So much for family values. Remember Holly Fisher, the tea party star who found internet fame after several of her photos went viral?
There was the photo of her posed, gun in one hand, Bible in the other, in front of a flag (because "Who would Jesus Kill?") -- the photo that gained even more fame after it was juxtaposed beside an image of terrorist Sherafiyah Lewthwaite, in a strikingly similar pose. There was the photo of her at Hobby Lobby, wearing a "pro-life" t-shirt, to celebrate the Hobby Lobby SCOTUS ruling that allows companies to limit women's reproductive care options. And a slew of others to go along.
Eventually, this internet fame translated into real fame, and Holly's star seemed to be rising within conservative circles. And then the rumors started that this family values, god-and-guns-Merica-loving icon had actually been cheating on her military vet husband. With, of all people, another member of the patriotic, family-values crowd: Joel Frewa of Tea Party News Network.
Now, Frewa has stepped down from his post in TPNN, and Holly has issued a public statement on her
Facebook page that details what she describes as "a loss of faith", leading to the affair.
I’ve been married since I was barely 20, most of that marriage was in the army life. With deployment, kids, career changes, etc. we’ve had our ups and downs, like most couples. In the overwhelming mess of the political spotlight and trying to find myself and where I belong, I actually completely lost myself. I lost my faith in my marriage, I lost my faith in this life that not only I’ve chosen for myself, but a life that I promote. Happy military wife with kids and church and happy, happy, happy. False. My life crumbled. My marriage crumbled. I lost my faith in God. I didn’t know where I was going to go next or what I was going to do. For a very short period in the middle of that, I actually believed my marriage was over and found someone else.
Day after day, actually week after week, throughout the late fall, I found myself just trying to figure out what I needed to do to make myself happy and to get my life back on track. (emphasis added)
Now, to be fair, I don't care who Fisher sleeps with; it's her business. The only person who really has a right to be pissed at her is her husband, and
he is standing by her. But the hypocrisy is pretty colossal, coming from a woman who has been so very vocal in trying to push her brand of morality, who has crowed loudly over the loss of women's rights because she sees those rights as contrary to her beliefs...and yet who acts in a fashion that is completely at odds with that moral code that she wants to foist on the rest of us.
But, really, it seems that in the conservative world, conservatives are the only ones who don't actually have to live up to conservative values. When they fail to live up to them -- that is, when someone
catches them failing to live up to them (as happened here -- Fisher was at first pretty adamant in her denials) -- well, Jesus stepped in and saved them, it's in the past and they're forgiven. For everyone else, of course, it's damnation and hellfire.
In the end, Fisher and Frewa are just the latest in an ever-increasing list of "family values" hypocrites, who piously push an ideology that they themselves are loath to commit to.
Originally posted at Rachel's Hobbit Hole.
Tue Jan 20, 2015 at 7:46 AM PT: Note: it looks like the woman across from Fisher in the meme above is Reem Saleh Al-Riyashi, and not Sherafiyah Lewthwaite. I've found quite a few references to both names in use with the image, but it seems she is actually Al-Riyashi. Thanks to those who alerted me to the error!
Tue Jan 20, 2015 at 7:46 AM PT: Note: it looks like the woman across from Fisher in the meme above is Reem Saleh Al-Riyashi, and not Sherafiyah Lewthwaite. I've found quite a few references to both names in use with the image, but it seems she is actually Al-Riyashi. Thanks to those who alerted me to the error!