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The power of sex, with its obvious link to fertility and the instinctive connections to love, exaltation and submission, is understood by every religion. It's exploited by some, isolated -- and perhaps feared -- by others.
The celebrity apology has become a kind of public ritual in the United States. Don Imus, Paul Wolfowitz, Mel Gibson, Naomi Campbell, Ted Haggard, Rush Limbaugh: the list of famous people trying to convince us of their contrition is long and varied – and essentially, it would seem, a matter of public relations.
The obvious aim is to spin the problem out of sight as quickly as possible, then let the process of forgetting, more than forgiving, do its work. Failing that, the more cynical and self-righteous apologizers may try to push the problem onto those who continue to disapprove.
Sin generally and adultery specifically is the stuff of which soap operas are made, whether as the fiction of afternoon television or an affair of state that leads to impeachment. It’s just irresistible narrative, with all the attendant subplots of passion, guilt, deception, exposure and expiation. But in the United States there’s the added ingredient of overweening hypocrisy.
What Islam Really Says About Violence, Rights and Other Religions
Gomaa, Fadlallah, Mubarak, Khan, Siddiqi, Ellison, others | On Faith
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