CelticBear’s Musings

A Republican Congressman, Sen. David Vitter, was recently outed as a customer of prostitution:

<> Prostitute degrades self by banging moralistic Senator
(That article has a fantastic essay on the way in which fundamentalist Christians view sexual morality and the disconnect between ethics and “purity”.)
<> CNN article on Vitter

Sen. Vitter has been an outspoken proponent of “family values” and protecting the “sanctity of marriage.” He’s tried to enact Constitutional amendments banning gay marriage and legislate morality (as he sees it.)

Now, here’s the thing. Here is why libertarians and liberals alike celebrate tragic falls and public embarrassments like his and former mega-church preacher and anti-homosexuality chest-beater Ted Haggard: They make it their personal crusade to force their supposed morality and sexual ethics upon everyone. They try to create laws making private, personal choices about sex and marriage criminal, based on their ancient religious views. So when it’s revealed they don’t practice what they preach, their public hypocrisy becomes entertainment for those of us who know their skewed and ancient phobic superstitious ideas of morality are wrong and impossible for society at large.

For myself, if Vitter and Haggard had kept their ideas of “sanctity of marriage” and public homophobia to themselves, kept it a private matter, said “This is what I believe, and I personally live my life by–but I have no interest in trying to force others to live as I do,” then their falls would have been sad, but private matters. I would feel, “Well, shame for Vitter. He’s human, and makes mistakes, as we all do. Hope things go better for him.” But since he’s made it his standard to tell, even legislate, how other people should live their lives by his proclaimed beliefs, he doesn’t get the privilege of shrugged shoulders and sympathy. I want to feel sorry for Ted Haggard. Here’s someone who was probably born gay, and into a family and culture that beat into him that he’s fundamentally evil and “bad.” Sin incarnate for who he was born as. And all his life he’s run from his true self and ran into the delusion of religious belief and embraced homophobia and doth protested too much to escape and hide. But instead of living the life of honesty and personal fulfillment, his religion forced him into a sham marriage and secret, shameful gay relationships and escapist drug use. I want to feel pity for him, but for his public image of gay-hating, morality enforcing absolutism he tried to impose upon other people.

Everyone has the right to live the life they think is right. Vitter has the right to try to live his marriage sanctity type of life, and even try to justify having “dirty sex” with prostitutes his pure and chaste wife was spared having to endure. Whether he succeeds or fails at his ideas of morality remains their private, personal business. It becomes a matter of public hypocrisy and embarrassment and subject of cruel taunting rebuke when you have tried to force your beliefs your don’t yourself follow, upon everyone else and proclaim with shouts and vigor that this is the one right and true way everyone must live.