This morning I was watching a reel on my phone. In this reel, a man called into a show and shared about his troubled marriage.
He talked about how his wife had an “emotional affair.” The host and the caller go back and forth about what he should have done as a husband.
Then the fuller truth comes out…
...it was more than an emotional affair. His wife had had a physical affair.
That’s more or less when the reel ends. They both talk about how he really did know this from the start.
I just wanted to pause and notice two things:
1. The admission of an emotional affair created an environment where both the host and caller turned the blame upon the faithful spouse.
2. The “gut” of this guy knew it was more problematic than “just” an emotional affair (and yet he was still manipulated to think otherwise for a while under the guise of it being an “emotional affair”).
in my ministry and experience, this is not uncommon. Admission to an “emotional affair” is a way to manipulate the relationship while disclosing a half-truth–aka a lie. Cheaters are not original in their chosen manipulations.
