And the result is an unjust state
RvW for example
The Church has influenced the state and the result is a just (at times) and an unjust (at times) state.
Most of my supervisors in government service were Christian. I find it necessary to add, since you believe only Roman Catholics are Christian, that I had both Catholic and Protestant supervisors at various times.
Some of them were good; some of them were evil - that includes my Catholic supervisors.
I was, occasionally, ordered to do things which, had I done them, would have put people at risk of becoming seriously ill or even losing their life. I refused and explained why. The assignments were given to someone else (eager for promotion) to carry out. As time passed and it became obvious that this wasn’t going to be just an occasional thing with me, such orders were no longer issued to me.
I was once ordered to falsify some documents - by a pious Christian supervisor. I refused. A few days later I was told to attend a meeting with my supervisor. I was informed at the meeting that my employment had been terminated and that armed guards were waiting outside the door to escort me off the property. The personal effects in my office were to be packed by someone else and they would be sent to me. All they needed from me, because I was protected by the state merit system, was a signature on a document acknowledging that I had been given notice of termination both verbally and in writing. Standard procedure. That would have happened but for one thing -
I had been issued the directive to falsify the documents in writing and that directive - in my supervisor’s personal handwriting - was, unbeknownst to him or anyone else, still in my possession.
The high ranking official, another pious Christian man, slid the paper I was to sign across the table and said to me, “You have nothing on us. You’re fired.”
When I made it known that I still had the original document (I didn’t mention that I also had two copies of it), I was asked by the visibly shaken high ranking official where the document was. (My pious Christian supervisor, whose face had turned pale upon hearing the news - he had assumed that I had destroyed the document, and had told his superiors that it had been destroyed - was in shock.) Chaos ensued - the high ranking official in charge of the meeting shouted at my supervisor, “Harold, you idiot!” and then asked nervously if I would be receptive to accepting a transfer. I was, and my employment wasn’t terminated. I was instead reassigned to “special duty.” (That’s when my government career really became interesting!)
***
When I first went to work for the government, I was trained by an engineer who had already been in government service for a quarter of a century. He offered me no technical training - there was no need for that. I was already highly trained. He offered me three words of advice, the last of which I’ll share with you and our readers.
“You’ll be working on controversial projects. Make two copies of everything. Give the secretary the original document to be placed in the official file that is kept in the file room. Make copies of the document yourself before giving the secretary the original. Place one copy in a file to be kept in your office; take the other copy and bury it on the farm.”
I laughed and asked for clarification on what I would be working on that would be controversial. He replied: “Not everything you touch will be controversial. In order to survive, you must train your mind to think that everything you touch will be controversial. Some day it will save your reputation and your career.”
