"I'm not being whupped by the devil; I am being punished by my God. I know that my disobedience put me in the situation I am in."

That's Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, referring to allegations that he lied under oath during a whistleblower suit filed by two former police officers about his romantic relationship with his chief of staff, Christine Beatty. Months after a jury awarded the whistleblowers $8 million, text messages were discovered in which Kilpatrick and Beatty, who are married to other people, declared their love for one another, arranged get-togethers in motel rooms, and discussed the firing of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown.

Kilpatrick is right about one thing: he is being punished for being disobedient, but for disobedience to man’s law, not God’s. What always amazes me is the way people interpret the hard work of the police and prosecutors as the punishing hand of God. Kilpatrick lied under oath, and now that he's been caught and faces jail time for perjury God steps in to teach him a lesson? It’s difficult to imagine why God would choose to punish Kilpatrick’s perjury and not, say, the adultery itself. Both are frowned upon in the Ten Commandments. Allegedly.

So what is Kilpatrick doing here? Why, he’s creating the fiction that he is a God-fearing man, something that will no doubt help him if he ever faces a jury. It also creates the impression that God is already punishing him, so civil authority need not punish him further. It's a ploy to poison the jury pool, plain and simple.

Now let's hope that God continues punishing Kilpatrick by giving him incompetent counsel.