Therefore, you are without excuse, whoever you are that judge; for in that which your judge the other, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. St. Paul. The Epistle to the Romans.
When I was 20 or so, I rose one morning at about 10 am, more than a little worse for wear. When I eventually managed to dress and find my way outside I discovered that my motorbike was damaged. The handlebars were bent, the headlight broken and it was quite badly scraped along one side of the tank. I had no idea what had happened. The last I remembered it was late in the afternoon, and all day I had been drinking with friends in a pub in Sumner. Now it was next day and I was in my flat in St. Albans, on the other side of town, realising I had, apparently, ridden home through peak hour traffic dead drunk, coming off the bike at some stage; and I remembered nothing about any of it. Still don't.
I could tell some other stories from that stage of my life, many of them, unlike this one, really quite amusing, but I tell this one because it has no redeeming features. It was reprehensibly, dangerously stupid of me. My bike was not a huge one, as these things go, but at speed I could have done significant damage to a car. I could easily have killed a pedestrian. Stupid. Reckless. Wicked. Dangerous. I got away with it, but I am sorry it happened and I'm deeply grateful that no one, including me, was hurt.
At that time of my life I was prone to doing such things. I broke my fair share of our nation's laws, particularly, but not exclusively, those relating to the ingestion of alcohol and illicit substances. Even when maintaining legality, I was often in breach of whatever moral code it is that you wish to give a nod to, and yet, glory be to God, these silly, childish behaviours don't define me. Over the years since then I have found a faith to live by, sorted out many of my inconsistencies and inadequecies, matched myself with a stunning woman, raised children to be proud of, seen the births of beautiful grandchildren, acquired a wall full of fancy certificates, and, all false modesty aside, managed to make a reasonable contribution to the church and to New Zealand society. This process of growth from waste to productivity; from adolescence to adulthood, from liability to asset, from brown stuff for brains stupidity to wisdom, is what we Christians call redemption. It is based on the central principle of our faith: forgiveness. Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!
Actually, try as I may, I've never quite managed perfection. In the 40+ years since God took pity on me and saved me from myself, I've still managed to do some pretty dumb things. Well, in the last 24 hours, if I'm honest. I'm grateful that redemption isn't a one off thing, but a continuing process, of which I seem to be in pretty much permanent need.
Which is why I have been particularly ticked off, of late, to witness the self righteous and the forgetful tut tutting over the long past indiscretions of Metiria Turei. It seems that 24 years ago (TWENTY FOUR!) The co- leader of The Green Party was a solo mother on a benefit. Contrary to the laws of the land she didn't 'fess up to the people who paid her benefit that she had some paying boarders in her house, preferring the feeding of her child over the demands of strict honesty and legality. Further it seems she was registered to vote in one electorate while actually living in another (as, I now realise, I was myself during the 3 years I spent at St. John's Theological College). All these years later she has confessed these misdemeanours and offered to set them straight. So the Pharisees amongst us muster their reserves of ire and gather up the rocks ready for a good old stoning. No matter that in the intervening decades she seems to have well and truly got her act together: getting a degree, working as a lawyer, getting elected to Parliament, rising to leadership in her party and all the while making a pretty decent fist of motherhood. "Forget the effort she has put into her life", say the self righteous, "forget the good she has done, or the blessing she has been to many people. Forget the honesty and intelligence and integrity and years of hard work. What defines her is a few relatively innocuous indiscretions commited years ago when she was young and poor and desperate."
For shame.
On reflection, I'd trust my future to someone who committed a few mistakes, learned from them, and has the guts to own up to them over someone so lacking in self knowledge they imagine themselves to be flawless, or who pretends to be so. Any day.
Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.
- That old reprobate, Paul, again. The Epistle to the Romans, again.
Comments
The "youthful indiscretion" defense falls well short too. It was a PATTERN OF BEHAVIOUR that Ms Turei engaged in FOR YEARS.
"It seems that 24 years ago (TWENTY FOUR!)"
Oh, I see, get away with fraud for long enough, then you should be safe enough to employ the fact as a publicity stunt to further your political career.
"preferring the feeding of her child over the demands of strict honesty and legality."
LOL, her offspring wasn't starving to death. She had other choices that didn't involve years of financial fraud and milking the tax payer to get ahead as a legal beagle.
Ms Turei refused to name the father of her offspring thereby screwing over the tax payer AGAIN. She used him to enable her benefit and electoral fraud, so obviously she wasn't withholding his name from WINZ because he was a dangerous threat to her.
Then there is the dodgy business of her cosy co living arrangement with mummy and in her ex's property while supposedly living with "flatmates".
And to top it off, she thinks she was entitled to "have some fun" when it was revealed she had plenty of spare time to goof off with the McGillicuddy Serious Party, while supposedly struggling to feed her starving baby in the trenches of the hellish class war.
Your martyr has fucked the dog politically, I doubt she will be around for much longer.
But as to your substance I can see that we are never going to agree, but I would make a few observations.
1. Yes, I think people can and do change.
2. You say that the events of 24 years ago set a pattern Ms. Turei has followed ever since. You provide no evidence for this apart from a rehashing of the original old incident. I assume therefore you don't actually have any evidence for this statement?
3. I see a world of difference between someone owning up to a long past incidence of fraud and someone who is well resourced and in receipt of a handsome salary and generous expense account rorting the system not out of necessity but out of sheer greed while they are acting as one of our elected representatives. I think we differ on this point.
But I am interested in your opinion: those whose resignation Ms.Turei called for, do you think they should have resigned or not? If your answer is "Yes", then what's your problem with an opposition MP doing her job? If "no", then you are obviously cool with people ripping off the system so what's your problem with Metiria Turei?