Epilogue 249between good and evil are usually no great problem. Most
people have little trouble with the question, “Should I rob that
bank or not?” Morally and politically, the answer for most
people is easy. But most of our problems arise when we are faced
with choices between two goods or the lesser of two evils. Is the
draft involuntary servitude? Does one serve the country or avoid
the draft? If one is morally opposed to murder, must he also
oppose capital punishment? Does a church leader have the right
to speak out against abortion? When does the moral position take
precedence over the political, and vice versa?
Most people would agree that there are great difficulties
deciding between moral and political goods. Often those same
people would say that there is little conflict between moral and
economic choices. Some of these judgments are made without
serious thought, and often we are surprised by the difficulties we
have dealing with what seem to be obvious situations. Most of
us have principles about what is the right and wrong of a given
situation. However, how do we act in light of those principles in
real situations? Do we return the ten-dollar overpayment that the
clerk in the grocery store gives us as a part of our change? Does
the policeman reject the fifty- or one-hundred dollar bribe, but
accept the thousand-dollar offer?
Every year there are countless news reports about murder
trials throughout the country. While the national news reports
details about the trial and the accused and the victim, often the
story focuses on the personal reactions of the parents of a young
person who has been brutally murdered. An essential part of
many stories concern the parents’ conversion from opposition to
capital punishment to favoring capital punishment. Reasons for
the parents’ reversal of opinion about capital punishment were
contained in statements such as, “No one can imagine the
suffering I’ve felt. I never knew I could hate this much. I want to
see him (the murderer) dead.” In addition, however, to this type
of response, was the introduction of an economic argument.
“The idea of my tax money being used to keep this murderer
alive makes me ill.”
No one can question the grief of a parent over the death of a
beautiful young child. The question is, should we decide the
issue of capital punishment on the basis of our own personal
grief? Prior to the child’s death, the parent was against capital