Expanding ?moral values?
Other Views by Pat Murphy
By PAT MURPHY
Pat Murphy
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With ?moral values? emerging as the new political glamour phrase--as in, ?It?s ?moral values,? stupid!??remember that ?moral values? has been used by scoundrels among us as a con to cover dark Jekyll-Hyde lives.
Hundreds of Catholic priests publicly championed ?moral values? in their sermons, but in private were slimy molesters debauching helpless children.
Protestants had their own scum. Fire-and-brimstone evangelist Jimmy Swaggart had a yen for prostitutes in cheap motels. Telepreacher Rev. Jim Bakker not only was into adultery, but swindling, too.
?Moral values? had no finer holier-than-thou pretenders than thrice-married adulterer Rep. Newt Gingrich, Fox TV?s closet lecherer Bill O?Reilly, virtues czar-turned-gambling addict Bill Bennett and secret drug addict Rush Limbaugh.
How long before the law of averages unmasks someone among the current ?moral values? champions as a phony?
If President Bush is serious about the importance of ?moral values? in the American character, he should publicly expand its meaning beyond gay marriage, abortion and stem cell research to embrace everyday morals--?of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior,? according to Merriam Webster?s Dictionary definition.
He could enforce public policing of outrageous breeches of behavior in American political life that affect family life far more profoundly.
How about a ?moral values? test of plunging a nation into indefensible and reckless debt that saddles generations yet unborn with repayment? Or, declaring war on false grounds? Or abandoning international standards in the humane treatment of prisoners? Or spreading false fears of terrorism for political benefits during a presidential campaign? Or, repealing protection of the environment as a reward to industry friends?
One wonders whether ?moral values? of gullible, well-meaning religious Americans have been hijacked and exploited for cynical politics.
Americans with a memory for literature will remember novelist Sinclair Lewis? 1927 fictional figure, Elmer Gantry, a drunken huckster who rises to fame as a Bible-thumping, play-acting evangelist seizing on the fears of simple folks.
Just as President Bush, admittedly a once-rowdy, language-mangling, hard-drinking Texas playboy, exploits ?axis of evil,? ?evil-doers? and ?moral values? in his born-again theocratic politics, born-again Gantry railed against sin and extolled godliness to spellbind easily manipulated worshippers at tent revivals.
Has fiction become reality with President Bush?s re-election?
Elmer Gantry?s final words in the last paragraph of the Lewis novel could?ve eerily foretold a 2004 Bush campaign theme.
?Let me count this day, Lord, as the beginning of a new and more vigorous life, as the beginning of a crusade for complete morality and the domination of the Christian church through all the land. Dear Lord, thy work is but begun! We shall yet make these United States a moral nation!?
