Here we go again

The recent revelation of Focus on the Family radio host Mike Trout's marital infidelity has pundits pelting conservatives—and Christianity—again. Have two decades of clay-footed "celebrity conservatives" shattered the credibility of the "family values" movement? And can tough-minded actions restore some of it? | Lynn Vincent

Bill Maher, talk-television's answer to Nero, recently fed another Christian to his panelist-lions. On Oct. 24, an aging Boy George, minor starlet Karen Duffy, and others batted the Mike Trout story around the studio-coliseum on Mr. Maher's late-night show Politically Incorrect. Mr. Trout, longtime co-host of Focus on the Family's flagship radio broadcast, last month resigned from the Colorado Springs-based ministry. A few days later he admitted to an "inappropriate relationship" with a woman not his wife.

"How come so many of these people who are supposedly the 'family people' get caught?" Mr. Maher carped as a knowing titter rippled through the studio audience. "I mean, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Henry Hyde, Strom Thurmond ... they get caught. Why? Why?"