Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Live Action is OK by me

So I've been reading various blogs about the "Lying for Jesus" question, and have some interesting (ot me) observations. Several people are still uncomfortable with Live Action's actions. Some justify it without stating a principle. I haven't seen anyone come up with a principle that satisfies me that it is OK to hide the Jews but not cheat on taxes.

Let me be clear. I basically agree with Peter Kreeft that what Live Action did, and what police do, and what people did in Rwanda and Nazi Germany are all related, and are all OK. I just would like to see more than a "search your feelings - you know it to be true" answer. So in the absence of a definitive principle I'm going to fall back on my initial take - someone does not have the right to information that will cause them to sin.

Case in point. I recently received a phone call from someone - I'll call him Joe to preserve his anonymity. Joe has been using his next door neighbor's internet service for a while. They have no password on their wireless router and rather than spending money on his own subscription, he just uses theirs. It seems Joe bought a printer, and was calling me because I am the "computer guy". Joe's printer is a wireless printer, and he was afraid to connect it to his neighbor's network for fear of getting caught. I confirmed for him that if he hooked up his wireless printer to his neighbor's wireless network, they would "see" it when they printed from their computer, and in fact might print things on it in his house. I suggested it was time he get his own internet service, which he went ahead and did.

Now, I could have told Joe that he could use the USB cable from his old printer and plug it into the USB port on the back of his new printer, and forgo using it wirelessly at all. The neighbors would not know he had a printer and he could continue to steal their service. I chose not to reveal that truth to him. Did Joe have the "right' to use me as an enabler for his sin? I say "no". In fact, it I had mentioned that to him I would be complicit in his theft.

Unlike the Jews or Tutsi situations, this is not a matter of life and death, nor did I have to directly say something untrue, but merely not speak everything I could, but I think the principle stands. The Nazi does not have the right to use me to find a Jew, and PP does not have the right to use Live Action to help them continue to kill the innocent.

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