What a shame. Don Sherwood, Republican from Pennsylvania, just lost his House seat. Sherwood had an 85% approval rating from James Dobson’s Family Action—only falling short of the 100% rating because he failed to co-sponsor the Marriage Protection amendment, though he supported it.

The scorecard rates members of Congress on how they voted on “Pro-Family Issues”. The issues are ones you might guess: abortion, pledge of allegiance, stem cell research, and the federal Marriage Protection Amendment. Depending on how a member of congress voted on 7 pieces of legislation related to these issues, they received anywhere from a 0-100% rating as a pro-family member of congress. According to the introductory letter to the Vote Scorecard, “This scorecard shows how your elected officials voted on some of the critical issues involving the family. It is important to remember, however, that the votes you see here are only a few of the hundreds of votes cast by Members of Congress in 2006. We have singled out for inclusion the most clear-cut, pro-family votes that came before Congress.”

Problem is Congressman Sherwood admitted cheating on his wife, and in 2004, his mistress, Cynthia Ore, called 911 accusing the congressman of choking and hitting her. The congressman denies having abused his mistress. He did, however, settle out of court a civil case that Ms. Ore brought against him for an undisclosed amount of money.

Silly me, I thought fidelity and faithfulness in our marriage relationships were also family values. And having your new mistress allege that you beat her up isn’t the best endorsement either. But James Dobson’s Focus on the Family Action isn’t too worried about little things like that; they have political power to hold on to. What was Jesus’ biggest problem with religious leaders—hypocrisy was it? I guess he just didn’t understand the necessities of pro-family politics.