Good Point

A reader writes:

See, one huge issue that I haven’t heard mentioned is–what happens if someone does to us what LA did to Planned Parenthood? Someone brings a camera into the confessional secretly, records what the priest says, then publishes it online, saying, “I confessed criminal acts, and the Catholic Church colluded in acoverup! We must take steps against this organization that aids and abets criminals, and covers up their actions!”

There have already been stabs at trying to force priests to reveal confessions. I can easily see somebody doing this in a moment of national hysteria about pervert priests. A culture of Lie corrodes the basic bonds of trust that keep a free people free and turns everything into a police state mentality where everyone feels watched. You lose your soul and get *nothing* in return.

Oh, and by the way, it turns out that when journalists lie, people don’t all cheer and call it by some euphemism so that it’s okey. Indeed, such tactics wind up getting them snubbed for Pulitzers on the grounds that “it was hard to try and suggest you’re telling the truth when you’re lying.”. It’s as though lying were intrinsically immoral or something.