It is normal for people to cooperate with others in human endeavors. In fact, it’s not only a normal, it’s the human thing to do, it’s unavoidable. Usually, these associations are good. Sometimes they’re not so good. At other times, they’re evil.
When we cooperate with other people, we’re often cooperating on some level with evil acts because all people are sinners. It’s impossible to be involved with other people without having some kind of association with sin.
The concept of cooperation in evil is an important concept for living a virtuous, morally praiseworthy life, but it’s often overlooked. As a result, many people are unaware about not only what it is and how it happens, but how serious it can be in terms of their culpability before God.
So, if you hear someone say, “You must never cooperate in anything that results in evil,” you have to be careful about what that means. Technically speaking, it’s an impossible demand. Cooperation in evil to some degree is unavoidable because all people commit sins. The question is, at what level are you cooperating and how responsible are you for that cooperation?
Objective: In this course, students will learn what it means to cooperate in evil. Students will learn about the different ways we cooperate in evil and the degree of seriousness in each instance.
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