Greitens Admits Affair - Will Evangelicals Still Support Him?

January 2018 - Governor Eric Greitens (R - Mo.), another conservative who courted the evangelical Christian vote when running for office, has admitted to having cheated on his wife. The relatively short-lived affair began in early 2015, just prior to Greitens announcing his candidacy for Governor.

Condemnation was swift from both sides of the aisle in Missouri, ranging from requests for more information, to statements that the Governor "should do the right thing" to, more recently, outright calls for the Governor to resign. So far we have seen no comments from the White House, though, where Donald Trump is quick with a tweet when he is angry at someone or when he feels it will help him politically, but who seems to prefer laying low when the issue is a Republican sex scandal.

(Greitens image from AP)

Governor Greitens, a former Navy SEAL and political neophyte, has had an acrimonious relationship with the GOP lawmakers who control the state legislature and may not find too many members of that body willing to come to his defense. Particularly if the rumors of possible blackmail prove to be true. These stories suggest that the Governor had taken candid photographs of his adulterous partner and threatened to release the photos if she went public with their affair. Mr. Greitens denies this rumor, although St. Louis area law enforcement is following up on the story.

Let's hope Mr. Greitens does do the right thing but, more importantly, let's hope the conservative evangelicals who supported him start doing the right thing. For years now, most evangelicals have been putting their politics ahead of their faith and looking the other way when their preferred candidates behave immorally or unethically. Let's hope they stop supporting blatant sinners and start condemning all sinners, regardless of their politics, whether those sinners are Roy Moore, Newt Gingrich, Eric Greitens, … or Donald Trump.

UPDATE: May 2018 - Since our original article, Governor Greitens has been indicted on a felony charge of invasion of privacy related to the photographs the Governor allegedly took of his adulterous partner. That trial is expected to start in mid-May.

In addition, questions have been raised over Mr. Greitens' handling of a donor list belonging to the veterans charity he founded in 2007. Missouri's Republican Attorney General, Josh Hawley, has gone so far as to accuse the Governor of criminal wrongdoing in using that internal donor list as a means of raising money for his 2016 gubernatorial campaign. (Mr. Hawley, who also is one of the Republican candidates hoping to challenge Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill this fall, turned over his evidence to the same prosecutor who is handling the Governor's invasion of privacy trial.)

As if all of this were not bad enough for Mr. Greitens, the state legislature has convened a bi-partisan investigative panel to look into the possibility of impeachment, an action that we are told has never been taken against a Missouri Governor.

(Missouri House Chamber - image from themissouritimes.com)

And what of the public's reaction to these goings-on? While Mr. Greitens popularity continues to fall, polling as of early May indicates that a majority of Republicans still are ok with him, as are most evangelicals. Typical of those in the latter group is that of evangelical pastor Brandon Park of Raytown, Missouri, who says he supports Mr. Greitens' anti-abortion positions and believes evangelicals respect the Governor for his policies.

Our reaction? So much for family values on the Republican side. Apparently, as long as you work to outlaw abortion (and aren't a Democrat), those folks will let you get away with just about anything these days.