I can imagine the pounding I’m going to get for this, but I feel repelled beyond words by this man and his self-serving conflating of his political ambitions with God’s will:
In a written message to supporters Monday, Mark Sanford asserted that God’s plan for him includes finishing his term as South Carolina governor.
Sanford is facing calls for his resignation after disappearing to Argentina then returning last week to admit an affair.
“Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign – as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword,” Sanford wrote in the message, which he posted on his personal website http://www.governorsanford.com and Facebook page, and broadcast via Twitter.
“A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise – that for God to really work in my life I shouldn’t be getting off so lightly. While it would be personally easier to exit stage left, their point has been that my larger sin was the sin of pride.”
Sanford writes that those friends asserted that “if I walked in with a real spirit of humility then this last legislative term could well be our most productive one – and that outside this term, I would ultimately be a better person and of more service in whatever doors God opened next in life if I stuck around to learn lessons rather than running and hiding down at the farm.”
I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I come from such a different religious tradition. I simply cannot imagine asking my friends for advice about what God’s plans are for my life. Neither can I imagine believing that God works on the level of whether I should take this job or that job, or spend the summer at my beach home or double down at the office.
The universe is vast and God, however one conceives of God, is certainly so far beyond what our puny minds can imagine that even if we tried for the rest of our lives, we could not form the concepts or come with the language to describe the millionth part of God’s nature.
But Mark Sanford and his many close friends think God wants him to stick around to make this last legislative term the South Carolina GOP’s most productive ever.
UGH.
PAST CONTRIBUTOR.