Over the long weekend, while I was ignoring the world of politics for the slopes of Winter Park, there was another dust up in the conservative blogosphere. Actually, that isn’t correct, I guess it would be more accurate to say that there was a dust up on twitter that spilled into the blogosphere. The dust up revolved around a story that is all too familiar these days. It goes something like this: Random person tweets something really cool and becomes a twitter personality. That twitter personality then gets elevated. Then, the inevitable happens. We find out they are not perfect people.

In this instance we found out that a young Army wife*, who became popular on twitter for being a relatively normal conservative American, ended up having some sort of marital issues that included some sort of affair.

That’s right, that single tweet wasn’t actually representative of the totality of that person’s life. There was more to her than 140 characters and a pic. The person is actually real and deals with all the same struggles and temptations that every other human has dealt with. Some react to this with anger, others with compassion.

Rarely is it the case that we actually see grace properly applied.

Grace isn’t a concept that is easily understood or applied by us humans. If it were, there would be a lot more “all in” Christians. It gets even harder when you ask people to apply that grace to figureheads, wether that is as a twitter personality or as an elected official.

I wrote a little bit about grace and politics during the 2012 primary when Newt surged and people wondered why. How could Christian Conservatives be forgiving of a man who had cheated on his wife? Were we hypocrites?

I don’t think that is the case at all. In fact, I would say it was the exact opposite. We often apply grace because we hope that when the time comes the same grace will be applied to us.

As a veteran I have seen my fair share of friends be affected by a cheating spouse. It was always worse when it happened on deployment. I commend the man in this case for acting in a Christian manner. I am happy he was able to display grace and forgiveness to his wife. He is an example for all good Christian men.

I believe that the wife’s story should be classified a bit differently. Her’s is a cautionary tale rather than an example. While it has a happy ending in reconciliation, it definitely isn’t what any of us would want for ourselves or our loved ones. This isn’t meant to be judgmental, just a mere acknowledgement that we, rightfully, want the best for those we love.

I expect some of people who are now lashing out in judgement do so because they have become cynics and lost faith in a system they see as hypocritical. Others may feel let down and disappointed, pushing them towards that cynicism. Others still may be transferring their own issues.

On wether any of this is news worthy … If the person who brought the affair to the public gets caught cheating on his mail order Asian bride while pooping on the floor, twitter will be so much fun that I may have a heart attack.

* Honestly, I find the entire thing to be rather tabloid-esque and don’t feel like using names or linking to anyone involved.