The average sinner has a dim, thrust-back awareness that his soul is going to eternal perdition. Most of them avoid thinking about that by going through the usual gymnastics by which they convince themselves that there is no God, no judgment, and no eternal pain. They make a point of sharing this “philosophy” with as many others as they can, unaware as they do so that their sin “is not that they are blind, but that they say (tell others) that they see”.
During no waking moment can they allow themselves to picture their souls standing in front of a Judge Who can see through every lie they ever told and sentence them with justice to their place in eternity for having embraced those lies. On the rare occasions that they might consider such a thing, it is invariably with the comforting, if erroneous, thoughts that “It really wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t help it. I’m basically a good person.”
Tumors in the body politic are conglomerations of sinners who are willing to use political power to take money from their neighbors. Whether individually or en masse, all involved blind themselves to the long-term results of their own activities. Even as a body politic is in the final stages of collapse, its tumors will be clamoring for more. The tumor-commitment to death and destruction is exemplified by French bureaucrats during their revolution. Even after Robespierre was guillotined and the reign of terror was over, the people in charge of scheduling executions went right on sending wagonsful of those scheduled for death to their awful end.
One can imagine a government under a final attack by a ruthless enemy. A jet has to be sent with weapons to win a key battle. But, a bureaucrat says “I have to make a very important speech at a vital meeting about global warming!” We know where the plane will go.
Most sinners, whether justifying their own actions or those of the tumor of which they are a part, will justify their sin by saying that it is good. Then, they encourage others to participate. In the body politic, the most useless of tumors are the loudest and most hysterical when demanding more funding. Large groups of sinners in powerful agencies can do a tremendous amount of harm, often turning even the useful agencies into destructive tumors.
