Thursday, January 19, 2012

A bit embarrassing (OK, very embarrassing)

The anti-fornication, anti-abortion wife of Rick Santorum lived very differently in her 20s.

I know very little about Rick Santorum, so was this already known in the States? In any event, I was surprised to read about the very less than ideal Catholic life his wife led in her 20's.

3 comments:

Mercurius Aulicus said...

I originally was going to comment on the vitally important typography post but you have apparently removed it - so I'll comment on this instead.

I don't think that there is anything embarassing at all in a former libertine getting religion later in life and repudiating her former lifestyle. In fact it is a cliche. Only a liberal magazine like the Slate would see it as a shocking inconsistency. If you know that you weren't happy leading a liberated single life but you were happy being married - then why wouldn't you say so.

Steve said...

MCB, I realized the typography post was from a article that was a year old, and then I also got the vague feeling that maybe I had briefly mentioned it back then. As this blog prides itself on currency and relevance, if nothing else, (such as my recent concern about Augustine and his use of Latin translations illustrate) I deleted it first, and intended checking Iftar I wasn't repeating myself, but forgot.

As for the Santorum issue. It is good that people change their mind and behaviour. But if they become prominent in suggesting to other people, particularly the young, that their current views are now the right ones, they had better be upfront about the fact they used to think and live differently; otherwise the disclosure of the past by others is indeed embarrassing, regardless of what God or the angels think about it.

Of course, one needs be pragmatic about this. I am not suggesting that every parent need confess every sin to their teenage child. That would itself be a bad example for the child who is already inclined to experiment. But, say, an argument with a teenage daughter that it really would be bad idea for her to shack up with her boyfriend is not enhanced by her finding out for herself that her mother did the same for nearly all of her 20's.

As for the wife of a politician who is very prominently against abortion, and is interviewed in her own right on the subject; well, unless she had mentioned before that she had lived with an abortionist for most of her 20's and didn't have a problem with it then; that's embarrassing.

Perhaps Mrs S just never had the opportunity to defuse this before, but I doubt it.

Anonymous said...

Good work Steve. A little digging around in the underwear drawer of a politician's wife. Right up your alley yet you would defend that lying slapper and home wrecker while she defends the brothel creeper. You are truly a hypocrite and a grub.