Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The problem with immoral religious people...

Nothing outrages us ‒ both those of faith and those without ‒ more than the religiously pious who act in a socially immoral manner.
Be they thieves, philanderers or sexual deviants, the hypocrisy strikes a chord within us that stokes the coals of hatred.
We admire those who live by their principles. We respect their personal sacrifices of lifestyle, convenience and social norms to remain true to their values. We may disagree with their beliefs, but we admire their conviction.
This admiration is a moral contract. The principled person sacrifices things that many of us cannot or will not, and in turn we respect them for it. But when they fail to uphold even the most basic of moral tenets, that contract is broken. 
Our admiration was misplaced.
When that trust is broken, our moral outrage is born from feelings of deceit.


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