By an ethical pivot, I mean an act that
seems right or good but is wrong or bad.
John Cardinal Cody shortly before he died wrote that “I wish to let
everyone know that I have forgiven my enemies.
I yield up resentment, forgo rage and anger and will not seek
retributive or gross vengeance. But God
will not so forgive. God’s is another
way—he stands before my former enemies insisting forever with good will that
they change. If they change it will be
because God has given something to them that they do not have now—a gift, a
grace—to renew themselves by turning from a delusion to truth. Join me in praying for mercy.” This from a man who had
illegally funneled hundred of thousands of dollars to his long-time friend
Helen Dolan Wilson. What you have
here is an ethical pivot—evoking the ethic of forgiveness to mask the ethic of
contrition.
Sometimes, we may say as a pale apology,
“I’m sorry that you feel that I made you sad.”
This replaces the act—me feeling contrite for doing something bad—with
emotion—you perceiving that I may have done something bad.
There were
news reports that Mother Theresa, a saint in our time, would rather walk
through cow dung in her clinic to feel closer to God than spend the millions of
dollars in donations that were given to her to improve the facilities. This kind of self-abnegation has nothing to do
with love for God or man. It has
everything to do with distorted values, misplaced motivations, and perhaps
psychological sickness. "The burning
conviction that we have a holy duty toward others is often a way of attaching
our drowning selves to a passing raft,” Hoffer
writes. “What looks like giving a hand
is often a holding on for dear life.” Nietzsche
writes:
“Every man has his price.”
This is not true. But for every
man there exists a bait which he cannot resist
swallowing. To win over certain people
to something, it is only necessary to give it a gloss of humanity, nobility,
gentleness, self-sacrifice—and there is nothing you cannot get them to
swallow.” Charities and churches are
experts are playing the organ of guilt, and we must examine our own motivations
and priorities before we relent.