The Private Affair of Mark Sanford

Athena, Athena, Athena,

Once again for your perusal:

"Ethics.

Wicca has but one law of action and ethics. It is called the Wiccan Rede or the Wiccan Law, and can be found under the Reading Room category of the same name. "And ye HARM NONE" covers almost everything that the Ten Commandments do: don't lie, don't steal, don't cheat, etc. It encourages us to strive not to harm any living thing - including ourselves - except perhaps to survive. Whether this means that you must become a vegetarian or a passivist is up to the individual. The Wiccan Law serves as a guideline to action, not a mandate.

The ONLY law that the Ten Commandments express that is not covered by the Wiccan Law is that of marriage AND ADULTERY. In Wicca, love itself is sanctified, with or without government authorization. As long as two individuals share a sincere bond of love that does not harm either party, it DOES NOT MATTER if they are legally joined, if they are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or interracial."

I agree that the families of both parties are being harmed but the official Wiccan rules, says DOES NOT HARM EITHER PARTY. It says nothing about the FAMILIES of SAID PARTIES. Wicca needs to expand said rules!!!! Until then, being a Wiccan would be a big asset to Mr. Sanford.

In CCNL's attempt to be funny, he forgot about the one key phrase in his latest cut-and-paste follies: HARM NONE. His actions were harming his wife, his children, and the taxpayers of South Carolina. At least when a Democrat got caught with his pants down, he had the good sense to resign pretty much immediately.

If you truly believe in God and in the Bible as His literal Word, South Carolina needs to execute its Governor and his mistress:

"And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death."
Leviticus 20:10 (KJV)

If you don't agree with this as the true and holy word of God, stop cherry-picking other verses of Leviticus to judge and condemn others as your Jesus taught you not to do.

from: www.magicwicca.com/wicca/definition.html

"Ethics.

Wicca has but one law of action and ethics. It is called the Wiccan Rede or the Wiccan Law, and can be found under the Reading Room category of the same name. "And ye harm none" covers almost everything that the Ten Commandments do: don't lie, don't steal, don't cheat, etc. It encourages us to strive not to harm any living thing - including ourselves - except perhaps to survive. Whether this means that you must become a vegetarian or a passivist is up to the individual. The Wiccan Law serves as a guideline to action, not a mandate.

The only law that the Ten Commandments express that is not covered by the Wiccan Law is that of marriage and adultery. In Wicca, love itself is sanctified, with or without government authorization. As long as two individuals share a sincere bond of love that does not harm either party, it does not matter if they are legally joined, if they are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or interracial."

Maybe Mr. Sanford went a bit Wiccan and did not consider his other loves???

The hypocrisy certainly damaged our nation, tying up the Clinton administration and paving the way for Bush to get elected by a bunch of people who were cheaters, themselves, on the very premise that only 'moral' people (ie, people with right-wing 'morality' ...for the little people,) could possibly be trustworthy or right about anything.

Until a Republican does it, of course.

Then it's defended and minimized, and the last thing the Right and the evangelicals will do, it seems, is take a real step back and look at what they've been doing.

My partner and I can't possibly get civilly-married because of some 'definition of marriage' ....and this guy can't even keep his own oaths with a press corps watching?

I really don't care much about his personal 'sins,' ...only how the 'culture warriors' minimize what *he* did while they were using politicians like that to mess up the country so many ways, and use denying other peoples' marriages as a moralistic excuse to do so.

This hypocrisy among religious conservatives in government isn't just a series of isolated incidents: it's a *pattern,* if not a *strategy,* (attack the morality of others, to somehow make people believe that if you're a homophobe and/or Republican or preacher you can't possibly be suspected of the very things you sought power railing against. )

Will religious conservatives look at this, and go, soberly, 'You know, this just keeps happening. Maybe we're not being *fair,* here, trying to tell other people what 'real marriage' is: it seems our own 'morality' policies don't even work in our *own* families.'

That'd take some real self-examination and real humility, though.

Living in South Carolina means living a life of political frustration - if you happen to be a democrat. Two ultra-conservative senators and now the maverick millionaire governor caught with his pants down.

He ran off in a tempermental pique looking for solice south of the border, when he was recently forced to take government stimulus money for the state - something he had refused to do until congress and the courts intervened.

Oddly, the man can't be impeached, according to state law. This is a fellow that had big aspirations for the presidency - apparently he's given to delusions of grandeur as part of his generally puckish view of electoral responsibility.

