Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Sanctity of Marriage?

Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Larry Craig, Mark Folley, David Vitter, John Ensign, and Mark Sanford . . .. What do all these national leaders have in common? They are all (1) family values conservatives; (2) vocal opponents of same sex marriage; and (3) have all (in various ways) desecrated the sanctity of their own marriages on multiple occasions.

I know, I know . . . we libruls are not without our scumbags. Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer and John Edwards come to mind on my first sweep of the landscape.

And yes, human life is complicated - although I can say forthright that I have never even thought about cheating on my wife. And I taught undergraduate coeds for 14 years!

Still, to the credit of the latter group, and to the discredit of the former, no one in the second group is lecturing the country about the sanctity of marriage.

Maybe chutzpa counter-balances hypocrisy?

Actually no, it doesn't. Chutzpa magnifies hypocrisy.

Joe H.

1 comment:

Bilbo Baggins said...

It's the old "do as I say, not as I do" syndrome that taints all manner of hypocrites. As you observe, with regard to values conservatives -- including Evangelicals and tele-evangelists -- the infidelity goes against the "platform" or the governing "beliefs" of these movements, unlike the Godless Democrats and secular humanists? I would say liberal Christianity simply recognizes more that our flawed human nature makes us more needing of the boundless grace of God, and that we should be careful about judging our fellow flawed human beings.