Article August 31, 1998 Issue

Cheating while away from home? Or traveling with moral dignity?

Morality: don't leave home without it.

By Kevin G. Graunke

"Being on the road is like being in a parallel universe where adultery doesn't break the rules." (Interview in The New York Times Magazine, March 8, 1998.)

Recently I read an article on the behavior of businessmen who travel a great deal. The article was based on what the writer described as "an informal survey." Yet, as I read the piece I felt there were some fundamental mistakes. They weren't necessarily in what was learned from interviewing the businessmen. The mistakes I'm referring to are deeper. They have to do with what I understand to be the actual nature of man.

For example, the men in the article felt that extramarital cheating on company business trips could be justified by the apparent anonymity that came with their distance from home, the "parallel universe" where the morning after held no regrets. Their viewpoint represented man as nothing but a fleshly creature with physical urges to be satisfied. There's another view, however. A vital one to keep in mind if one wants to know how to solve the ethical and moral problems facing the business community and society. It's the inspired view of man as the image and likeness of God, entirely spiritual, the reflection of his Maker.

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