Adultery matters

By Bernard Rowan

This week, South Korea made world headlines. The nation's Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional a 62 year-old law criminalizing adultery. The 6-2 majority decision is important for what it said. What it didn't say counts too.

The court took notice of concerns about the law's interference with freedom and privacy rights. Many noted the disproportionate application of the law against women. The law hadn't seen that many cases in recent years.

From what I've learned, the anti-adultery law should have supported women who had fewer legal protections against cheating male spouses. However, the precedents weren't fair to women. They made the law look like modern neo-Confucianism.

In recent days, the law was abused. Jilted husbands of famous women used it to humiliate their wives and gain money. I don't know if that is a good reason to axe the law. Shouldn't the law apply to women as well as men?

Meanwhile, available data continues to reveal that many husbands and wives cheat on each other. So the law didn't work to stop adultery. Have laws against rape and murder stopped those evils?

The court didn't say that adultery is okay or marital infidelity is a good idea. The judges just don't think adulterous behavior is criminal in itself. This follows the cultures of many other advanced and democratic nations that treat adultery as a reason for divorce and related judgments about marriage. But they don't treat adultery as a crime.

Women's groups greeted the decision positively as did proponents of civil liberties and individual freedom. Conservative groups and conservative media criticized the court's action.

Let's overlay this decision with the picture of marriage and family as institutions in South Korea today. South Korea has a high divorce rate. We know that besides women and men delaying marriage, they have fewer children. More women divorce at a later age. More elderly people live alone and are disconnected from their children and grandchildren. South Korean families are a lot like their American and European counterparts in these respects.

The practice of adultery didn't create these conditions ― not alone. However, I see nothing in this decision that will improve society. It won't reverse the trend of Korea to a more individualistic, egoistic and subjectivist society in their bad senses. It won't discourage adultery.

Adultery acts as a cancer to faithful marriages. It teaches young and old alike that lying, bearing false witness and stealing are okay. Adultery involves all of these vicious behaviors.

Loveless marriages also are a cancer for faith and trust. Many men and women marry for the wrong reasons. Too few value the educative meaning of marriage as an institution. Lack of commitment to one person as a friend for life corrupts love. Separating love and sexuality does so as well.

The sexual and personal behavior of married people is not simply a private and individual matter. Duties arise between the married couple and toward any children or immediate family members in the couple's household. Adultery also violates the duties, promises and harmony of unmarried partners with stable and long-term ties.

Not all duties invoke legal notice or criminal sanction. Beware the tendency to say ''not illegal" means acceptable if you like it. Not every tolerated behavior is worthy of imitation. Adultery is immoral and unethical.

The ruling makes sense from the perspective of the majority. I don't think the law lessened acts of infidelity or divorce. But the ruling doesn't say that adultery is good or okay. Tolerating adultery as non-criminal doesn't mean we should accept it. Freedom and privacy do not guarantee good, virtuous or healthy behavior.

What do you say? Does this ruling make it more likely that selfish men and women will look at adultery as acceptable? Does it encourage a society of sex and love as commodities?

Too few commentators adduce the role of Confucianism and family as a central virtue of Korean society past and present in discussing this case. Too many settle for naming the law outdated. They see it as misogynist; it should no longer govern us.

I wanted the Court to point out overturning this law doesn't sanction adultery. We should affirm it as grounds for divorce. Loving relations promote personal development, preserve harmony and avoid scapegoating. Avoidance of adultery and the positive cultivation of love in an advanced Confucian society go together. Conjugal relations and friendships should encourage honest and transparent personal and social relations. Adultery matters. We should continue to reject it ― freely and in our private lives.

Bernard Rowan is assistant provost for curriculum and assessment, professor of political science and faculty athletics representative at Chicago State University, where he has served for 21 years. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com.

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