July 19, 2007
The Vitter Effect
by Susannah Meadows
Newsweek
By now, Washington has grown accustomed to its sex scandals. In the capital, obsessed with Iraq and the coming presidential election, the news that Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter's phone number had turned up in possession of a D.C. escort service created a relatively modest stir. The press dutifully pointed out Vitter's hypocrisy; a devout Christian who has been an outspoken moralist, he was a vocal crusader for President Clinton's impeachment during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, accusing Clinton of draining "any sense of values left in our political culture." Vitter swiftly copped to the transgression via an e-mail to the AP. After rumors of other dalliances began cropping up in the New Orleans papers (he denied them), Vitter grimly took to the microphone, his embattled wife by his side, and, in an all-too-familiar D.C. ritual, apologies for letting his wife, friends and supporters down, then told the world he was pressing on with the people's business.
In political circles, the story felt a little like a rote script in a bad sitcom. But in the evangelical world, Vitter's fall from grace is a different matter. NEWSWEEK's Susannah Meadows spoke with Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and a practicing evangelical himself, about how the news was received in the Christian community, and the toll such incidents take on the movement. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: As an evangelical, what is it like for you when yet another story breaks about a self-righteous, "family values" Christian caught cheating on his wife with another woman or man?
Michael Cromartie: What one has to understand is that classic Christianity believes that people are fallen and desperately need a redeemer. If they're authentic Christians, they understand that but for the grace of God, they too could fall. Evangelicalism likes to pride itself on being magnanimous and forgiving. It ought to be the case that evangelicals, while not condoning such behavior, are not surprised by such sinful behavior. I'm not surprised by vice. I'm surprised by virtue.
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