That's not how it works

[mme_hardy]

Doug Phillips, the head of one of the foremost Christian-patriarchy groups, Vision Forums, has just resigned after having had something that was almost, but not quite, like an affair.  That's not why I've called you here today.   It's this bit of his resignation letter that put a little extra starch in my amice:

  I am most sensitive to the fact that my actions have dishonored the living God and been shameful to the name of Jesus Christ, my only hope and Savior.

No.   That is not the way it works.   For all I know, the baby Jesus is indeed throwing His pacifier out of the manger, but it's not from shame.   You can't shame God.   You can't dishonor God.   God may be sorry for you, God may be embarrassed for you, God will probably forgive you.   But -- Problem of Evil notwithstanding -- your sins don't make God look bad.  That very sentence is a sign that you've gone way too far down the road of identifying God with yourself.

Comments

[sara]

Well, as I said above he may be one of those very questionable people who don't think anal or oral sex is sex (if it weren't it wouldn't be called "sex" it would be called "doing the grocery shopping" or "eating a sandwich" or something else not containing the word "sex" in close proximity to a noun describing a human orifice.)

But I have met conservatives who feel very strongly that it is inappropriate for opposite-sex people who aren't related to be friends, particularly should either of them be married, and that such friendships are tantamount to adultery.

[nineveh_uk]

I once read a blog post that claimed that anyone with more than one friend was polyamorous, so the conservatives aren't alone!

[malkingrey]

Given that "infidelity" is as much a social construct as it is a specific behavior -- then if somebody feels in their own heart that they are being unfaithful, then they probably are. Even if all his/her mind and physical body are doing is having coffee with the other person once a week in a public place.

(My own suspicion is that the relationship most likely involved what used to be known in my long-ago high school days as "heavy petting", which was one stop short of "going all the way" ... and certainly didn't count as actually having sex, because if it did, then there wouldn't have been a virgin left in the state of Texas. Except for possibly me, because I was a late bloomer and didn't discover some things until I went north to grad school.)