{"id":49140,"date":"2002-06-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-06-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/book-makes-adultery-polite\/"},"modified":"2002-06-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2002-06-03T00:00:00","slug":"book-makes-adultery-polite","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/book-makes-adultery-polite\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Makes Adultery Polite"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Judith E. Brandt has written a book called <em class=\"citation\">The 50-Mile Rule: Your Guide to Infidelity and Extramarital Etiquette.<\/em> Here is an excerpt of an interview Brandt did with the Chicago Tribune:<\/p>\n\n<p>Q: You work for a humor magazine. Is your book some sort of wicked satire?<\/p>\n\n<p>A: No. This is not a <em class=\"citation\">National Lampoon<\/em> take on adultery. This is serious information presented in a fun way. There are no books out there on this subject in a format that is not judgmental. I want to help people make smart decisions before they make that step.<\/p>\n\n<p>Q: What about the ethics and morality of extramarital affairs?<\/p>\n\n<p>A: There is a simple answer. Affairs are immoral and wrong. But the reality is that people are having them anyway. So you have to meet people where they are. For a lot of people, morality doesn&#39;t end up in it. So if people are doing it anyway, you have to try to mitigate the hard edges.<\/p>\n\n<p>Q: You say [in your book], don&#39;t feel guilty. That doesn&#39;t seem realistic.<\/p>\n\n<p>A: Guilt is basically something built into society to keep you in line. If you are going about your business in a discreet way and you are continuing to take care of your wife and, most importantly, your children, there is no reason to feel guilt.<\/p>\n\n<p>Q: Say a friend said they were considering getting involved in an extramarital affair and asked for your advice. What would you tell them?<\/p>\n\n<p>A: The advice I would give is that it is based on your needs. People enter into [affairs] for many reasons. It&#39;s not always just sex. There are emotional needs. As far as I&#39;m concerned, affairs can serve some short-term tactical needs in a long-term relationship strategy.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3386,3677,3743,3942,3988,4222,4242,4411,4425,4491,4955,4958,4977],"tax_ctp_topics":[390,396],"class_list":["post-49140","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-adultery","tax_ctp_tags-consequences-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-deceit","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness","tax_ctp_tags-fidelity","tax_ctp_tags-immorality","tax_ctp_tags-infidelity","tax_ctp_tags-lying","tax_ctp_tags-marriage","tax_ctp_tags-morality","tax_ctp_tags-sex","tax_ctp_tags-sexual-immorality","tax_ctp_tags-sin"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Book Makes Adultery Polite - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/book-makes-adultery-polite\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Makes Adultery Polite - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Judith E. Brandt has written a book called The 50-Mile Rule: Your Guide to Infidelity and Extramarital Etiquette. Here is an excerpt of an interview Brandt did with the Chicago Tribune: Q: You work for a humor magazine. Is your book some sort of wicked satire? A: No. This is not a National Lampoon take Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/book-makes-adultery-polite\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/book-makes-adultery-polite\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/book-makes-adultery-polite\/\",\"name\":\"Book Makes Adultery Polite - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2002-06-03T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2002-06-03T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/book-makes-adultery-polite\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/book-makes-adultery-polite\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/book-makes-adultery-polite\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book Makes Adultery Polite\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Book Makes Adultery Polite - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/book-makes-adultery-polite\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book Makes Adultery Polite - CT Pastors","og_description":"Judith E. 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