The Washington Post reported this morning the death of former U.S. Rep. Donald “Buz” Lukens from Ohio.\u00a0 You probably don’t remember him.<\/p>\n
But back in the late 80s, he was convicted of paying a 16-year-old girl to have sex with him.<\/p>\n
First elected in 1967, Lukens was a conservative’s conservative, a staunch supporter of Barry Goldwater and an ally of Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n
His career, along with the recent downfall of Indiana Rep. Mark Souder, serve as bookmarks to the fundamentalist right and its thorny entanglements with the sexual revolution.<\/p>\n
Souder confessed to having an affair with a female staff aide — a woman with whom he made a video encouraging abstinence.\u00a0 He resigned earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Obviously, liberals and moderates have their sex scandals, too.\u00a0 Bill Clinton and Eliot Spitzer both saw their careers crippled by dalliances.<\/p>\n
But conservatives have placed the politics of human sexuality squarely at the center of their agenda.<\/p>\n
They have advocated for a “traditional” definition of marriage, opposed expanding marriage and other rights to benefit gays and lesbians, and sought to limit access to legal abortions.<\/p>\n
Critics insist that all this amounts to simple hypocrisy.\u00a0 From Mark Sanford to Larry Craig to Ted Haggard, conservative activists and lawmakers proclaim the true path while living in the shadows.<\/p>\n
But this goes beyond hypocrisy.\u00a0 The right has long acknowledged that humans are fallible, flawed — and in the eyes of many Christians, fallen.<\/p>\n
The real sin in their eyes isn’t the transgression.<\/p>\n
The real sin is arguing that the old system of morality doesn’t make sense any more, that those rules no longer fit with the way that we live our lives.<\/p>\n
Under the new rules — espoused, according to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, by ‘gay and secular fascists’ — men and women can marry who they want, regardless of gender.<\/p>\n
They can make a wide range of choices about their sexuality; and yes, when an accidental or unwanted pregnancy results, they can abort the fetus.<\/p>\n
Marriage, under the new paradigm, isn’t a sacred bond.\u00a0 It is a flexible contract, a product of the fickle human heart, and often ends in divorce or dissolution.<\/p>\n
Often, according to this modernist view, sin itself isn’t sin.\u00a0 It’s a lifestyle choice.\u00a0 Or genetics.\u00a0 Or even love.<\/p>\n