I return today to a theme of my bi-weekly columns – hypocrisy. And did you know that “bi-weekly” can mean every two weeks or twice per week? I had to look that up to be sure. Anyway, regular readers (hi Mom! Hi Editor!) (Editor: please, please, get to the point) will recall that I have complained about political hypocrisy so often that my computer’s autocorrect feature can now correct “hypocrisy” from the roughly dozen or so misspellings of the word I have used thus far. And today I want to take things a step beyond political hypocrisy and venture into what might be called evangelical hypocrisy.

Let me be very clear – I am most certainly not talking about what anyone believes or does not believe about God or faith or religion and such. No, I am talking about how some religious people choose to demonstrate the tenets of that faith in their daily lives. I offer a couple of, at least to my eye, opposing manifestations.

I recently spent a couple of weekends helping a crew of very good and deeply religious men build a ramp at the home of an elderly woman in my extended family. These gentlemen knew her from church, and from the love their faith taught them, they donated their skills, labors, and money to help a person in need. I find these men to be excellent examples of walking the walk when it comes to faith issues. And they built an awesome ramp.

Now let’s look at what I think is the other end of the hypocrisy spectrum when it comes to issues of faith, shall we? Did you see what the Reverend Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, recently said regarding President Trump’s extra-marital – shall we say “challenges?” Reverend Graham wrote “Private conduct does have public consequences.” He concluded “the God of the Bible says that what one does in private does matter. Mr. Trump’s months-long extramarital sexual behavior now concerns him and the rest of the world, not just his immediate family. If he will lie to or mislead his wife and daughter, those with whom he is most intimate, what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public?”

Oh, wait…

That wasn’t Reverend Graham talking about Mr. Trump. That was the reverend in a 1998 Wall Street Journal op/ed, entitled “Clinton’s Sins aren’t Private.” Now one might think that a man who claims such a distinguished religious lineage would be consistent on such matters.

Prepare to be surprised.

Because, dear readers, Reverend Graham has a very different take on what would seem to be pretty similar behavior from our thrice-married, “grab’em by the …” president. When speaking of Mr. Trump, Reverend Graham states that “I found the president to be truthful with me” and “we just have to give the man the benefit of the doubt.” And Reverend Graham continued, “Now did he have an affair with this woman? I have no clue. But I believe at 70 years of age, the president is a much different person today than he was four years ago, five years ago, ten years ago or whatever.” Really? Behavior at 66 is part of a “youthful indiscretion” defense? I just turned 60, and I’m not sure too many people would accept my claim that a sin I committed last week could be blamed on my “youth.”

The now-forgiving Reverend Graham recently said that Mr. Trump’s sex life “is nobody’s business.” Many would agree. Heck, I agree. But apparently Reverend Graham himself didn’t agree back in 1998. He continued “I don’t have concern, in a sense, because these things happened many years ago … I think some of these things – that’s for him and his wife to deal with.”

Now to be very, very clear – I don’t really disagree with one of the faces Reverend Graham presents to the public. While I don’t approve of cheating on your spouse, being a serial liar, or having an epically bad combover – your own politics can guide you in whether you think I’m talking about Mr. Clinton or Mr. Trump (hint: it’s Trump) – I do think that if there is one group of people from whom some moral consistency would be expected, it would be those who claim to be faith leaders like Reverend Graham.