We can only assume that this fellow has been enabled by lying staff members and others close to the governor's office for quite some time - and well before the Argentina debacle.

It's refreshing when high profile politicians can keep their narcissism in check and avoid public scandals - unlike Bill Clinton, this guy is now a genuinely lame duck until the sun sets on his career.

So don't be too concerned for our governor and his future, because there's always speaking engagements, the inevitable book, more and more money, and Argentina to look forward to. But pity his poor wife.....

The point is that Gov. Sanford condemned Clinton for his affair, and is guilty of the same thing. Even worse - Clinton did not use taxpayer money to conduct his affair. The other reason that Sanford is a hypocrite is because he talks about "respecting traditional marriage" in light of restricting the rights of gay people to marry, but didn't respect his own marriage. Eliot Spitzer was a hypocrite because he was "Mr. Law and Order" while patronizing prostitutes.

The other thing is that he was considering running for President, and was on McCain's short list for VP - and he's carrying on with a foreign national? I certainly hope that he wasn't planning on continuing the affair if he was in a position to have access to national security briefings?

First off, I think we need to view this situation for the private and public tragedy this is. I can see that many people are going to try to use this for political gain but when people betray our trust, it is not to anyone’s gain. I also was tempted when Spitzer was caught in his scandal to enjoy it, since I wasn’t fond of him as governor. In the end we need to remember that isn’t good when public figures lose their integrity. It hurts us all.
There are many statements in this article that aren’t quite accurate. Clinton wasn’t impeached for an affair he was impeached for perjury. I don’t think the governor was AWOL, just out of the public’s view. But there are 2 main things that caught my attention.
I don’t believe Sanford is a hypocrite because he messed up, even though it was a huge disaster for his life. I may change my opinion after more comes out but being a hypocrite is not just messing up. We all do that. Being a hypocrite is acting like you believe something when you don’t. It seems he was sincere in his belief but unfortunately, he wasn’t able to practice what he believed to his standard. Now he understands more than most why adultery is wrong. Again, I don’t see a hypocrite. I see a fallen man who wishes he could take his actions back.
It seems clear this author is just pushing his agenda. As opposed to advising us that we shouldn’t care about his “private” life, I think we should be trying to prevent this type of thing. There is a wife and 4 boys that have been hurt beyond measure and many supporters that are sick with him. This type of thing happens but it shouldn’t. Maybe instead of making jokes about our leaders failures we should be supporting them and praying for them.
I can also assure you this isn’t a private issue only. Of course his main focus is his wife and family but he hurt all in his state as well as county. Marriage is not a private institution. It is done before many witnesses and recognized by the state. It is the greatest promise a person can keep or break. It shows the integrity of a man. It will be a long time before anyone can trust him and it will affect his abilities as governor if he stays in office. This doesn’t even mention the financial cost in a time when we can least afford it.
My last point is that the author seems to think morality is mutually exclusive with liberty (“Where he has been an opponent of liberty for others based on his own moral visions, the charge of hypocrisy should be carefully applied”). I assure you that this is completely false and not what our founding fathers believed. In fact, if our laws aren’t based on morality, what are they based on? Our country was established on Moral Laws given by God. Our freedoms are based on a free will that our Creator gave us. We need to continue to search our real morality in spite of the fact that some will make mistakes. I hope this is the legacy from this event and not the opposite.

Two other moralizers get caught with their pants down. "Respecting traditional marriage" indeed. I'm sure that someone out there is saying that it's all the fault of gay marriage, or the "breakdown of traditional values" or whatever. Don't let that fool you. It's nobody's fault but their own.

So then why can't two committed, loving people of the same gender get married?

He should pay the taxpayers back for the tens of thousands of dollars he's spent on his "travels".

And, as usual, the repubicans attempt to divert attention by citing past dem infidelities, but the list is a LOT longer on the repubic side! Whiners, poor sports, and finger-pointers, crawl back into the dank holes from which you have crawled. You lost, now get over it and stop whining.

And, wait a minute! The federal government was going to help bail-out South Carolina and not California?! This is madness. Everyone knows South Carolina's like Mexico, USA where ignorance and violence abound. Unbelievable. Let's give South Carolina to Mexico.

Al Gore gets into his personal plane because he is wealthy. It didn't cost taxpayer's money like your hypocritical governor's sexual junkets. He is fighting for global climate change and is anything but a hypocrite. I'm so sick of jealous repubicans, aren't you?