Guantanamo Bay, Fighting evil
with evil?
The recent passage of the immigration reform bill by the US Senate is a good example of how an evil means just brings more evil and the end does not justify the means. When I asked friends involved with immigration reform about the bill they said they did not like provisions in the bill but it was the lesser of two evils or a ‘compromise. When I asked about the “border surge” in the bill, 40 billion dollars for militarizing the border with fences, drones, private prison, border guards, more military weapons they had a similar response. Some called the militarization border proposal a “pact with the devil.” (See article in Mother Jones: Immigration Reform: Good News for Contractors.
There is a principle in Catholic Social Teaching that is called “principle of double effect” which,“under certain clearly defined conditions, permits us to perform an act that has both a good and an evil effect, but there is no allowance whatsoever in the Catholic system for directly choosing an evil.”
Also once you support an evil means for a good end, in this case a water downed ‘pathway to citizenship’ for 40 billion to militarize the border, you simply invite more evil. In fact, as soon as the Senate bill passed the speaker of the House of Representative announced the House would not even consider the Senate bill but come up with their own with harder or no path way to citizenship and more military security on the border. There is no compromise with evil.
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