Paul Begala has said that the GOP should stop lecturing everybody about sex — because of the hypocrisy recently manifested in the behavior of Sen. Ensign and Gov. Sanford. But this overlooks the important role of hypocrisy in every decent society. As it has been well observed, hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. When virtue is publicly honored, there will be those who do not live up to that standard but who nevertheless want to known as men who live up to it. As long as we have a fallen world, and we honor what we ought to honor — marital fidelity, say — we will have this problem.
It is no solution at all to remove the discrepancy the way the left has done, which is by dropping the honor of virtue. This is what Begala in essence is saying. But it is a good thing that there are still political parties and regions of the country where you can wreck your public life by what you do in private. It was no virtue for Gov. Sanford to head off to Argentina, but it was a cultural virtue that made going to Argentina necessary.
But there is a lesson for randy Republicans in this. Stop trying to save the country without explicit and ongoing dependence on Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is not Lord over all, then Begala is right.