In an interview with a local Indiana newspaper, former congressman Mark Souder said he’s actually gratified that the pro-abstinence video he filmed with girlfriend and staffer Tracy Jackson is what now defines him in the national media and on late-night comedy shows.
“If some people see this abstinence video, I’m living proof of what we’re saying in it. If they actually listen to the words, maybe it’s worth it,” Souder told the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. The longtime family values Republican added: “You’ll go crazy if you don’t have some sense of irony.”
The video, first uncovered by TPMmuckraker last week after the news of the affair broke, features Souder and Jackson discussing the importance of abstinence-only education. Jackson notes that “you had your staff conduct a report entitled ‘Abstinence and its Critics’ which discredits many claims purveyed by those who oppose abstinence education.”
More from the Journal Gazette:
He said he didn’t scramble to have the video removed from his congressional website because “everything I said in the video is true.”
“I’ve even acknowledged that it’s difficult,” he said of sex outside of marriage. “I said this in my (resignation) statement, but I passionately feel it: The ideas aren’t proven right or wrong whether an individual fails. The whole Old Testament, from an evangelical perspective, is to show that man can’t be perfect. And the whole point of the New Testament is to show that Christ sacrifices for it.
Here, again, is the video:
