer convicted of 16 murders and suspected of at least 51 others. [9]

I. Lewis Libby, former Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. In 1996 published a novel containing bizarre sexual content, including bestiality and pedophilia.Full Details (Oh yeah, and he's also been indicted on obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements, charges adding up to 10 years in prison.)

Rush Limbaugh, triple-divorcee[10], 30-pill a day drug addict. Goodies from The Smoking Gun.com

Bob Livingston, former Congressman (R-La.), Speaker of the House; resigned from the House in the wake of revelations about his past adultery -- at the same time he was leading calls for impeachment of President Clinton.

Donald Lukens, Former Ohio Republican Congressman, was found guilty of having sex with a minor - a girl he was accused of sleeping with since she was 13. Also convicted of taking $15,000 in bribes from the operators of a trade school while he was a congressman. A U.S. District Court jury in Washington deliberated for just one hour before reaching the verdict. Time Article< SPAN>

Pat McPherson, Douglas County, Nebraska Election Commissioner. Arrested for fondling a 17-year-old girl. Article

Jon Matthews, Republican talk show host in Houston, was indicted for indecency with a child, including exposing his genitals to a girl under the age of 17. Source: ABC News

Jeff Miller, (R-Cleveland), Senate Republican Caucus Chairman in Tennessee and the sponsor of Tennessee's Marriage Protection act, getting divorced (as of April 2005) because of an affair he was having with an office aid. Miller described the Tennessee Marriage Protection Act as a means of preserving the sanctity of marriage. He opposed an amendment, however, which stated that "Adultery is deemed to be a threat to the institution of marriage and contrary to public policy in Tennessee." [11] [12]

Nicholas Morency, Republican anti-abortion activist from Cape May County, NJ, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor The Dallas Morning News article.

Sue Myrick, Congresswoman (R-NC), describes herself as a "devout Christian." Committed adultery with a married man.

Bill O'Reilly Right-wing conservative talk show host on Fox News, sued for sexual harrassment by his producer. The suit included graphic details, including tape-recordings. O'Reilly's wife was pregnant at the time. O'Reilly settled and paid millions of dollars rather than have the details become public.

Bob Packwood, Senator (R-Ore.), resigned in 1995 under a threat of public senate hearings related to 10 female ex-staffers accusing him of sexual harassment.

Jeffrey Patti, Republican Committee Chairman from Sparta, NJ, was arrested for distributing what experts call "some of the most offensive material in the child pornography world" - a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped. Daily Record News Article

Brent Parker Utah State Representative. Arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover officer posing as a male prostitute. KSL News Article |Deseret News Article

John Paulk, lied about prowling for gay sex while running a fundamentalist group to cure gays.

Mark Pazuhanich, Republican judge from Monroe County, PA, pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation. Pocono Record article

John Peterson, Congressman (R-Pa), accused of sexual harassment and creation of a hostile work environment by six women. Peterson has refused to admit a crime, saying only "I may have been an excessive hugger."

Harvey Pitt, SEC Chief under George W. Bush until he was forced to resign in 2002. Worked for New Frontier Media, a firm which distributed teen sex videos.

Dennis Rader AKA the Bind Torture Killer or BTK killed ten people to satisfy his sexual urges. He was also a leading local Republican.[13]

Ronald Reagan First president to be divorced (from a woman who had been married two or three times before him - the record is unclear, none of which seems to bother the religious right).

George Roche III, carried on a 19 year affair with his son's wife, while serving as president of Hillsdale College in Michigan, which "emphasizes the importance of the common moral truths that bind all Americans, while recognizing the importance of religion for the maintenance of a free society."

Beverly Russell, County Chairman of the Christian Coalition as well as a member of the South Carolina Republican Party's executive committee, sexually molested his step-daughter, Susan Smith, who later drowned her two children. Herald-Journal Article |Commentary on Newsweek Article

Jack Ryan, 2004 Republican nominee for US Senate from Illinois, pressured his wife, actress Jeri Ryan, to have sex with other men. Tricked her into visiting sex clubs, where he asked her to have sex with him while others watched.[14]

Rick Santorum, used $100,000 of PA state funds earmarked for that state's school children to educate his own children, who were not residents of Pennsylvania. source (http://www.postgazette.com/pg/04323/413787.stm)

Joe Scarborough, former Republican Congressman from Pensacola, Florida, currently a conservative talk show host. Resigned his congressional seat abruptly to spend more time with his family, amidst allegations of an affair. His intern, Lori Klausutis, was soon after found dead in his office. The medical examiner, who had his license revoked in Missouri for falsifying information in an autopsy report, and suspended in Florida for six years, ruled the case an accident, after giving conflicting information about her injuries. He said he lied about them because "The last thing we wanted was 40 questions about a head injury."

Ed Schrock, two-term Republican Congressman from Virginia, with a 92% approval rating from the Christian Coalition. Cosponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment, consistently opposed gay rights. Married, with wife and kids. Withdrew his candidacy for a third term after tapes of him soliciting for gay sex were circulated.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, right wing conservative radio host. Promotes family values, but estranged from her mother; opposes birth control, but has had her tubes tied; espouses saving oneself for marriage, but admits to having had sex before she was married; opposes adultery, but has committed adultery while she was married, and has slept with a married man; opposes divorce, but is divorced and remarried, has posed for nude photos which are available online.

Larry Jack Schwarz, Republican parole board officer and former Colorado State Representative, fired after child pornography was found in his possession. Rocky Mountain News article With his political career over, he went to work in the hard-core pornography industry for Platinum X Pictures, owned by his daughter, porn starlet Jewel De'Nyle (Stephany Schwarz). Wikipedia article

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican governor, had sex with a 16 year old when he was 28. Numerous allegations of gropings, harassment, in California.

