Ends justifying the means

Does the end justify the means? Is achieving a positive result by way

of a sin contradictory? If one were forced to lie to protect the life

of a child, wouldn’t we all agree that such a step was warranted?

Many would affirm that civil disobedience of the laws of the land

in the pursuit of justice or equality is a commendable action. Jewish

history is replete with such disobedience, highlighted by Moses

standing against Pharaoh and his rule.

Colonial disobedience of British laws and then the Civil Rights

Movement are two shining moments in the trajectory of American

history. Several founding fathers proposed that the seal of the U.S.

read “Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”

Yes, the end may justify the means. Can one, though, commit a

crime in order to prove a point, such as sneaking illegal objects

onto an aircraft to demonstrate the shoddiness of airline security?

Judaism teaches that one cannot observe a ceremony or ritual with

a stolen ritual item, i.e., that one cannot beseech or praise God

through the medium of an infraction of his law. Even for the most

noble of purposes, one cannot murder, engage in idol worship or

indulge in sexual immorality.

Achieving world peace is an important aim, but when pacifists

claim that evil must not be confronted militarily, the means to

attaining such universal peace is a seriously flawed one. While it is

important to show that security screening is easily compromised so

that we might all be safer, slipping prohibited items through the

system is not to be countenanced. Even the most justified act cannot

erase the path we took to arrive there. After all, one of the tests

of morality is: What if everyone did what I am contemplating doing?

RABBI MARK MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

Allah (the most high) tells us in the Holy Quran that he rewards

and punishes for both intentions and outcomes. But the difference is

that if a person intends to do a good thing and it never

materializes, he would still receive the reward of having the

intention of doing it and also the reward of accomplishing the good

act, while if a person intends to do evil and it fails to

materialize, he would only receive the punishment for his ill

intention.

IMAM MOSTAFA AL QAZWINI

Islamic Educational Center

of Orange County

Christians well know where “the road paved with good intentions”

leads. “Intentions” must lead to “outcome(s)”; it is intent and

motivation that distinguishes Christian action from good work done by

others.

When Christians engage in the “InAsMuch” ministries of Matthew 25

(getting food to the hungry, visiting the lonely and ill, being

hospitable and the like) we are doing what many well-intentioned

people do.

Christians are to do good “for Christ’s sake,” to “abide in God,”

to abound in “goodness” as “branches of the True Vine.”

It is the “why” in what we do that separates Christian behavior

from others. The concept of intention is essential for ethics because

whether a person is credited or blamed for an act can depend on

whether he or she did it intentionally.

“Do ‘means’ justify ‘ends’?” has been asked at least since

Aristotle, 2,400 years ago. In New Testament times, the Apostle Paul

may well have known that at the beginning of his “Ethics,” Aristotle

says emphatically that in moral matters, general prescriptions are

true only “on the whole” because human beings think of what is

contingent and individual.

In the 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas laid foundations for

contemporary ethics in his Summa Theologica by returning to

pre-Aristotelian concepts of virtues emphasizing “at the right time,

toward the right objects, toward the right people, for the right

reason, and in the right manner.”

In short, “ends” do not usually justify “means” for Christians,

considering “the consequences of doing a bad thing” takes us back to

pondering that place to which “the road paved with good intentions”

leads.

THE VERY REV. CANON

PETER D. HAYNES

St. Michael and All Angels?

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar