NP: The teleological suspension of the ethical

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

          THE NEW REPUBLIC
          Washington Diarist
          by Leon Wieseltier
          Against Integrity

          ...It took only a few days for the saga of Sarah Palin to 
          go from Frank Capra to Preston Sturges to Judd Apatow...

          ...Some commentators have detected moral relativism 
          in the untroubled, even edified conservative response 
          to the obstetric developments in the McCain campaign; 
          but I see something even more sinister. I see the 
          teleological suspension of the ethical. You remember 
          the teleological suspension of the ethical. It is the 
          recognition that, whereas there is morality in religion, 
          religion is not the same as morality, and may justify an 
          exemption from morality. I know of no religion in which 
          this handy power of extenuation is not used. The telos, 
          in the case of Bristol Palin, is life; and a fine telos it is. 
          The casuistry goes something like this: since there are 
          no unwanted babies, there are no unwanted 
          pregnancies. "It can sometimes result in the arrival of 
          new life and a new family," Gerson cheered. For 
          "evangelical Christianity (in most modern forms) is not 
          about the achievement of perfection." If evangelicals are 
          so exquisitely conscious of our creatureliness, why have 
          they devoted so many decades to reviling the 
          imperfections of others? If they are, as Gerson says, 
          "about the acceptance of forgiveness," why do they 
          diabolize difference? The fecundity of Bristol Palin is a 
          windfall for Jesus, but the fecundity of black girls is the 
          doom of the republic...

http://tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=98095efe-b735-456b-a729-cda0285f5269&p=1