John Scmitz, right-wing republican congressman, who had had his committee chairship taken away from him in the California State Senate after issuing a press release attacking Jews, feminists and gays. Forced out of office in 1982 for having an adulterous affair and fathering two children out of wedlock with one of his students. He was caught because his baby was admitted to hospital for having hair tied so tightly around his penis that it was almost severed. His daughter, Mary Kay LeTourneau, was convicted of having an adulterous affair with one of her students, and giving birth to two of his children. Wikipedia article

Don Sherwood, The former Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 10th Congressional District of Pennsylvania. Eventually admitted to an affair with a woman 30 years younger than him, after she accused him of physical abuse and attempting to choke her. Post-Gazette Article

Tom Shortridge. Republican campaign consultant and former head of the South Bay, CA, Republican Club, was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl. Los Angeles Times Article

Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr., Republican City Councilman from Wrightsville, PA, pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison. Sex Offender Registry page | Article

Jim Stelling, Seminole County Republican Party chairman who believes in "family values", as he told a judge. Filed a defamation lawsuit against Nancy Goettman, a former county GOP executive committee member, for falsely claiming he had been married six times. Stelling has been married 5 times. Article

Roger Stone, Republican dirty-tricks operative, led the mob that shut down the Miami-Dade County recount; advisor for Bob Dole and Arlen Specter's Presidential campaigns, owner of Washington, D.C.-based Ikon Public Affairs. Place X-rated ads for group sex with his wife, Nydia. Claimed he was framed, even though the ads were placed with his credit card and used his P.O. Box. [15]

Jimmy Swaggart, televangelist, said during a sermon "I'm trying to find the correct name for it … this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. … I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died." Had an affair with a prostitute.

David Swartz, Republican County Commissioner from Ohio, pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. Rocky Mountain News Article

Randall Terry, Right to Life activist, founder of Operation Rescue, involved in the Terri Schiavo protests. Once imprisoned for sending former President Bill Clinton an aborted fetus. His son Jamiel is gay; his daughter Tila had sex outside of marriage, became pregnant, had a miscarriage - she is no longer welcome in his home; his daughter Ebony had 2 children outside of wedlock and became Muslim. He has campaigned against infidelity and birth control, gays and unwed mothers. Terry himself was censured by his church after committing adultery.

Bill Thomas Republican congressman, had an affair with Deborah Steelman, a health care lobbyist who steered huge campaign gifts to Thomas' war chest.

Strom Thurmond, Now dead Republican Senator from South Carolina and racist, impregnated a 15-year old African American maid. (BBC Article)

Robin Vanderwall, Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate, convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet. Virginian-Pilot Article

Robert Waltrip, Bush campaign contributor. Runs a funeral company which had to settle a lawsuit because bodies were being dug up and dumped in the woods. According to Fox News, Waltrip's company, a cemetery company called Service Corporation International (also known as Dignity Memorial) was "recycling" graves, removing the bodies that were there originally and throwing them in the woods to use the space to house new customers at two Jewish cemeteries in Florida. George W. Bush, who had met with Waltrip, was subpoenaed but refused to testify in the case.

J.C. Watts, Representative (R-Oklahoma), loud champion of "moral values." Has out-of-wedlock children.

Jim West, Spokane Mayor. Supported a bill, which failed, would have barred gays and lesbians from working in schools, day-care centers and some state agencies. Voted to bar the state from distributing pamphlets telling people how to protect themselves from AIDS. Proposed that "any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person" among teens be criminalized. Had a sexual affair with an 18 year old boy.Source: Spokesman Review

Keith Westmoreland, a Tennessee state representative (R), was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to minors under 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children). Tennessean Article

Stephen White, Republican preacher. Was arrested after allegedly offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy in West Chester, PA, for permission to perform oral sex on him. Daily Pennsylvanian article | Daily Yale News Article

Paul Williams, pastor in a large Southern Baptist Church, resigned suddenly amid allegations that he had sexually abused a young family member 17 years ago. He was protected for a year from these allegations being made public by the Church Pastor, Dr. Steven Gaines.

William Jefferson Clinton- Impeached by the House of Representatives over allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice, but acquitted by the Senate. Scandals include Whitewater - Travelgate Gennifer Flowersgate - Filegate - Vince Fostergate - Whitewater Billing Recordsgate - Paula Jonesgate- Lincoln Bedroomgate - Donations from Convicted Drug and Weapons Dealersgate - Lippogate - Chinagate - The Lewinsky Affair - Perjury and Jobs for Lewinskygate - Kathleen Willeygate - Web Hubbell Prison Phone Callgate - Selling Military Technology to the Chinesegate - Jaunita Broaddrick Gate - Lootergate - Pardongate

Edward Moore Kennedy - Democrat - U. S. Senator from Massachusetts. Pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, after his car plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.

Barney Frank - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1981 to present. Admitted to having paid Stephen L. Gobie, a male prostitute, for sex and subsequently hiring Gobie as his personal assistant. Gobie used the congressman's Washington apartment for prostitution. A move to expel Frank from the House of Representatives failed and a motion to censure him failed.

DNC - The Federal Election Commission imposed $719,000 in fines against participants in the 1996 Democratic Party fundraising scandals involving contributions from China, Korea and other foreign sources. The Federal Election Commission said it decided to drop cases against contributors of more than $3 million in illegal DNC contributions because the respondents left the country or the corporations are defunct.

Sandy Berger - Democrat - National Security Advisor during the Clinton Administration. Berger became the focus of a criminal investigation after removing highly classified terrorism documents and handwritten notes from the National Archives during preparations for the Sept. 11 commission hearings.

Robert Torricelli - Democrat - Withdrew from the 2002 Senate race with less than 30 days before the election because of controversy over personal gifts he took from a major campaign donor and questions about campaign donations from 1996.

James McGreevey - Democrat - New Jersey Governor . Admitted to having a gay affair. Resigned after allegations of sexual harassment, rumors of being blackmailed on top of fundraising investigations and indictments.

Jesse Jackson - Democrat - Democratic candidate for President. Admitted to having an extramarital affair and fathering a illegitimate child.

Gary Condit - Democrat - US Democratic Congressman from California. Condit had an affair with an intern. Condit, covered up the affair and lied to police after she went missing. No charges were ever filed against Condit. Her remains were discovered in a Washington DC park..

