Is committing adultery in the name of true love spiritually justifiable or morally (and biblically) wrong?
Like my fellow blogger, Esther Kustanowitz, I gave the Monday night show “New Amsterdam” a chance (Thanks, writer’s strike!) and was taken away by the cast, the storylines, and the flashbacks (the strength of the show). But (yes, there’s always a ‘but’), I found myself surprised and angry at last week’s episode when John Amsterdam beds a married woman, Sarah Dillane, simply because he believes she is “the one” who will allow him to (finally) become mortal.
While most shows make sure to keep the romance alive by making two characters unavailable for at least one season (think “Alias,” “Smallville,” “Ugly Betty,” “The Office,” “Bones”), “New Amsterdam” had John discover his (supposed) soulmate’s marriage in one episode and then had him kissing her/sleeping with her in the next. As John falls into bed with Sarah, who is estranged–not divorced–from her husband, he says, “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.” If he’s waited over 400 years, what’s wrong with waiting just a few more years until Sarah is officially divorced from her husband?
Maybe I’m old fashioned or maybe the recent Spitzer and Paterson revelations are still fresh in my mind, but I cringed for all spouses whose marriages have been destroyed by affairs when I watched the episode romanticize adultery.

Although John was spurred on to chase Sarah after being given a carpe diem lesson, the problem in John seizing the day with Sarah is he barely knew her enough to love her. He assumed he was meant to love her because he had a random heart attack near her. This was enough to convince him Sarah was the one to complete his soul.
Perhaps I’m so used to foreplay on television that I assumed John would just find other (more clever) ways to chase after Sarah. From what the show has revealed so far, John seems to be a loyal, trustworthy, and moral person so I assumed he would follow the moral and biblical laws of not committing adultery. In having John and Sarah sleep together so soon, the series indicates they aren’t really soulmates but lustmates. Also, a show that bases its premise on a timeless romantic idea that “the one” is worth waiting for risks diluting and reversing its message by having the main character be so careless with his libido.