“But if she wanted him to send it and asked for it, then what? Does this mean that people in public leadership positions are precluded from certain kinds of consensual sexual activities?”
He’s free to make whatever choices he wants to. He’s not free to expect his decisions to be devoid of consequences, nor is he free from the expectation that others will evaluate his judgment and values based on the choices he makes.
I can agree with this in theory.
But who among us would want or expect our private fantasies to be broadcast for the world to judge?
Nobody argues that. But you have side stepped the question of what the consequences the rest of us ought to impose on him is. That we are free to vote or not vote based on his behavior is indeed a given. But then, should we vote or not vote based on his behavior? If we are his boss, we may be free to decide to fire him or not over such a thing...but in this case which of the options is the right one to do?
The deeper problem is equivocating between God given rights and right and wrong. God bestows many rights to choose things on us, but that does not mean that every exercise of those rights is a morally good thing to do.
Now to consider what the consequences ought to be for him, I am happily not a voter who has to decide, but approach it as an intellectual exercise. Practice for times I have the duty to decide. And my opinion on the matter is that I need more information. Provided he was sending it to a woman who wanted it, and provided he was really estranged from his wife such that his marriage at the time was more legal fiction than a covenant that was in force...then I would say what he did was certainly sinful, but of the run of the mill kind that I do not think should have public consequences. The person I would take a low view of was somebody who betrayed him by sharing the photos he sent to them. However if he was just sending nasty pics of himself to women who he had not established a sexual relations with, than he was being a public nuisance and probably should be subject to public censure to one degree or another.
Well said!