Sowande Ajumoke Omokunde - Democrat - the son of newly elected U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, was booked on charges of criminal damage to property for allegedly slashing tires on 20 vans and cars rented by the Republican Party for use in Election Day voter turnout efforts.

Daniel David Rostenkowski - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Illinois from 1959 to 1995. Indicted on 17 felony charges- pleaded guilty to two counts of misuse of public funds and sentenced to seventeen months in federal prison.

Melvin Jay Reynolds - U.S. Representative from Illinois from 1993 to 1995. Convicted on sexual misconduct and obstruction of justice charges and sentenced to five years in prison.

Charles Coles Diggs, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Michigan from 1955 to 1980. Convicted on eleven counts of mail fraud and filing false payroll forms- sentenced to three years in prison.

George Rogers - Democrat - Massachusetts State House of Representatives from 1965 to 1970. M000ember of Massachusetts State Senate from 1975 to 1978. Convicted of bribery in 1978 and sentenced to two years in prison.

Don Siegelman - Democrat Governor Alabama - indicted in a bid-rigging scheme involving a maternity-care program. The charges accused Siegelman and his former chief of staff of helping Tuscaloosa physician Phillip Bobo rig bids. Siegelman was accused of moving $550,000 from the state education budget to the State Fire College in Tuscaloosa so Bobo could use the money to pay off a competitor for a state contract for maternity care.

John Murtha, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania. Implicated in the Abscam sting, in which FBI agents impersonating Arab businessmen offered bribes to political figures; Murtha was cited as an unindicted co-conspirator

Gerry Eastman Studds - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1973 to 1997. The first openly gay member of Congress. Censured by the House of Representatives for having sexual relations with a teenage House page.

James C. Green - Democrat - North Carolina State House of Representatives from 1961 to 1977. Charged with accepting a bribe from an undercover FBI agent, but was acquitted. Convicted of tax evasion in 1997.

Frederick Richmond - Democrat - U.S. Representative from New York from 1975 to 1982. Arrested in Washington, D.C., in 1978 for soliciting sex from a minor and from an undercover police officer - pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Also - charged with tax evasion, marijuana possession, and improper payments to a federal employee - pleaded guilty.

Raymond Lederer - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1977 to 1981. Implicated in the Abscam sting - convicted of bribery and sentenced to three years in prison and fined $20,000.

Harrison Arlington Williams, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1959 to 1970. Implicated in the Abscam sting. Allegedly accepted an 18% interest in a titanium mine. Convicted of nine counts of bribery, conspiracy, receiving an unlawful gratuity, conflict of interest, and interstate travel in aid of racketeering. Sentenced to three years in prison and fined $50,000.

Frank Thompson, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from New Jersey from 1955 to 1980. Implicated in the Abscam sting, convicted on bribery and conspiracy charges. Sentenced to three years in prison

Michael Joseph Myers - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1976 to 1980. Implicated in the Abscam sting - convicted of bribery and conspiracy; sentenced to three years in prison and fined $20,000; expelled from the House of Representatives on October 2, 1980.

John Michael Murphy - Democrat - U.S. Representative from New York from 1963 to 1981. Implicated in the Abscam sting. Convicted of conspiracy, conflict of interest, and accepting an illegal gratuity. Sentenced to three years in prison and fined $20,000.

John Wilson Jenrette, Jr - Democrat - U.S. Representative from South Carolina from 1975 to 1980. Implicated in the Abscam sting. Convicted on bribery and conspiracy charges and sentenced to prison

Neil Goldschmidt - Democrat - Oregon governor. Admitted to having an illegal sexual relationship with a 14-year-old teenager while he was serving as Mayor of Portland.

Alcee Lamar Hastings - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Florida. Impeached and removed from office as federal judge in 1989 over bribery charges.

Marion Barry - Democrat - mayor of Washington, D.C., from 1979 to 1991 and again from 1995 to 1999. Convicted of cocaine possession after being caught on videotape smoking crack cocaine. Sentenced to six months in prison.

Mario Biaggi - Democrat - U.S. Representative from New York from 1969 to 1988. Indicted on federal charges that he had accepted bribes in return for influence on federal contracts.Convicted of obstructing justice and accepting illegal gratuities. Tried in 1988 on federal racketeering charges and convicted on 15 felony counts.

Lee Alexander - Democrat - Mayor of Syracuse, N.Y. from 1970 to 1985. Was indicted over a $1.5 million kickback scandal. Pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax evasion charges. Served six years in prison.

Bill Campbell - Democrat - Mayor of Atlanta. Indicted and charged with fraud over claims he accepted improper payments from contractors seeking city contracts.

Frank Ballance - Democrat - Congressman North Carolina. Pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering related to mishandling of money by his charitable foundation.

Hazel O'Leary - Democrat - Secretary of Energy during the Clinton Administration - O'leary took trips all over the world as Secretary with as many 50 staff members and at times rented a plane, which was used by Madonna during her concert tours.

Lafayette Thomas - Democrat - Candidate for Tennessee State House of Representatives in 1954. Sheriff of Davidson County, from 1972 to 1990. Indicted in federal court on 54 counts of abusing his power as sheriff. Pleaded guilty to theft and mail fraud; sentenced to five years in prison.

Mary Rose Oakar - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1977 to 1993. Pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of funneling $16,000 through fake donors.

David Giles - Democrat - candidate for U.S. Representative from Washington in 1986 and 1990. Convicted in June 2000 of child rape.

Gary Siplin - Democrat state senator Florida- found guilty of third-degree grand theft of $5,000 or more, a felony, and using services of employees for his candidacy.

Edward Mezvinsky - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Iowa from 1973 to 1977. Indicted on 56 federal fraud charges.

Lena Swanson - Democrat - Member of Washington State Senate in 1997. Pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting unlawful payments from veterans and former prisoners of war.

Abraham J. Hirschfeld - Democrat - candidate in Democratic primary for U.S. Senator from New York in 1974 and 1976. Offered Paula Jones $1 million to drop her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton. Convicted in 2000 of trying to hire a hit man to kill his business partner.

Henry Cisneros - Democrat - U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1993 to 1997. Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of lying to the FBI.

