Why the left misjudges GOP sex scandals

The left marveled at the political sleight of hand that turned teen pregnancy from a social scourge into a family-values virtue. But as America's most famous evangelical pastor, Rick Warren, has written: "The church is a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints." Evangelicals forgive their fallen politicians when they show repentance and do right; when they keep the baby, when they marry the father or mother, when they repair the broken marriage.

What we are witnessing is the culmination of "the personal is political," a philosophy pioneered by the left and perfected by the right. The stumbling block for liberals is their unfamiliarity with the "personal" of the Christian right.

Where the left sees hypocrisy, the evangelical right sees a millenniums-old story of fallen humanity and healing redemption. With a politically active religious right, that story matters not just in terms of theology but of practical politics.

Mr. Vitter, the staunch social conservative Republican senator from Louisiana who also frequented a Washington, D.C., madam, has already raised more than $2 million for his 2010 reelection bid. When Vitter's scandal broke, he declared he'd "received forgiveness from God and my wife."

It appears he has the forgiveness of deep-red Louisianians also. Polls indicate Vitter remains highly popular in the state, and most observers believe he'll win the 2010 race.

There's a lesson in Vitter's story for Sanford: Confess, repent, repair. Some of this is out of Sanford's hands, of course. His wife has said his political future was the least of her concerns. Her priority, she declared, was the restoration of her family.

If Sanford's marriage remains intact, he can emerge as yet another flawed – not hypocritical – sweetheart of religious conservatives.

For the left, the redemption of Vitter holds lessons as well.

First: Don't count Sanford out. Though the South Carolina Republican Party just voted to censure him for disappearing, the party did not call for his resignation. If Christian conservatives grant Sanford political redemption, the rest of the Republican Party will as well, and the governor could be a contender in 2012 or 2016.

And second: Understanding the role of redemption for the religious right isn't just a matter of getting the theology right. It is the only way for the left to realistically read the political landscape. Because for evangelical conservatives, the point isn't the fall. It's how the politician gets back up.

Nicole Hemmer is a former fellow at the Miller Center of Public Affairs and is writing a history of conservative media. Neil J. Young is a lecturer in history at Princeton University. He is writing a book on the origins of the religious right.

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