The Republican Party, the party that for years has styled itself as the party of "family values" and "traditional marriage" has lost all credibility on these issues.
Not only do polls show a huge majority of Republicans supporting the thrice-married, serial adulterer Donald Trump, but now three Republican women have joined the political orgy.
In 2011, I was in Rapid City, South Dakota, speaking at a gathering of conservatives. Gov. Kristi Noem headlined the event. She walked out on stage holding her husband's hand and spoke openly about her Christian faith and commitment to conservative economic and social issues. In an interview with me she reinforced those beliefs.
According to The Daily Mail and New York Post, it was all a sham, because at the time, and for several years before, she and former Trump aide Corey Lewandowski had been carrying on an extramarital affair. Various sources are quoted, though not by name, as saying Noem made use of private planes to get to speaking engagements, many outside South Dakota, which reportedly involved frequent liaisons with Lewandowski. It is also claimed she ordered her staff not to share her schedule with her husband.
Asked about this, Noem's press secretary, Ian Fury, emailed me: "the article falsely claims that the governor did not deny the allegation. I denied it on her behalf, and I have asked the Daily Mail to correct that lie."
When I asked about the claims alleging her infidelity, I received no reply.
Next up we have Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO.), age 36, and the mother of four young sons. A security video shows her attending a performance in Denver of the musical "Beetlejuice" with her "date," 46-year-old Quinn Gallagher, a Democrat who owns a bar in Aspen. The video shows Gallagher fondling Boebert's breasts. She grabs his hand to keep it there before reaching over and rubbing his crotch. Boebert blames her behavior on an ongoing divorce from her husband. The video also shows Boebert vaping. She denied it, but the video doesn't lie. Ushers escorted Boebert and Gallagher out of the theater, but before she left, Boebert, a sitting member of Congress, flipped the ushers the middle finger.
Then there is Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who told a prayer breakfast in July she had to deny her "fiance" sex that morning or she would have been late for the event. After some criticism, Mace said she was a "sinner not a saint." This is self-justification, not repentance.
In the spirit of diversity, equity and inclusion a runner-up award goes to Susanna Gibson, who is running as a Democrat for the Virginia House of Delegates. In a unique fundraising effort, Gibson livestreamed a video of her and her husband on Chaturbate, asking viewers to pay them money to watch them have sex. Maybe this is not such a problem, seeing as Democrats are more free-wielding, supporting issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, etc., and not conservative family values.
Back to the Republicans. Some who support Donald Trump for president (again) have written to me with the false moral claim that King David of Israel committed adultery with Bathsheba and God used him anyway. The difference is that David, according to the Scriptures in which Christians say they believe, repented and wrote one of the great Psalms that says to God: "Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight." (Psalm 51:4).
David also paid a terrible price in the death of the son he had with Bathsheba, whose husband, Uriah, he sent to the front lines in order to have him killed in an attempt to cover up her pregnancy.
No one has heard anything approaching David's repentance from Trump, Mace or Boebert. It is not judging to hold them accountable to the standard they claim to profess.
Republicans who support these elected representatives and Donald Trump, excusing their behavior, have made a Faustian bargain. They are ignoring the moral code they claim to endorse in order to secure temporal political power. This is idolatry of the worst sort and reduces the party's claim to support family values to the level of a bad joke.