James A. Traficant Jr. - Member of House of Representatives from Ohio. Expelled from Congress after being convicted of corruption charges. Sentenced today to eight years in prison for accepting bribes and kickbacks.

John Doug Hays - Democrat - member of Kentucky State Senate from 1980 to 1982 Found guilty of mail fraud for submitting false campaign reports stemming from an unsuccessful run for judge. He was sentenced to six months in prison to be followed by six months of home confinement and three years of probation.

Henry J. Cianfrani - Democrat - Pennsylvania State Senate from 1967 to 1976. Convicted on federal charges of racketeering and mail fraud for padding his Senate payroll. Sentenced to five years in federal prison.

David Hall - Democrat - Governor of Oklahoma from 1971 to 1975. Indicted on extortion and conspiracy charges. Convicted and sentenced to three years in prison.

John A. Celona - Democrat - A former state senator was charged with the three counts of mail fraud. Federal prosecutors accused him of defrauding the state and collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from CVS Corp. and others while serving in the legislature. Celona has agreed to plead guilty to taking money from the CVS pharmacy chain and other companies that had interest in legislation. Under the deal, Celona agreed to cooperate with investigators. He faces up to five years in federal prison on each of the three counts and a $250,000 fine

Allan Turner Howe - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Utah from 1975 to 1977. Arrested for soliciting a policewoman posing as a prostitute.

Jerry Cosentino - Democrat - Illinois State Treasurer. Pleaded guilty to bank fraud - fined $5,000 and sentenced to nine months home confinement.

Joseph Waggonner Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1961 to 19 79. Arrested in Washington, D.C. for soliciting a policewoman posing as a prostitute

Albert G. Bustamante - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Texas from 1985 to 1993. Convicted in 1993 on racketeering and bribery charges and sentenced to prison.

Lawrence Jack Smith - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Florida from 1983 to 1993. Sentenced to three months in federal prison for tax evasion.

David Lee Walters - Democrat - Governor of Oklahoma from 1991 to 1995. Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor election law violation.

James Guy Tucker, Jr. - Democrat - Governor of Arkansas from 1992 to 1996. Resigned in July 1996 after conviction on federal fraud charges as part of the Whitewater investigation.

Walter Rayford Tucker - Democrat - Mayor of Compton, California from 1991 to 1992; U.S. Representative from California from 1993 to 1995. Sentenced to 27 months in prison for extortion and tax evasion.

William McCuen - Democrat - Secretary of State of Arkansas from 1985 to 1995. Admitted accepting kickbacks from two supporters he gave jobs, and not paying taxes on the money. Admitted to conspiring with a political consultant to split $53,560 embezzled from the state in a sham transaction. He was indicted on corruption charges. Pleaded guilty to felony counts tax evasion and accepting a kickback. Sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Walter Fauntroy - Democrat - Delegate to U.S. Congress from the District of Columbia from 1971 to 1991. Charged in federal court with making false statements on financial disclosure forms. Pleaded guilty to one felony count and sentenced to probation.

Carroll Hubbard, Jr. - Democrat - Kentucky State Senate from 1968 to 1975 and U.S. Representative from Kentucky from 1975 to 1993. Pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the Federal Elections Commission and to theft of government property; sentenced to three years in prison.

Joseph Kolter - Democrat - member of Pennsylvania State House of Representatives from 1969 to 1982 and U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1983 to 1993. Indicted by a Federal grand jury on five felony charges of embezzlement at the U.S. House post office. Pleaded guilty.

Webster Hubbell - Democrat - Chief Justice of Arkansas State Supreme Court in 1983. Pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud and tax evasion charges - sentenced to 21 months in prison.

Nicholas Mavroules - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1979 to 1993. Pleaded guilty to charges of tax fraud and accepting gratuities while in office.

Carl Christopher Perkins - Democrat - Kentucky State House of Representatives from 1981 to 1984 and U.S. Representative from Kentucky from 1985 to 1993. Pleaded guilty to bank fraud in connection with the House banking scandal. Perkins wrote overdrafts totaling about $300,000. Pleaded guilty to charges of filing false statements with the Federal Election Commission and false financial disclosure reports. Sentenced to 21 months in prison.

Richard Hanna - Democrat - U.S. Representative from California from 1963 to 1974. Received payments of about $200,000 from a Korean businessman in what became known as the "Koreagate" influence buying scandal. Pleaded guilty and sentenced to federal prison.

Angelo Errichetti - Democrat - New Jersey State Senator was sentenced to six years in prison and fined $40,000 for his involvement in Abscam.

Daniel Baugh Brewster - Democrat - U.S. Senator from Maryland. Indicted on charges of accepting illegal gratuity while in Senate.

Thomas Joseph Dodd - Democrat - U.S. Senator from Connecticut. Censured by the Senate for financial improprieties, having diverted $116,000 in campaign and testimonial funds to his own use

Edward Fretwell Prichard, Jr. - Democrat - Delegate to Democratic National Convention from Kentucky. Convicted of vote fraud in federal court in connection with ballot-box stuffing. Served five months in prison.

Jerry Springer - Democrat - Resigned from Cincinnati City Council in 1974 after admitting to paying a prostitute with a personal check, which was found in a police raid on a massage parlor.

Guy Hamilton Jones, Sr. - Democrat -Arkansas State Senate. Convicted on federal tax charges and expelled from the Arkansas Senate.

Daniel Flood - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1945 to 1947, 1949 to 1953 and 1955 to 1980. Pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge involving payoffs and sentenced to probation.

Otto Kerner, Jr - Democrat - Governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968. While serving as Governor, he and another official made a gain of over $300,000 in a stock deal. Convicted on 17 counts of bribery, conspiracy, perjury, and related charges. Sentenced to three years in federal prison and fined $50,000.

George Crockett, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Michigan. Served four months in federal prison for contempt of court following his defense of a Communist leader on trial for advocating the overthrow of the government.

Cornelius Edward Gallagher - Democrat - U.S. Representative from New Jersey from 1959 to 1973. Indicted on federal charges of income tax evasion, conspiracy, and perjury

Mark B. Jimenez - Democrat fundraiser - sentenced to 27 months in prison on charges of tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the United States and commit election financing offenses.

