The librarian handed the child a huge book with many words and few pictures. She looked at it for a minute and handed it back.

"This---" she said, "tells more about frogs than I want to know."

We have a President who is a moral mess, and enough self-righteousness in Congress to make the Pharisees look humble.

Don't worry. I'm not taking sides. I don't mix politics and preaching.

But I do talk about sin, a subject that you and I know well from personal experience. We are sinners, and so are our presidents. Some have been more sinful than others. Some have been very decent men.

Eisenhower was a decent man - a truly great leader in many ways. But a presidential historian said recently that Eisenhower could have done so much more if he had not been morally blind in some areas.

"If he had openly and forthrightly opposed segregation," said the historian, "he could have made a great difference and even saved lives in those years of racial struggle."

Why didn't he do it? Because in his heart, the historian said, he believed in segregation.

I was a teenager in the '50's. I knew the President's attitude.

And I knew he was wrong.

I believe Mr. Eisenhower's moral blindness was far more destructive.

He was a very decent man, but basic decency is not enough.

"You must be born from above," Jesus said. We are born blind. God alone can make us see.

Sin comes naturally for all of us - and so does some basic decency. But the life that Jesus talked about does not come naturally. We do not by nature love others as we love ourselves, pray for our enemies, or forgive when the forgiving is hard.

The President's sins have become headlines. This may help him see them better. You and I need to find some way to see ours.

And get to church somewhere this Sunday.

We must be confronted often with the Gospel, or we will not believe it or live it. Goodness does not come naturally, and many decent people lead blind, destructive lives.