Mark Sanford, Infidelity and Morality
Jeffrey Weiss
Correspondent
Posted:
07/2/09
Almost as amazing as the fact that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford just won't shut up is how he seems to be trying to justify his infidelity.
It's hard to believe that anybody could have so quickly toppled John Edwards as the modern politician with the highest "ick" factor. But Sanford did it with a single quote:
"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story," Sanford told the AP. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."
At any time of the day, how is it that a potential standard bearer for the political party that tried to become synonymous with "moral values" doesn't seem to know what "morality" means?
Whatever else you include in the definition, morality is a code that tells you what you should not do, even if you want to, and no matter how romantic your reasons. But there's a lot more to morality than that. I went hunting for wisdom about morality in general, and how morality applies to marital infidelity.
Let's start with an academic definition, courtesy of Dartmouth philosophy professor Bernard Gert in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Shift to Augustine, in "On Free Choice and the Will." He pretty much slaps down Sanford's rationalization that love justifies infidelity:
Inordinate desire? Sounds like what Sanford is describing.
Shift faith traditions and cultures to Buddhism. I found some interesting teachings about morality and fidelity. Here's a poetic and apt bit of advice in "The Buddha's Advice to Sigalaka" :
Finally, I read that Sanford belongs to an Episcopal Church, so I went hunting for something specifically Episcopalian about sexual infidelity. I came up with an interesting factoid mentioned by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori during a sermon she delivered earlier this year:
At this point in the sad case of Gov. Sanford, he's probably spending too much time with the Associated Press.
It's hard to believe that anybody could have so quickly toppled John Edwards as the modern politician with the highest "ick" factor. But Sanford did it with a single quote:
"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story," Sanford told the AP. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."
At any time of the day, how is it that a potential standard bearer for the political party that tried to become synonymous with "moral values" doesn't seem to know what "morality" means?
Whatever else you include in the definition, morality is a code that tells you what you should not do, even if you want to, and no matter how romantic your reasons. But there's a lot more to morality than that. I went hunting for wisdom about morality in general, and how morality applies to marital infidelity.
Let's start with an academic definition, courtesy of Dartmouth philosophy professor Bernard Gert in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
"Morality is an informal public system applying to all rational persons, governing behavior that affects others, and has the lessening of evil or harm as its goal."
Shift to Augustine, in "On Free Choice and the Will." He pretty much slaps down Sanford's rationalization that love justifies infidelity:
"Then perhaps what makes adultery evil is inordinate desire, whereas so long as you look for evil in the external, visible act, you are bound to encounter difficulties."
Inordinate desire? Sounds like what Sanford is describing.
Shift faith traditions and cultures to Buddhism. I found some interesting teachings about morality and fidelity. Here's a poetic and apt bit of advice in "The Buddha's Advice to Sigalaka" :
"Desire, hatred, delusion, or fear:
Whoever transgresses the Dhamma by these,
Has a reputation that comes to ruin,
Like the moon in the waning fortnight."
Finally, I read that Sanford belongs to an Episcopal Church, so I went hunting for something specifically Episcopalian about sexual infidelity. I came up with an interesting factoid mentioned by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori during a sermon she delivered earlier this year:
"In English law there is a technical term, 'criminal conversation,' that comes into use in the late 1700s. It's a legal term for adultery. It means building a relationship, and spending too much time, with the wrong person."
At this point in the sad case of Gov. Sanford, he's probably spending too much time with the Associated Press.