Minister a cultural, not a moral failure

After an extramarital affair came to light, the Czech human rights minister Michael Kocáb has offered his resignation without seeking to publicly justify his actions. For the left-leaning daily Právo this is precisely the wrong thing to do: "The minister is a Protestant and guided by his Church's moral code. A Catholic would quip that Kocáb doesn't have a balanced attitude to sin. The minister made a surprise public announcement on how long he has lived with his wife already without having intimate relations with her. But of what interest, if you please, is that to the public? Similarly the fact that his spokeswoman is now his girlfriend is of no import whatsoever. ... Kocáb has not failed morally, but politically and culturally. Giving the public access to his intimate private life only takes us further in the direction of the un-European double moral standards typical of the United States."

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