Which is why I appreciate your defending those people! And no, I didn’t see it as defending Scalia himself.
To your other points: When one works for an agency that does evil things, a difficult choice should be faced (I’ll argue that it’s only unethical if you completely ignore the issue, either choice can be made ethically). Should you stay and use your insider status to do good that could not be done from the outside, or should you get out before you become inured to evil, hopefully leaving the place in flames behind you? I can respect Snowden’s stance on that issue.
In defense of people who stay inside, I’ll point out that it’s pretty clear that good people’s refusal to be cops has led many police forces to be entirely composed of violent criminals looking for ways to do harm, and this problem seems to be much worse in places like well-educated, earthy-crunchy, peace-n-love California than in the backwoods of Bumretch, Nebrahoma where people still think it’s OK to enjoy hunting and bar fights.
All that being said, voluntarily tithing to an organization with a thousand year ongoing legacy of greed, violence, hatred, hypocrisy and coverups of same would be a criminal offense in any decent world. If Jesus were to come again, he’d probably go totally cleansing of the temple with a whip of cords - and the Catholic clergy are not the only ones he’d go after, either. Scalia better hope Jesus isn’t waiting to judge him…
