Sin vs. Sleaze
Category: Faith... News Commentary...
Posted Thursday, April 22, 2004 at 10:21 PM [GMT-6]

Carol Keeton Rylander Strayhorn, et al, has not only accumulated a plethora of names for herself, but has made a name for the position of State Comptroller of Texas. Quick...how many other state comptrollers can you name? Anyone?

Ms. Strayhorn continues to skirmish with Texas Governor Rick Perry over just about everything. Some think she's setting the stage for her own run at the governor's office in 2006. I think she's perfectly qualified to extend the tradition of Texas' previous female governors, the group of which makes the adjective "colorful" seem woefully inadequate. The short list includes Miriam Amanda Wallace (Ma) Ferguson, the first woman governor of Texas, who once pistol-whipped a senator* over a perceived breach of etiquette, and Dorothy Ann Willis (Pa) Richards, who onced graced the cover of Texas Monthly, astride a Harley and sporting the most massively airbrushed makeover** in the history of the publishing industry. In a word, Ms. Strayhorn is a live wire, and makes Governor Rick look like a cardboard cutout in comparison.

So it was no surprise that she's come out with both barrels blazing in response to Perry's proposal to implement a tax on "sexually-oriented nightclubs" as a way of addressing the state's education finance problems. Interestingly, while she disputes that such a tax will raise the amount of money the Governor claims, her real agenda is nothing short of closing those businesses.

Here's what she says in an article in today's Midland Reporter Telegram:

The article continues...

I'll admit that I may not grasp her intended meaning of that last statement, but my interpretation is that she's pointing out that the governor's proposal lacks an important moral foundation. Her distinction between "sleaze" and "sin" is important and probably too subtle for many lawmakers to comprehend.

One definition of "sleaze" is "tastelessness by virtue of being cheap and vulgar." Compare that to a definition of "sin": "violate a law of God or a moral law" (verb) or "estrangement from God" (noun).

Sleaze is in the eye of the beholder, in other words, while sin is in the eye of God. One has a relative standard; the other is absolute. One is hard to define (but we'll know it when we see it...unless, of course, we decide not to see it) and the other is clearly spelled out in a Book.

Ms. Strayhorn isn't breaking any new ground by saying that we can't legislate morality, because a law hasn't yet been written by the hand of man that can change Man's propensity for doing the wrong thing every chance s/he gets. But it's a step in the right direction...a breath of fresh air...to hear a politician make a distinction between sleaze and sin, even if the motivation is simply political.