My Denver Posthref="http://www.denverpost.com/harsanyi/ci_6624536" target="_blank">
column yesterday comments on the "morality" question some
Republican candidates will be wrestling with as they vie for the
immeasurably important evangelical vote. I spoke with a public policy
expert at Focus on the Family. A gracious and super intelligent guy,
who, in his own soothing way, condemned me to burn in Hades.
Perhaps I deserve it for lines like: "If you haven't lost a couple
of days to alcohol-induced blackouts, a stripper and an empty wallet,
you simply haven't lived." But do those who have been part of a
divorce or engaged in some legal hobby like, say, visiting a strip
club, deserve the same fate?
"It's part of his character, obviously. People who sit in judgment
of others have a duty to be above reproach," explains Tom Minnery,
senior vice president of government and public policy for Focus on the
Family -- rather unsurprisingly.If there is anyone above reproach, I believe He probably took
earthly leave of us approximately 2,000 years ago.
What took me by surprise was just how immoral Focus folks view
divorce. Jesus apparently, when asked if he allowed "divorce for any
cause," claimed that he "who divorces his wife except for sexual
immorality and marries another woman commits adultery" (Matthew 19:3).
A debate about how to properly apply this statement in the Baptist and
evangelical community was discussed in detail by David Instone-Brewer
target="_blank">in Wall Street Journal a couple of months
back.
One may wonder how evangelicals explain the high divorce rates in
their own community? Well, step one is to dismiss it. Here is a Focus
piece on "target="_blank">Divorce and Cohabitation," which works hard to
reject statistics claiming that divorce rates among people who
identified themselves as Christian in Southern Bible Belt states had
higher divorce rates than people with no religious affiliation.
A Russell Sage Foundation study also found that evangelicals "who
attend religious services weekly," do pretty well when compared with
average Americans when it comes to divorce and cohabitation. But those
who are only nominally Protestant in the Bible Belt -- most -- do href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110010452"
target="_blank">no better than the craven immoral horde in Blue
States.
In a diverse nation like our, putting your finger on divorce rates
is tough on many levels. Here is list of state by state href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/mar%26div.pdf"
target="_blank">divorce rates from the CDC. The stats all over the
place, with little concern for geography. The District of Columbia,
for instance, has a very low 2.4 divorce rate. This is likely to do
more with a very low 5.1 percent marriage rate than any religious
affiliation -- or lack of one.
Having indulged in cohabitation I can't say I'm very sorry or that
I feel particularly immoral. As a son of divorced parents, I don't
believe mom and dad have sinned. Yet, in certain places, the divorce
question will be an immense problem for a serial husband like Rudy to
overcome.