Robert King…

on ends and means, for those of you interested in the ongoing argument about the Absolute Number 1 Favorite Moral Heresy of Americans: Consequentialism.

Speaking of which, reader Ed Mechmann sends along this comment regarding the “But what about undercover cops who lie?” question. He writes:

Regarding the strange desire to measure Catholic morality and divine revelation based on the presumed the morality of undercover operations:

Unlike most of the commenters, I actually know something about this subject — as a prosecutor, I supervised numerous undercover operations, both with law enforcement agents and with informants. Some, like street-level drug sale cases, did not involve lying — the undercover officer was exactly what he appeared to be, namely, a prospective purchaser of drugs. The most that the officer did was to decline to reveal his true identity — not an affirmative lie at all.

On the other hand, the other undercover operations — deep cover stings and flipping informants — all absolutely involved lying on an epic scale — the adoption of a completely deceitful way of life.

This had a dehumanizing effect on those of us who ordered and directed them, and especially on the agents and informants themselves. At our behest, they had to live a life filled with lies, fear of revelation of lies, fear of the consequences of lying (and some of them suffered from those consequences). It hardened many of us to the humanity of others, and led us to violate a fundamental moral norm — treating people as means to an end. It degraded us all.

Spend some time around professional intelligence agents, or long-term undercover cops, and you’ll see what I mean. We twist their souls to advance our utilitarian goals.

The bottom line is that undercover operations open us up to a terrible spiritual temptation. Ever hear of Augustine’s term, libido dominandi? It’s the lust for power and control of others, and it’s a very seductive thing. Those of us (self included) who succumb to it convince ourselves that our deeds are for the greater good, even that it’s for the greater glory of God and his justice. But this is nothing but self-idolatry, a harkening back to the original sin of Adam. It’s a wicked sin.

Our Lord knew all this well — see Mt. 16:26.

As I have tried to make clear numerous times, my point is not to attack Lila Rose, who I take for a heroic champion of the unborn, but to take issue with the seductive temptation to do evil that good may come of it. I don’t want her to stop fighting for the unborn. I want her to do it better and in ways which do not endanger the soul. Consequentialism is a Faustian Bargain. You lose your soul and get nothing in return. How much nothing? Ed Mechmann explains:

Well, how about those of us who actually are doing work to restrict/end abortion? When our work is actually hurt by the tactics of lying, are we allowed to object?

Those of us who do advocacy with real-live legislators are constantly confronted by every act of misconduct ever committed by pro-lifers. One of the basic narratives of the pro-abortion crowd is that pro-lifers lie to women (of course, that’s just projection, but that’s what they think and say). So every time a pro-lifer lies, our ability to affect the law is hampered. Those are the real-world consequences.

Lying hurts our movement. Any kind of illegal or immoral misconduct hurts our movement. The Evil One laughs when we foolishly adopt his weapons, thinking we can turn them to our ends. We have to be better than they are — disciples of Christ, not imitators of the father of lies.