When a society embraces evil it invariably does so under the guise of a campaign to promote some great moral good.

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 Someone commented about this:

"I take issue with this. By no measure will we have 'done well' by just meeting those standards. Christians should be held to the highest standards of obedience."

Well naturally. Yet I think Hauerwas's comment underscores an social dynamic, namely, that

When a society embraces evil it invariably hides the true character of what it is doing from itself under the guise of a campaign promoting some great moral good.

At such times the Church will be applauded for joining in the great campaign and even perhaps for taking moral stands on any number of other issues as well. They will never be applauded or taking a stand on whatever THE crucial issue of the time happens to be, THE issue that faithfulness to both the well being of their community and to Christ requires them to take a stand on. Quite the contrary they will be viewed as opposing the good that is being used to veil the evil, and of being motivated by an unhealthy focus on "single issue" politics.

The reality however is the reverse. It is never the Christians who choose THE issues in such cases but the society at large. Its just part of the psychological dynamic in cases where evil is promoted under the guise of good. The good doesn't generally require constant aggressive and even violent promotion. Evil under the guise of good, however, seemingly does, and as a result leads to a kind of culture-wide fanaticism which raises the single issue to the level of absolute centrality.

THE issues, therefore, are never the kinds of causes anyone would naturally want to take up, because people with any cultural sensibility at all, know perfectly well that to do is to invite not the praise but the disapprobation of the larger culture. There are always many causes you can take up in order to garner the praise of a society, that is to say in order to be regarded as a "good person." And it is easy for Christians to be deluded into thinking that by pursuing such causes they are being a "good witness" to their society. But THE issue is never a cause like that. Indeed as often as not it will lead to your being view not as a good but as a bad person.

Jesus equipped his church for making decisions in such times with a solemn warning:

"Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets." (Luke 6:26)

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