Ethics

I was listening to a report on NPR this week in which the reporter asked an official if he was concerned about the ethical boundaries he was crossing (specifically about whether an innocent person could be prosecuted and convicted under a new statute). What was absolutely terrorizing to me, was not that he was willing to wrestle with that question or to define that line, but rather that he deferred to a court decision saying: "well the courts have ruled that it is OK."

Wait a second. There were courts in Nazi Germany, there are kangaroo courts in military style governments all around the world (including some US military tribunals) and yet someone, anyone, has the audacity to defer to a court over a question of ethics. It is the ultimate insult against human reason and intellect to assert that any court whether High or Supreme, is the highest authority on issues of ethics. It is the mindset of those living in countries where they are servants of mighty despots, to defer to their betters on issues of ethics, but in a supposedly free nation where the government is meant to serve the people, we do not have the liberty to delegate our ethics; especially to those who wish to be the new kings in the monarchical system (that still exists) from which we came.

Lack of a higher authority, for the voice of the Almighty in our conscience guiding mens convictions will be our undoing. I am more and more convinced that the only Hell that we need fear is to live and die in a world of our own making.