The Prevalence of Martha Stewart Morality

I like Martha Stewart. Just from an outsider's perspective, she is attractive and seems nice. She is also, obviously, quite the talented entrepreneur, author, and television personality. Of course, she is not without her flaws. In 2004 she was convicted of insider trading of stocks and served five months in federal prison.

Recently, she did a documentary for Netflix called “Martha.” In the documentary, she made several interesting revelations.

One thing she shared was an incident that happened while she and her former husband, Andrew, were on their honeymoon. They were in Florence, Italy, and she decided to visit the famed Duomo Florence Cathedral. Since Andrew wasn’t interested, she went by herself. By her own words, “Listening to that amazing music in the cathedral ... it was a very romantic place, crowded with tourists, and I met this very handsome guy. He didn’t know I was married. I was this waif of a girl hanging out in the cathedral on Easter Eve. He was emotional. I was emotional. It’s just because it was an emotional place. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced.” She went on to share that she and that stranger shared a kiss together. When asked to reflect on how she felt about doing that, she answered, “It was neither naughty or unfaithful. It was just emotional of the moment. ... I wish we could all experience such an evening.”

Later in the interview, she accused her husband of being unfaithful on numerous occasions. When the interviewer followed that up, he asked Martha if she had also been unfaithful early in their marriage. And her answer? “Yeah, but I don’t think Andy ever knew about that.”

But the story continues. Apparently Andy did know about it and indicated that he never strayed from their marriage until she did. To that she replied, “(I) had a very brief affair with a very attractive Irishman, but it was nothing. It was nothing. In terms of — it would never have broken up a marriage. I would never have broken up a marriage for it. Nothing. It was like the kiss in the cathedral.”

Stewart grew up Roman Catholic, but has obviously did not carry that faith into her adult life. Typically, she strictly avoids the topic of faith altogether. It is, perhaps, understandable why she might do that. She makes tons of money selling her happy Christmas tips to her fans. Stephen Colbert, himself a devout Catholic, did bring up the topic with her once and she said she “used to be a Catholic.”

 

 

These days, it is difficult to find anything that refers to Stewart’s religious beliefs. Regardless, it is pretty evident that the Christian faith and Christian values do not guide her life. She is pretty much 100% into a secular lifestyle with relativistic values guiding her morality. She is, obviously, a product of modern American society.

In our day, Naturalism (the belief that the natural universe, operating by natural laws, is all that exists) dominates every institution of society. That atheistic influence can be seen everywhere. It is the basis for morality in every part of modern society – media, education, arts and entertainment, government, business, and sadly, has even come to have a strong influence in the church and the family. The way Martha Stewart thinks about being unfaithful in her marriage is a perfect example of this.

It is at this point that it is important to take a very close look at the implications of a biblical worldview when it comes to making moral decisions. Obviously, the naturalistic worldview belief about morality has no objective foundation a person can call upon. People have to make up their own morality, and that is exactly what they do. Stewart did this in supposing that her affair was “nothing.”

When it comes to a biblical worldview, though, we have to be really careful. The Bible is quite clear that adultery is morally wrong. That is not even debatable. That said, a Christian’s perspective about how to consider the moral actions we take is quite important. There are those who simply say “the Bible says it is wrong so we shouldn’t do it.”

And it is certainly true that we shouldn’t commit adultery because it is deemed a sin in the Bible. However, we don’t abstain simply because it is written in the Bible. If that is our only motivation, we have moved into a works based view of salvation. Rather, we abstain from adultery because we love God more than anything else, and He has revealed that it violates his very purpose for the family. Our motivation is our loving relationship with God, rather than simply because it is written in a book.

For some, this may seem like a distinction without a distinction. And that may be true for those whose motivation truly is love for God above anything else. Because we love God, we deeply want to follow His revelation about morality. However, it is very possible to “follow the rules” in the Bible without there even being a personal relationship with Him. In the end, our motivation is everything. Rule following outside of that relationship is meaningless.

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Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books entitled The Truth Mirage, Rules for Christians Radicals, Liberalism vs. Conservatism, and his latest book Shattering the Truth Mirage and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication, and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.

You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.

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