I was having a discussion about a Certain Politician recently, and we asked ourselves, “where does his support come from?”  The answer we arrived at was that his supporters supported him, “right or wrong”.

Have you ever heard someone say “I support my church/synagogue, right or wrong”?

Have you ever heard someone say “I support my country, right or wrong”?

Have you ever heard some say “I support my _____, right or wrong”?

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When did it become ok to disregard wrong behavior, and support institutions regardless of their conduct? When did it become ok to support criminal behavior?

Why have we turned over decision making responsibility to government and religious institutions?  Why can’t we decide for ourselves whether something is right or wrong?

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We now act like we are on teams.  Our support of our “team” (political party, religion, flag) has become more important than asking questions like “what is right and wrong?  What behavior is the greatest good here?”

When people blindly support institutions without considering right versus wrong, institutions fail.  Our government is failing, our religious institutions are failing.

And that is because we are failing as members of those institutions.

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I am not willing to support any institution, organization or religion “right or wrong”.  Governments, religions and organizations have a moral duty to aim for the highest possible good.  If they don’t do that, they lose me.