Bobby Lee Rush - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Illinois. As a Black Panther, spent six months in prison on a weapons charge.

Bolley ''Bo'' Johnson - Democrat - Former Florida House Speaker - received a two-year term for tax evasion.

Roger L. Green - Democrat - Brooklyn Democrat Assemblyman. Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for accepting travel reimbursement for trips he did not pay for and was sentenced to fines and probation.

Gloria Davis - Democrat - Bronx assemblywoman. Pleaded guilty to second-degree bribe-taking.

Thanks for reading this blog. I ask for your comments so that we can all learn.

I once told my priest that the greatest obstacle to my spirituality was religion. Fortunately the priest knew me and didnt take offense. This may, however, require a little explanation. Let me say from the start that I dont have anything against religion, and I think religion serves some very good purposes, but there are flaws in religion that can get in the way of a person being spiritual. It should also be noted that I am writing this blog in response to my two childrens blogs on a similar subject. My daughter wrote about Faith and my son wrote about what is true. In order to explain my feelings about religion it will also be helpful to know my background and where I am coming from.

I was born in St. Louis, Missouri and I was born into a Catholic family. You cannot be born into a Catholic family without being affected by the experience. My first recollection of the Catholic Church was around my kindergarten days. I started out in a Catholic school called St. Johns in south St. Louis. I recall the standard trips to church on Sunday and going to kindergarten during the week. You always hear a lot about the nuns and corporal punishment, but I only really experienced this once. I was using crayons at my desk and I guess I was getting a little serious about my project and the crayons started to make shavings and they were accumulating on my desk. When the nun saw this she got mad and I got two wacks with the ruler, but fortunately I got the wide side of the ruler. It didnt really hurt that much and then I knew to be more careful. When I was still in kindergarten, we moved to Kirkwood, Mo. Our new church was called St. Peters. This church and the Catholic religion get credit for most of my religious education.

Every weekday we went to mass and then again on Sunday. A Catholic school included catechism in its curriculum, and so we got catechism class nearly every day. Part and parcel of any good Catholic upbringing is to get very acquainted with church. You learned that girls always covered their heads and boys never covered their heads in church. You learned to cross yourself with holy water when you entered church and you genuflected before you got into the pew. You learned when to stand and kneel and sit, and learned the songs. You learned the Latin responses and even what some of them meant. You learned to be a Catholic. You learned that God is real and Jesus Christ saved me from my sins. You never ate meat on Friday and the priest faced the crucifix when he said mass. You knew what nuns were and what priests were. And when I was young, I looked forward to the day I could be an altar boy. Part of your education included instruction to prepare you for First Communion, and then Confirmation, and of course Confession. Through all of this Catholic experience I was supposed to be developing my faith. I think it is a stretch to say that a 10 year old has deep faith. They believe in something maybe, but Im not sure a 10 year old can understand faith. They just do as they are told and act like they are told and believe what they are told. And as a reward for all of this, you could take pride in the fact that you belonged to the one true religion.

There were two things that caused me some difficulty right from the start. The first was the practice that priests and nuns had of answering really difficult questions that we kids would sit around and dream up, with "Oh you must have faith." I dont know if the priests and nuns actually thought the kids were buying this, but from my own standpoint, I had questions like "Does that mean you dont know the answer?", or "Do you think Im not old enough to tell me the answer?", or "Is it a secret?" Any way you look at it, I always felt like even though I was learning a lot of things for which there were answers, there seemed to be a lot of times there were gaps in the information. But as a good Catholic boy, you dont make too much noise about these difficulties.

The other thing that caused me problems was that early on when one of us kids would ask something like why is the mass in a language we dont understand (Latin), the answer would be that it was a tradition to honor our church heritage. Many of the things we did were traditions to honor our heritage. The problem that I experienced during my childhood was that we started using English for the mass, and the priest started to face the people, and we quit worrying about not eating meat on Friday. Nowadays I only see old people genuflect and use the holy water. They have guitars in mass now. There are almost no nuns and priests are in the news for being perverts. If all of these things we did were traditions to honor our church heritage, then why did we change or stop doing them. Dont we care about our church heritage anymore? And who dreamt up some of these things in the first place? Did God order us to do these things? Did God give us permission to change or stop doing some things?

The questions may be childish, but the answers are really kind of obvious. Some "people" in power in the church made these rules. It may have even been the Pope declaring something relating to faith or dogma, in which case he would be said to be infallible. Now that is a scary thought, another human being declaring in matters of faith and dogma and we believe that he cannot make a mistake, even if they chose a terrible pope, hes infallible, and there have been some terrible popes. And he leads the one true religion. Its too bad hes not infallible about everything or I would write to him to get a pick for the Derby.

There is another problem that I have with religion in general. There are thousands of religions. Yes, it is true that there are a few that are very large like Catholics and Muslims, Jews, and Protestants (but there are many flavors of Protestant). Nearly everyone that belongs to a religion believes that their religion is the true religion. People get very passionate over this subject. Lets be honest, wars have been fought over religion, many, many times. Surely you know someone that is passionate about their religion, and it is a good thing until this passion starts to judge and put down others.

Something I firmly believe is that God is beyond comprehension. God is too great for us to just be able to sit back and figure Him out. This raises an interesting question. If God is incomprehensible, and each religion has its own scholars that claim to have so many answers, but they mostly just disagree, then I am personally leaning toward the idea that you dont have to be a scholar to be spiritual, since the scholars dont have all the answers anyway, or at least cant agree on the answers. Not to mention the fact that I just cant believe that God would make it a requirement to have a degree in theology to talk to Him. There is so much difference of opinion about religion that surely someone should get kind of skeptical about what is true. To add to this problem, people have a way of making scripture take their side of the argument, and isnt it strange that there is still huge amounts of disagreement even when they use the same scripture.

