Here is an ethical question: how much moral responsibility do you bear for actions, with or without direct approval, carried out by others who represent you?
Sometimes the answer is obvious. Hiring a hit man, most of us would say, makes you just as guilty of murder as if you had pulled the trigger. On the other hand, if someone you employ for legitimate work does something illegal, even if you benefit indirectly, is a little more nebulous.
Now lets make it bigger and more complicated. If you support an organization be it a corporation, church, denomination, political party, government, or civic group and as an organization it engages in unethical behavior are you then morally responsible?
I say yes, unless you exhaust all available resources trying to change it. Leave it if you can. Sometimes you can’t leave.
Being stuck with it is no excuse.
We do not have the luxury of saying “Oh isn’t that a shame, but what are you going to do.” Neutrality and apathy always support the bad actor.
If we believe there is right and wrong in the universe, and that most of the time the difference between the two is obvious, then we are morally compelled to speak out, to act, against the evils in the world. We must make a conscious effort to support the good and fight the bad even if that effort is not in our own best interest. That is the most fundamental position of Christianity, that self sacrifice on behalf of others is good. Otherwise the cross is meaningless.
I think I understand a bit differently now those who say,in Matthew 25, “Lord when did we see you?”
I might not have seen directly, but if those who act in my name or with my backing have done it then I have done it.