I am always amused when the word "scandal" is so easily applied to news stories, as it is now with Benghazi, the IRS targeting conservative groups and the Justice Department accessing phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors.
Here's how Dictionary.com defines "scandal": "A disgraceful or discreditable action ... an offense caused by a fault or misdeed; damage to reputation; public disgrace."
Don't all of these require a standard by which a scandal can be measured? We are rapidly dismantling all standards that apply to just about everything, which itself might be called scandalous. Appeals to that standard when it comes to sex, or marriage, or abortion, or bad language, usually fall on deaf ears in an age when personal comfort and pleasure are supreme.
So why is anything scandalous? Who is to say and according to what standard? Who gets to set that standard? Opinion polls? Culture? You? Me? God? We have largely forgotten God and that is the biggest scandal of all.
I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.
Publication date: May 16, 2013