People actually get very passionate about the Bible. Many people take it literally, word for word. Many of the people that take the Bible literally are knowledgeable about its origin. This confuses me a little. Take the Old Testament. The Old Testament is Jewish legend that eventually got put to writing, especially the Pentateuch. It is beautifully written word and can be very inspirational, but there are some radical ideas in the Old Testament that you really wouldnt want to take literally. Regardless, it was written by men, people, humans that are fallible. Of course you will get the argument that the Bible is divine revelation. I guess I have to wonder why we seem to believe that the only time divine revelation comes into play is the Bible. Could many of the inventions of the 20^th century have been products of divine revelation? Why not? And how do you recognize divine revelation to be just that, as opposed to just being a nice writing? How can you tell? Is this where you say you just have to have faith? How can you tell? Could this be the sort of question that has some of those scholars arguing? And what about the New Testament? This is a collection of writings, mostly written years after Christ, and then from the available scripture, Constantine compiled the parts he wanted, and called it the New Testament. Why were the synoptic gospels chosen to be included. Why werent the Gnostic gospels included in the bible? Werent they divine revelation and who decided, Constantine? I find it hard to believe that these stories that were handed down by word of mouth, eventually written, and then weeded through and compiled by another man, Constantine, and instead of calling it a history book, we call it the Word of God. This is a similar process as to how we got our history books you know. It wouldnt be so bad if everyone agreed that this was the final answer, but the other religions have their own scriptures, like the Mormons have the Book of Mormon that tells the story of Jesus in North America. And there is the Koran, and the Torah, and where does it stop. Everyone has the Word of God and their word is THE word. This gives me heartburn.

Of course everyone has heard some of the controversy that has recently sprung up over the DaVinci Code. There are suggestions that Mary Magdalene played a more significant role than we were previously led to believe. There was the idea that maybe Jesus and Mary were married and had children. I dont find these ideas any stranger than the Book of Mormon. I kind of think "What difference does it make?" God became man in the form of Jesus. Then why wouldnt he do things like a man and would that dilute the idea of Him being the offspring of God. It doesnt really work that way for me. I dont think it takes away from Jesus at all if he had a family or a wife. He was a man and that is what men do. That doesnt erase his miracles or the example he gave us or make the ultimate sacrifice he made for us any less glorious.

So religion presented some problems early on for me. By the time I became an altar boy I had had my share of doubt and skepticism, like almost everybody else. But when I became an altar boy and you get to wear those cool clothes like the priest wears, you feel kind of pious. You get trained to be an altar boy and so you get some extra religious training. You learned to be reverent and dutiful. You also got to get up awful early to serve at 6 oclock mass. I think it was about this time that I was feeling pretty confident in my religious education, and being an altar boy made me feel a little special and I began to think that perhaps I should be a priest. It actually went so far as having a priest from the seminary come to my house to discuss my getting into the seminary. I was just about signed up when I realized that there were no girls in the seminary and that sacrifice may not be something that I could sustain. Besides the female part of this puzzle, there was the ever-present doubt that we all have, and this doubt varies depending on what is going on in your life. Being on the brink of embarking a life of celibacy, my doubt level was growing. If you havent guessed yet, I backed out of the seminary.

Some of what I have said so far probably sounds negative. I dont consider my spirituality negative. I just dont give much credit to religion. As I said from the beginning, religion is the greatest obstacle to my spirituality. Religion creates too many rules and absolutes that are man made and disputable. Religion creates a forum for TV evangelists who are getting rich because they learned how to hit the hot button of people seeking God. Religion also creates a lot of self-righteous zealots that think they know more about God than others and therefore they are something special. As I said before, religion has caused wars and continues to cause wars. Just think about it. If you believe there is a God, how many gods do you think there are? I personally tend to think there is just one. So shouldnt there be just one religion? The Catholics would most likely jump up and say, "Thats what I have been trying to tell you. There is only one true religion and its Catholic." That doesnt really help much. The conclusion that I have come to is that religion can teach me some things about theology and scripture in order to help me understand some emotions and feelings I have about God, but thats about where it stops being useful. I had to look elsewhere for a closeness to God because religion just didnt do it for me.

One thing I have learned over the past 55 years I have spent hanging around this old earth is that if you want to experience God, you wont do it with your brain. Experiencing God is more of an indescribable emotion. Let me give you an example. While I was still young and living in Kirkwood, I remember this intersection about a block and a half from my house, the corner of Leffingwell and Filmore. There were a lot of oak trees in that old neighborhood, and few places that you could look up and get a clear view of the sky, but this intersection was open and gave a clear view. You probably need to know that Im talking about 45 years ago, and in those days we walked places. If you wanted to go somewhere, you walked. Since this intersection was on the way to everything, I walked passed it frequently. Im not sure why, but I was frequently moved by the view of the sky as I approached that intersection. Being moved and being a good Catholic boy, I remember saying a prayer quite often when I passed this spot at night. Daytime didnt have the same effect, so Im talking about night with stars. The prayer was not like the ones we said at school really, but instead it was more like talking to God. "God, are you watching out for me? Its a beautiful night. I sure am grateful for all you do for me. Sorry for those times I messed up. I love you God." And then I would walk home and feel much better. It was all emotional, like watching a patriotic movie and you get emotional. The feeling that I got from this was actually kind of personal, so in this blog I am bearing my soul for the first time. I might also say that the act of praying like that actually had some far reaching effects on me that I didnt realize for many years. You see I thought at the time that I was just doing what good Catholic boys ought to do, but in my own naïve sort of way, I was talking to God and being enriched by the experience, and learning prayer on my own. The "Our Father" is a beautiful prayer, but it is reciting words and not talking to God. I have no problem with the "Our Father" and say it often, but it isnt the same experience as talking to God. Talking to God, just me and Him, is an emotion that I enjoy. Needless to say, this intersection was not the only time or place I felt spiritual. These were the beginnings of my real spirituality, not the religious kind.

One thing happened at this intersection that kind of reinforced the idea that God lived in the sky over this intersection. The neighborhood we lived in was kind of rough, or at least it was getting that way. This event actually occurred in the 60s when there was quite a bit of racial strife. I was walking home one night, quite unaware of anything but maybe my view of the sky at this particular intersection. Suddenly I heard a door open and someone yell "Hey!". Apparently there were 2 black guys sneaking up on the white boy when my neighbor friend came out of his house and caught them. When he yelled they ran off. The neighbor said it was a good thing he walked outside. I thanked him and then thanked God for taking care of business. I was convinced that God hung out at that intersection and this event only reinforced the idea.

