Possibly some watched the interview with Sean Penn (movie star/journalist) on 60 Minutes Sunday evening, January 17, 2016. If not, Penn has certainly been in the news recently since he had an interview with El Chapo, head of a Mexican drug cartel, who escaped from prison last year. According to Wikipedia, his full name is Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, but he usually goes by “shorty” (El Chapo) Guzman. He has been called “the most powerful drug trafficker in the world.” El Chapo was fond of a Mexican actress, and through her the interview was set up with Sean Penn. This arrangement that ensued may have subsequently led to the drug lord’s recapture.
All of those details furnish the background for the statement that Sean Penn made which was quoted on The O’Reilly Factor on Monday, January 11th. He said:
We are the consumer, and as such, we are complicit in every murder, and in every corruption of an institution’s ability to protect the quality of life for citizens of Mexico and the United States that comes as a result for our insatiable appetite for illicit narcotics. It’s a question of relative morality.
A normal reaction to these words would be, “What?” It seems that Penn is saying that the consumers who desire illegal narcotics are themselves guilty of the murders that El Chapo and others commit. If no demand existed for the drugs, all of those who have murdered others in an effort to enrich themselves would not have happened. Americans, then, who crave these drugs are responsible for the cartels’ wars against each other—as well as the war against the Mexican government and our own government.
Would it not be more appropriate to lay the blame at the doorstep of Greed (1 Tim. 6:10)? Making huge profits motivates cartels to produce and sell drugs. Yes, the buyers are also to blame, but many are enticed into beginning those habits by those seeking financial gain. The concept of relative morality is a farce. It is immoral to produce the drugs (knowing what they do to people); it is illegal to sell them; it is illegal to buy them. “Relative morality” means no morality and is a lame attempt to justify sin.