Paul Fidalgo, who is the blogger at Bloc Raisonneur, also posts as the DC Secular Examiner on Examiner.com. He posted a piece today about “The Apparently Weak Faith of the Unfaithful Republicans” which had a bit to say about Governor Sanford, but more about the bigger picture.
One great point he made about those politicians who are so in-your-face about their religious piety and moral values (“Christians all, and every one of them extremely noisy about it” says Fidalgo), is that the reason they fessed up isn’t because of… well… here’s what Fidalgo said (emphasis his):
It was not the wrenching guts of a tortured soul that got Sanford, Vitter, Ensign, or Craig to fess up. They didn’t fear for their timeshares in the afterlife, nor did they see a vision of a tut-tutting Jesus hovering over them while in passionate throes. They held their conferences, released their dour statements, and apologized to those unwise enough to have faith in them, because they got caught.
His post is definitely worth reading and highlights the pseudo-devotion of this type of Christian.
What also got my attention was a comment made by Chris Henson about Christian morality in the comments section at the end of the post. I’ve posted similar things myself here, but he phrases it in a wonderfully colorful way that I needed to share.
Yeah, but “God gave his only begotten son” so that Christians can break all the rules they want to. Probably the most convenient twist of religious chicanery ever devised. You’ve got one book spelling out the “Commandments” and “Deadly Sins.” Then you’ve got the other book with this hippy dude who died so you can pretty much sin all you want to.
It’s like “Eat Yourself Thin.” Or “The Four Hour Work Week.” Combined, the Old and New Testaments should be called “Sin Yourself Righteous!”
Sin Yourself Righteous!
Christians tend to make the claim that morality comes from God or the bible, but in reality, biblical religions just teach that you can have a free pass to sin without consequence.
It seems that some politicians take advantage of that.
Each day seems to bring some new and fascinating tidbit from Mark Sanford. The women he’s touched inappropriately. The spiritual counselor how oversaw one of his encounters with Maria [so THAT’S what we’re calling a threesome these days!]. He can’t shut up about it. And suddenly everything made sense to me. Mark Sanford is a narcissist.
I think he has cast himself in a movie — a political romantic comedy. As the protagonist, he’s fallen from grace spectacularly. But, instead of resigning from office, as he “intended” to do, he now says God has decided that his punishment should be to remain governor of South Carolina and by-golly save the state from the mess it’s in.
So now all he has to do is publicly and kindly turn his back on his soul-mate mistress [“Maria, you’ll find your soul mate. After all, I found mine.”] and try like hell to fall back in love with his wife. She’s already admitted she can forgive him. They will reconcile just before Christmas in 2011. There will be a very public “you had me at ‘hello'” scene and a beautiful tree in the background and candles. A warm light will glow on the Nativity set his grandfather carved by hand. A child will sing a sweet carol in the snow. The nation will weep.
Then, cue the soft, but patriotic music that signifies that Sanford has truly changed and, next thing you know, our good Christian hero will be cheered into the White House. Working title: “The Forgiven One.”
Yep, narcissist. And I should know. I’m the guy who’s posting a comment to an article that he’s mentioned in. And deep down, don’t we narcissists really just need to take a good look at ourselves?
LOL, Chris! I think you have a blockbuster on your hands! 😉
You wouldn’t be claiming that the religious right can be hypocrites would you? How dare you! 😉 Seriously though, can you imagine the odds of an atheist being forgiven for such behaviour?
If a christian politician breaks one of the commandments they have fallen from grace but can be forgiven if they apologise and ask for forgiveness and their fellow believers will pray for them and support them in their hour of need. Etcetera, etcetera
If it was an atheist or a member of another religion the christians would say it was just another example of the immorality of the ungodly.