Surely integrity and trustworthiness in private life does matter when it comes to selecting who should lead a nation? Integrity means completeness or wholeness. We might use it to describe a building that is well put together so that it can withstand bad weather. When applied to people, it speaks about consistency between each facet of our lives, private and public, family and front-line - when the light is on us and when it is not. It's what we are when no-one is watching!
So, the driving instructor needs to be morally trustworthy when spending long hours with students. The policeman that attends vulnerable people caught up as victims of crime must not view them as fair game to be used. And if a Prime minister or President expects to be believed when they make promises then they must be promise keepers in their private lives too.
Integrity is not perfection, as if it was, none of us could ever stand or lead. We all fall short of God's standard - which is Christ - in so many ways. God loves us as we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way. The whole point of redemption is that we can repent and start again. But as Konrad Adenaur, onetime Chancellor of West Germany said, 'To fall is neither dangerous or disgraceful. But to remain prostrate is both'.
