Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele has reportedly authorized spending RNC donor dollars — $1,946.25 according to Federal Elections Commission reports –at a Hollywood club where women simulate sex acts. (The expenses were logged not by Steele but a marketing exec named Erik Brown.) The FEC filings also show sizeable, arguably self-indulgent, spending on travel and entertainment at the RNC overall… criticism coming, at first, from conservative Tucker Carlson.

Steele is a former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, and also a former Catholic monk. I mention this last part because religion has been so often inserted into politics, and as Lieutenant Governor Steele has advocated for churches and other religious institutions playing a role in government. I interviewed him in 2005 and he said:

Lt. Gov. STEELE: I’ve been stressing sort of the faith-based component of education where churches and non-profit organizations that are already beginning to recognize that, you know, we can play a role in shaping an environment of learning for kids. We’re encouraging them to do that, and how can we, as state, step in and assist them in a legitimate way that doesn’t cross any constitutional bounds, etc., but in a legitimate way that empowers them to further that child’s education?

At other points he’s elaborated on the role he thinks faith should play. As he said at two key speeches on faith in September 2008: “I cannot separate my faith from public policy. I cannot separate my faith from my public obligations.” He goes on to say he must stay “grounded in the principles of my faith, the Roman Catholic Church.”

(You can view video of those speeches here.)

In using RNC funds as he did, Michael Steele not only did poorly by his Party members, but also, I would argue, by his fellow members of the Catholic Church, who need now more than ever to be a part of a community that will chart a new path of responsibility for the Church. All religious institutions should put their flock first. When the Church asks parishioners in Ireland to pay for priestly abuse that the Church covered up, that demonstrates at best a lack of judgement, at worst a steely selfishness about the fiscal resources the church controls, and the minds and souls it shapes. The way sexual abuse scandals have been handled in the U.S. and abroad shows a profound lack of responsibility and compassion for the flock. There is the issue of fiscal responsibility; and then there is the question of sex and doctrine. Many consensual sexual acts (including heterosexual intercourse among unmarried people; intercourse protected by condoms; and same-sex intercourse) are forbidden under church doctrine. I would hardly be the first question whether the focus on forbidding consensual sex helped produce an environment of shame where covering up non-consensual sex… pedophilia at that… seemed like an option.

I grew up in the Catholic Church, and while I am no longer a member, I support the many parishioners of the Catholic Church and recognize the power of its form of worship. I hope the Church becomes a healthier place. Michael Steele has been lauded by many Catholic groups; he has not, to my knowledge, asked for greater accountability from the Church on the issues surrounding abuse claims. And now, by spending money at a sex-themed club while advocating for greater government restriction on, among other things, reproductive choice, he seems determined to spit on his own moral high ground.

In essence, by cross-marketing his religious and political identities, Michael Steele was hoping to lend strength to both. Instead, I worry that his actions betray a lack of responsibility for the people whose money he is spending, and the people who have invested leadership upon him.

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(As a postscript, Steele authored an article for Politico in May 2009 and said:

Republicans will not make our opposition to the president personal. Republicans will challenge policies of the president that we believe are wrong, but our opposition will be done in very sharp contrast to the classless way that the Democrats and the far left spoke of President Bush

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