To compromise between right and wrong is to choose wrong.
To compromise between just and unjust is to choose injustice.
To compromise between right and wrong is to choose wrong.
To compromise between just and unjust is to choose injustice.
Variation on evil triumphs when good men do nothing.
I spoke with a mediator/arbitrator yesterday – the aim of formal mediation is compromise – and he “assured” me that he would remain neutral.
Compromise is generally seen as a good thing and not compromising is seen as being unreasonable.
But if the situation is like a mugging then compromise would be for the muggee to give half of his money to the mugger. Remaining neutral and assisting the compromise would be to do evil.
I think it’s a case of evil triumphs when evil men assist evil.
(I’m sure the mediator is a nice enough guy and has no idea that he is evil or that he assists evil.)
There are things which may be compromised without loss of integrity. Other things ideally ought never to be compromised… eg, you may let your wife pick the colour of the Family car… just not the make and model.
Some things are quite ok to leave to popular consensus, and the acceptance of their choice can be born with magnanimity by a minority.
Other things must never be so.
Eg It is fine for the colour of a National Flag to be decided by vote, but not the to ban smoking.
Then you have moral dilemmas in which the options all appear to some degree ‘wrong’.
They make you work for your salt!
And it takes a brave man to make judgment calls in such crappy situations because he knows that some people will believe he made an immoral call. Eg Churchill’s strategies to beat Hitler often called for heinous actions.
Whether it was a moral idea to Nuke Japan… etc.
Thus it takes wisdom to know when compromise is acceptible and when it is not. And it takes Wisdom and Balls to deal with real Moral dilemma.
What needs to be remembered is that mercy goes beyond justice.
I deserve death (in Justice)
Jesus gave me life (in Mercy)
So did I get more or less than I deserve?
Is Jesus just or unjust?
It should be clear that I got more than I deserved and that Jesus is still just.
In the case of a mugger, it would be like you asking why he needs the money and him saying to feed his kids. And so you could then compromise and give him half, and this wouldn’t be unjust or evil of you to have pity/mercy on him. (but of course I agree with you above that without you volunteering this it woule be both unjust and evil…)
Rosjier, Remember Christs parable about the farmer who went out in the morning seeking workers and one guy agreed to work for x amount.
Then the Farmer went out later and hired another person, and paid him x amount too.
The first guy complained, Yet was rebuked because he was complaining about the Goodness of the Employer towards the second second employee, for which he had no right to complain.
Rosjier
Biblical justice for theft…
There’s plenty of room for mercy without giving an offender half of your stuff. 😉
When you come across someone being mugged would you ask the person being mugged to exercise mercy? Would you tell the victim that they should give the offender something – that that would be a good Christian thing to do?
Jesus didn’t compromise between just and unjust.
Give me Liberty, or give me Death!
You live in the Welfare West – so you have chosen Communism as your compromise between Liberty and Death.