Exodus 23

In verses 1-9, God basically tells the Israelites, "Don't be a jerk." OK, there's a little more to it than that, but many of these rules prefigure the compassionate action that Jesus wants all His followers to take. The one that really jumps out at me is in verse 2: "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong." Most people like to think that they're individual thinkers, marching to the beat of their own gran cassa. We'd like to think that if we had been Aryans living in Nazi Germany (and I know I'm bringing down Godwin's Law onto myself, but I'm trying to use an example that won't be controversial), we would have done our part to hinder the Nazi regime instead of going along with the Riefenstahl-fueled masses. Similarly, if you have at least a modicum of humanity, you should shudder at the very thought of taking part in a lynch mob like those that used to plague the American South.

Few are held in lower esteem than a tattle-tale on the venerated totem pole of status known in the vernacular as the elementary school playground (perhaps only the writer of protracted, convoluted, sentences in the passive voice is more disdained), which proves how certain patterns of conformity are ingrained in us from a young age. Of course, it's not much better to be a contrarian just to assert your individuality--that's entering troll territory, and sometimes the "crowd" is, in fact, morally correct.

But it can take real bravery, even audacity, to refuse to compromise morality when the crowd thinks there's nothing wrong. In the graphic novel Watchmen, one of the characters, Rorschach, decides to stand by his principles in opposition to the other characters, who have agreed to keep mum about a well-intentioned conspiracy with a monstrous cost. Of course, Rorschach's principles are pretty twisted to begin with, and there's a whole lot of moral ambiguity to the situation (which is part of what makes the graphic novel so great, but you'd be doing yourself a favor if you skipped the movie). But it throws into stark relief how difficult it can be to go against the crowd.

 In any case, as long as we stand with God, He'll give us the courage we need. To quote VeggieTales, "He's the one to back you up." (Or, as my brothers and I thought whenever we heard this song, "He's the one to vacuum up.")