Alabama official uses Bible to condone sexual misconduct

NEW DELHI: A senior state official in

Alabama

used the

Bible

to condone alleged sexual misconduct by a senior

republican

party colleague.

It was widely reported in the media that

Roy Moore

, a former state Supreme Court justice and the Republican nominee for a vacant Senate seat in Alabama, had a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl when he was 32 years old. Multiple women have come forward with allegations that Moore pursued them when they were 18 or younger while he was serving as an assistant district attorney in the state. The age of consent in Alabama is 16.

In the face of massive backlash from both within the GOP and without, the 70-year-old Moore seems to have found an advocate in Alabama state auditor

Jim Ziegler

, who invoked the relationship between Mary and Joseph to defend the former judge's sexual misdemeanours.

"Take the Bible. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus," Ziegler was quoted as saying by the Washington Examiner.

Ziegler contends that the allegations against Moore are unlikely to impact his political run as he never had "sexual intercourse" with the 14-year-old girl in question, their relationship "happened almost 40 years ago", and finally, "Moore fell in love with one of the younger women," namely his wife Kayla.

Taking it a step further, Ziegler called Moore "clean as a hound's tooth" and cited the former judge's long and "wonderful" married life as proof of his good character.

"He dated her. He married her, and they’ve been married about 35 years. They’re blessed with a wonderful marriage and his wife Kayla is 14 years younger than Moore," he said.

This, even as Moore's Republican colleagues have called on him to quit the race if the allegations were true. The

Trump

administration too has distanced itself from the entire controversy.

"Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person's life. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside," said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Moore, an anti-establishment conservative, was twice removed from his state's Supreme Court for judicial misconduct. He faces Democrat Doug Jones in a special Senate election on December 12 to replace

Jeff Sessions

, who is now US attorney general.

(With inputs from Agencies)