Rev. Jessie Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton

When Don Imus made a racist and sexist statement on his radio show, calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed ho's," the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, two leaders in the African-American community, came out swinging.

They were swinging hard, too.

Imus, known primarily for his acid tongue, let his tongue slip. What he said was wrong. He made a mistake. While the words were racist, that doesn't mean Imus is a racist - he could be, but we don't know what the man believes in his heart.

Nevertheless, Imus proved he was human. And, since both Jackson and Sharpton are Christian clergy, they should know that a tenant of the Christian faith is forgiveness. Accept responsibility for the sin and seek repentance from Christ.

This ordeal should have involved only Imus and the Rutgers team, not a trifecta with the rowdy and camera loving third-wheel of Jackson and Sharpton.

Imus eventually realized he was wrong, apologized on the air, appeared on Sharpton's radio show (a real demonstration in contrition) and then met for three hours with the Rutgers team, where, afterward, they announced they had accepted his apology and wanted to move on. The saga should have ended here.

Both Sharpton and Jackson would not stop. He should be fired from both television and radio immediately, they argued, and Imus is a bad guy, they insinuated. And, they, not necessarily the Rutgers team, got what they wanted.

Though, again, as Christian clergy, these men should practice what they preach.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, Jesus said, according to the gospel of John. These two men apparently cut to the front of the line to cast theirs at Imus.

Sharpton and Jackson are, like all humans, sinners. But watching them gallivanting around on TV and the radio shouting and criticizing as holier-than-thou moral authorities put them on a different level, considering their own personal histories.

Jackson was once respected as a legitimate civil rights leader - quite possibly the next Martin Luther King, Jr. That changed, however, when he was running for president in 1984, and referred to New York City as "hymietown" and labeled Jewish people as "hymies," a derogatory term for Jews. 

Jackson also had an extramarital affair with one of his assistants that produced a child in 1999.

Sharpton has made comments that were both racist and homophobic. 

"White folks was in caves while we was building empires," Sharpton said in 1994. "We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it."

How eloquent. Obviously, we're not in the midst of two saints.

I'm not saying they should be criticized because of their sins, but because of their obliviousness in regard to them. They don't repent. They always make themselves out to be the victim. 

So, in reality, Jackson and Sharpton's condemnation of Imus for racisim is like Chuck Norris calling Steven Segal a bad actor. Or, like Newt Gingrich calling Bill Clinton out for adultery. 

But I shouldn't condemn any of them - Imus, Sharpton or Jackson. We should all know who is speaking the words we are being barraged with in the media, and give them the credibility to match. We shan't denounce them, however.

Instead, all of us who have been witnesses to this spectacle should do as Jesus then said to the best of our ability as mortals: "Go and sin no more."

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