A Marvelous Prospect

Yesterday’s topic on a local talkradio show was SC Governor Mark Sanford and whether or not he should resign. I didn’t listen to the whole show – just while I was out running some errands, but there were some things said that revealed a dangerous mindset in our culture.

There was no consensus over whether he should resign or not, although many callers thought he should. There is alleged fraudulent use of state money to fund his love-junkets, and that might be his undoing. Whatever happened to integrity among the men and women who we elect to lead us? (Reminds me of NC Governor Bev Purdue, who should be behind bars for her role in getting the NC “education” lottery passed, but that’s another display of a blatant lack of integrity, and another rant.)

There was strong consensus over the issue of whether he should resign because he had an affair or not, and that consensus was – NO. Le’t talk about that.

What is an affair? It’s a breaking of covenant, ignoring a commitment. Isn’t it? I heard someone say the other day, “If your wife can’t trust you, who can?” Bingo! What is an affair if it’s not a deceit, a lie, a hiding? I think it’s perhaps worse than living the life as a single, profligate womanizer.

We can talk at length about the morality of our leaders from time immemorial (we know that they, like us, are imperfect), but there was a more disturbing thought pattern illuminated in yesterday’s discussions. It is the statement, “I don’t think it’s right, but if he wants to do it, who am I to judge? He says he loves the Argentinian woman.” Not a single caller that I heard said “That affair was wrong.” Several callers expressed the sentiment that the affair was his personal life, and that it had nothing to do with his ability to lead, his public life. Can you get any stupider than that? (I’m sorry, but somebody has to say it.)

These are the gods of our age – 1) tolerance, no absolute truths, who am I to impose my beliefs on you? And 2) that there is a separation between the personal and the public life, that somehow we can be one thing in the bedroom(s) and something else entirely at the conference table or on the bench.

And this will be our undoing, because in the absence of absolute truths that we’re willing to enunciate, defend, fight for, and protect, but one thing remains – power. And power unbridled by truth leads in only one direction – tyranny. The belief that our personal lives and thoughts have no impact and no place in the public square is just silly, but if the callers yesterday are any indicator, we seem to be believing it completely. The secular gatekeepers are doing their job very well.