In the religious community we live in, is there any denomination of church that allows or believes that breaking the seventh commandment from God is, okay?

For Valentine’s Day I thought I would check out some rom-com movies. I found ‘Rumour Has It’ starring Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine and Mark Ruffalo and I looked forward to a great movie. Reportedly it was supposed to be a spin-off from The Graduate movie which is about an older woman, Mrs Robinson who seduces a young college graduate Ben. What begins as a fun tryst turns complicated when Ben falls for Mrs Robinson’s daughter Elaine. The 1967 movie caused a sensation due to the storyline.

The idea of an older woman seducing a younger man is still hardly ever seen. One of the most famous is the French President Emmanuel Macron, 46, whose wife Brigette is 70 years.

However, acceptance by society for old men with much younger females, 20 years younger, as the norm seemed to have increased. Actor Al Pacino, 83, has a thirty-year old girlfriend and they had a baby last year, is this okay?

In Rumour Has It, Sarah (Aniston) goes to her sister’s wedding where she learns her grandmother (MacLaine) has a real-life tie to The Graduate movie. Nana is ‘Mrs Robinson’ and ‘Ben’ is a millionaire, called Beau (Costner.) She then discovers her mother ran off with Beau for a brief fling before marrying Sarah’s father. Sarah meets Beau to deduce he is not her father. But then, she ends up sleeping with him, making her the third generation to have done so. The act with him makes her realise – as it had with her mother, that she is in love with her fiancé (Ruffalo) so she returns, apologises and they get married. But only after she promises if they have a daughter she is not to be allowed anywhere near Beau. I didn’t find this funny, I found it cringeworthy.

I’m not sure it intended to have a moral to the story, it just didn’t have any morals at all.

When Prime Minister Mark Brown said no one is above the law – presumably he meant of man and the land – but why is it that people believe they are above the law of God?

If they are all consenting adults, does that make it okay? Is it more romantic because it’s Kevin Costner? Is that what makes it okay? What if it was ordinary middle-class Christian people, would that be okay?

In the religious community we live in, is there any denomination of church that allows or believes that breaking the seventh commandment from God is okay?

The ten rules given to Moses by God dictate how humans should live and interact with one another. The first three address faith in God, the last seven for our modern-day living.

• Keep the Lords Day holy. – we do this.
• Honour thy father and thy mother – we should do this more.
• Thou shalt not kill – pretty clear cut.
• Thou shalt not commit adultery – be loyal to the marriage vows. Don’t cheat.
• Thou shalt not steal – respect others possessions and their right to have them.
• Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour – be honest, don’t lie.
• Thou shalt not covet they neighbours goods. – Don’t envy other people’s things, like cars or wives. Envy creates temptation and leads to stealing or cheating.

Too often we see communities who say they are living the word of God but they are quite blatantly breaking some of the cardinal rules as laid down in the commandments.

If a married man of high standing in the land whether it be business, entertainment or politics has ‘liaisons’ with another woman not his wife, is it acceptable? It is certainly commonplace these days but is it acceptable in a Christian society for men to break the law of God and basic laws of morals and ethics?

We in the Cook Islands pride ourselves on our Christian beliefs. I would like to think this is not a community who would allow the seventh commandment of adultery to be taken lightly. Cheating should not be acceptable regardless of who it is, what rank they hold or what family they are related to. 

It seems in politics it is okay for leaders to digress in public. Donald Trump is 77 years old; his current wife Melania is 53 and one of his past mistresses Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film star, is 44 years old. But for the Christian voting public in America, they don’t seem to have a problem with it. 

Could the same be said in the Cook Islands?