Ishmael’s Diabolical Reasoning for Excusing Sin

Is it loving to condone sin or participate in it? It’s amazing how often people say that we need to be like Jesus in accepting the behavior of sinners, even though Jesus himself called everyone to repent and to accept the Kingdom. Jesus clearly did not come to leave people in sin, although we hear the Gospel distorted, even by Cardinals, to lead us to accept as good things that are clearly contrary to the Gospel.

Herman Melville uses this kind of logic to explain how the main character of Moby Dick, Ishmael, decides to participate in the idolatrous worship of his friend Queequeg:

I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the infallible Presbyterian Church. How then could I unite with this wild idolator in worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I. Do you suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and earth—pagans and all included—can possibly be jealous of an insignificant bit of black wood? Impossible! But what is worship?—to do the will of God—that is worship. And what is the will of God?—to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do to me—that is the will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must then unite with him in his; ergo, I must turn idolator. So I kindled the shavings; helped prop up the innocent little idol; offered him burnt biscuit with Queequeg; salamed before him twice or thrice; kissed his nose; and that done, we undressed and went to bed, at peace with our own consciences and all the world.

Chapter 10, “A Bosom Friend”

The same kind of logic could be applied to anything! What does God care of this or that action. He just wants us to be happy. I want people to affirm my happiness, so why wouldn’t I do the same for them? If we want to propose the Catholic faith to others, then we have to affirm them where they are at rather than condemning them. This diabolical reasoning could justify any sin.