Is there such a thing as the right kind of criminal?
Before answering that question, consider the following:
The people who helped others flee slavery in the US were in open defiance of every level of government including Congress and the Supreme Court, right down to their local sheriff.
The people who protected Jews and others targeted by the Third Reich during WWII were hunted down and punished just like any criminal is today.
If you’re feeling uncomfortable, you’re feeling cognitive dissonance at the prospect that each of us has a perfect right to place our judgment above the state’s.
That’s something only a wild-eyed radical could believe, right?
The truth remains that the people who obeyed and enforced certain unjust laws were morally wrong and the folks who ignored or deliberately broke those laws were morally right.
Politicians’ rules, being detached from morality, are only concerned with legal or illegal.
They encourage us to ignore our conscience and act as cheerleaders for greater government control of others.
David Montgomery puts it this way:
“Human decency springs from following our conscience, not the law. Millions blindly follow orders. The bravest heroes in this world are law-breakers.”
Most of us are good neighbors and productive members of society because our conscience guides us and urges us to act with moral excellence.
Conscience is a more powerful motivator to be a good person than a politician’s words on paper.
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