As I said, I dont mean for this blog to take on a negative connotation. So let me just come right out and say that I believe in God and I believe in Jesus Christ. I think I would believe in God, like many others, even if I had little or no religious training. It just seems natural to believe that something is responsible for the beauty and diversity of the world. As I said, my relationship with God is an emotion, or an intuition, and I dont think training of any kind would change that. Believing in Jesus however, is no doubt a result of being exposed to Him through scripture and church. But it is easy to believe in Jesus since he is historic. Our calendar is based on His birth. There is obviously no doubt that Jesus lived. No one questions Jesus walking on earth. We have the gospels as documentation of His life. And although it is a difficult concept, I believe that Jesus is God, or at the very least some kind of manifestation of Him.

I suppose these feelings and beliefs started at a young age, but unfortunately they were not to persist.

After my alter boy days and my near miss with the seminary, and having completed the 8^th grade, I was to move on to a public school. This was sort of the beginning of my loss of spirituality. My parents seemed to be losing interest in church and yet they still wanted my brother and I to go. They would drive us to church on Sunday, drop us off, and we would go in the front door and out the back and down the street to the pool room. Of course we could play enough pool and still finish in time to get picked up in front of church. It probably helped that we would grab a bulletin before we left to give some credibility to our being there. After I started driving, I would say that church was mostly forgotten. No one was trying to convince me to go anymore. Whatever I had discovered or grown to believe at this point was going to be it for now, and actually was dwindling.

Eventually after high school I joined the Navy. There were moments in the Navy that God and church seemed to be trying to make their way back into my life, but these occasions were rare and basically spirituality was at the bottom of the ladder. To be honest, playing the ponies and finding a good poker game were far more important. The closest I came to being spiritual was having a cigar on the pier with a friend. I have to say that if I was asked about my beliefs, I had no problem saying that I believed in God and Jesus, but in truth, I wasnt always living like I did. No, I generally dont try to hurt others and I am generally honest, but that doesnt make for a spiritual life in and of itself. To be honest I was sort of missing my spiritual side.

Toward the end of my Navy days, I got married to a lovely lady from South Carolina. Her family was into church, the Episcopal Church to be specific. After I met this lovely lady, church became a regular event on Sundays. I also discovered a religion that was more liberal than the Catholic religion. They told me it was OK to use my mind and they didnt try that "Just have faith" thing. The other thing that impressed me was communion. They invited anybody that believed in some benefit from communion to join in. The Catholic Church disappointed me when my brother got married. I asked the priest if there was any problem with me taking communion, now that I had betrayed the Catholic Church by going over to the Episcopalians, and he said I couldnt receive. See, religion again. Jesus said "Do this in remembrance of me." Do you think he meant only if youre Catholic? I dont see Jesus being exclusive at all. I think he would have been inviting the whole neighborhood in, if the circumstances were different. I think of Jesus as being inclusive. The Catholic Church believes that they are the only ones that can perform the sacrament of Communion, because they believe that only Catholic priests have apostolic succession. Ironically, Episcopalian priests have since been allowed to perform as Catholic priests because they can show that they also have apostolic succession (have the powers of the apostles passed on to them). Episcopalians have women priests and married priests, but Catholics have not yet come around to these more realistic positions. Thus with my marriage, I became an Episcopalian, and discovered that I could not actually be a Catholic without being very hypocritical. The Episcopal religion is still a religion, but at least it is more liberal and open than the Catholic Church. It was an Episcopal priest that I told that religion is the greatest obstacle to my spirituality, and he understood.

Although I feel that religion gets in the way of spirituality, I think church is a really good thing. I dont think that church is good because it fulfills some obligation, or because it supports a religion. I think church is good because it creates a community. A church community is a little like the friend community I described in the "Friends" blog, and many of our friends are from a church community. It is a group of people sharing common beliefs and friendships. When this works right, it really works. Shortly after my wife and I got married we ended up in Peoria, Illinois. We attended a church there called St. Pauls (an Episcopal cathedral). We found in that church something that many of us agreed we may never find again. There was a remarkable community of people that had humility, and kindness, and love, and a shared love of God. The priests were great, down to earth people, who were actually personal friends of many of the parishioners. At that time we spent hours, days, evenings, and weekends participating in church activities. We belonged to Marriage Encounter, and we were active in a movement called Cursillo, and we belonged to Christian Family Movement. Someone may have made the observation that my wife and I were kind of religious. I dont think religion had much to do with what we were doing. I would say that God and Jesus had prominent roles, but religion was a side effect. I also felt bad when someone would compliment my wife and I for all we did for the church. We were way more selfish than we were getting credit for. We did all of that stuff for ourselves. It was fun. We were enjoying it. There was no sacrifice on our part. We were having a ball.

I think at this point we had fallen into a situation where we were on a spiritual high. I have described prayer as an emotion. The Cursillo movement would be a great example of that. It was a weekend course in Christianity, and it was a very emotional weekend. You felt like you had met God after one of those weekends. I got involved in four of these weekends, and there are months of preparation involved as well. Later on, living in Cincinnati I participated in another Cursillo. Cursillo became very important to my wife and I. Each one was inspirational and educational. We had never experienced spirituality like we found in Peoria, and since we moved, we have yet to find it again.

After six years in Peoria, we moved to Cincinnati. We tried to maintain the spiritual high, but the community lacked the magic of Peoria. I remember when the priest came to welcome us to the church in Cincinnati. He said he couldnt stay long because the ballgame was going to start. That made us feel special. People seemed to have motives and agendas to go along with their religion. They lacked the humility and real love that we experienced in Peoria. We tried to impart our influence on this community, but it had little effect. I taught Sunday school and generally tried to participate, but clicks had long been established and certain people had their turf, and newcomers were not going to break in too easily. The truth of the matter was that I had no ambition to break into anything, I just missed the community we experienced in Peoria.

Several years later we found ourselves in a difficult position and were forced to move to the Chicago area. We made similar attempts to find a community like Peoria, but we did not do much better. On top of that, my wife was forced to go to work and ended up in retail, and worked most Sundays. I eventually found myself coaching soccer for games on Sunday morning. Church started to take a backseat. I guess what surprised me about this was how it affected my wife. She was most likely the one to drag us to church, but even she was having difficulties. So for many years church was a low priority and as a result, so was spirituality.

Then something happened. I got sick. This is a little difficult to explain in a way that doesnt sound too hokey, but it is true nonetheless. If you want to know what my illness caused as far as pain and misfortune, read my blog about disability. Times were getting tough and we were short on answers. Who do you turn to? Who has all the answers? God has all the answers of course. So even though spirituality had taken another low, it had not disappeared. I began asking God for guidance, for answers, for mercy. He didnt always answer in a way I would have liked, or even understood, but I could tell He answered. I was becoming more and more spiritual out of desperation. I didnt know where else to turn, but God was still there, hangin out, waiting for me, and I am so glad He did. I needed answers and He gave me answers. I needed encouragement, and he gave me encouragement. I needed hope and He gave me hope. You have to be sort of grateful to a God that can do all of that for you. Now again, Im not talking about religion, Im talking about God helping through hard times. You may have read in the blog about disability the story of the chaplain coming in to my hospital room and asking me where God was. At this point the emotion thing got the best of me and I burst into tears and told the chaplain that God had been with me every step of the way, and this was true. It is kind of easy for us to put God on the back burner, but fortunately, He doesnt treat us that way. Today I have overcome a great deal, and as I have said, I give all of the credit to my good friend God. He was there for me.

Now someone might say that all of that is in your head, John. You needed something and you imagined that you got it. You had nowhere else to turn so your mind conjured up a solution. OK, I guess you had to be there, because I will stick by my guns and give all of the credit to God. My wife and daughter say I am a walking miracle, and my doctor reminds me every time I visit that I should be glad to be alive. All good, but all I had to do was have a conversation with The Great Creator, and things worked out, and I am motivated, I have hope, and I am happy and confident that I have a friend in God.

My spirituality had improved quite a bit. I give God credit a lot more often. I have formed a prayer regiment where I pray everyday and often times with my wife. We use the Daily Office from the Episcopal Prayer Book, and we also use the daily devotionals from Forward Day By Day and Daily Guideposts. We pray for our families and friends, for those in need, and for other causes. We always thank God for another beautiful day, and everyday is beautiful. I always thank God for my health and for encouraging me to do more. We still dont go to church that often, but there are plans to try harder. We try to remember to pray before meals, but we still dont remember all of the time. I think I feel more spiritual than I have at any other point in my life. I feel closer to God than ever before. I actually feel as though I am being spiritual.

There is another concept that I want to share. To illustrate this concept I will share a joke that was told at Cursillo. The joke goes like this: There was a flood and a man was stuck on his roof waiting for rescue. The man had a great deal of faith and knew that God would save him. A boat came along and asked if he wanted to be picked up. The man said no, that God would save him. Another boat came, and this time the water was rising, and the man turned down help again saying that God would save him. The water was so deep that the man was about to be covered in water and a helicopter showed up and called to help him. He had such faith that he turned down the rescue and said that God would save him. He finally drown and went to heaven. At the pearly gates, he asked God why He didnt save him. God said "I sent you 2 boats and a helicopter, what do you want?" The point of this story was to remind us that God works through people. Kind of like my "Friends" blog, we prayed for chairs and the neighbors came to the door with chairs. I suppose somebody would have been a little shocked if God had been walking down the street with an arm load of chairs. So He used my neighbors. I believe we are all connected spiritually, and that God works through each of us to accomplish His will. If you buy in to this concept, then you can see how important it is for you to be part of a community that will strengthen your spirit.

So where do I stand spiritually at this point in time? I believe in God and Jesus. I pray everyday. I try to do Gods will, at least as well as my feeble mind can interpret His will. I try to do for others and I am grateful for what others do for me. Im not a big fan of religion, but I accept the necessity of it for certain things. My special intersection in Kirkwood has been replaced by my deck in Aurora, and believe it or not, a cigar can be a spiritual moment. Sitting on my deck in the late evening with a good cigar and watching my trees grow and my flowers bloom, I have to think that but by the grace of God I could be in much worse circumstances or dead. As I wrote this, I have avoided quoting scripture for fear of being hypocritical, but I encourage anyone to give the Bible a shot. There is some really good stuff in the Good Book. I know that the Bible is talked about far more than it is read. I recognize the value of people in my spiritual life. Perhaps most importantly, I am satisfied.

Having said all of this, I have some sage advice for my children.

Acknowledge your spiritual side. Realize that you have a mind, body, heart, and a spirit. The body needs exercise and nourishment. The mind needs stimulation. The heart needs love. And the spirit needs nurturing as well. Believe me when I say that God will help you with the spirit if you allow Him.

Never be ashamed of your doubts. You are human and you cant avoid them. Having Faith does not mean not having doubt, it means working past them and continuing on.

Attach yourself to a community in which you would feel comfortable praying. Acknowledge that God works through people, and that at any time you may be approached by God and not recognize Him. That means be kind to everyone, and be willing to offer an unconditional helping hand.

Consider any religion that makes you feel comfortable and nurtures your spirit the right one. And always remember that religion isnt important, God is.

Pray often. Talking to God is free and easy. It can be done in private and remain very personal, but it can also be shared. Praying within the community is a good thing for you. It also helps if you find that certain place where it is most easy for you to pray. Church works pretty well. Staring at the stars works as well. And remember that we contact God through our heart, the brain will overload if we try to use it to hear Our Maker.

Never judge others. Leave that to God.

Always be humble. Only God knows all and only God is great. I know Him personally.

Always have a sense of humor. God does. After all, he made me.

Remember what is important in life, and frequently remind yourself what is not.

Last but not least, honor your father and mother, especially your father, because he likes the attention.