Stand firm in your faith,
be courageous, be strong.
—1 Corinthians 16:13
In The Mind of Watergate, Dr. Leo Rangell explores what he calls “the compromise of integrity.”
The book provides the transcript of a verbal exchange between Senator Howard Baker and Herbert Porter, a campaign aide who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during the Watergate investigation.
Baker: “Did you ever have any qualms about what you were doing? . . . Did you ever think of saying, ‘I do not think this is right’?”
Porter: “Yes, I did.”
Baker: “What did you do about it?”
Porter: “I did not do anything.”
Baker: “Why didn’t you?”
Porter: “Probably because of the fear of group pressure, of not being a team player.”
Group pressure is hauntingly threatening—and not just in high places. It’s hard to stand alone. Compromise of convictions claims countless victims.
It’s not hard to know what is right—
but sometimes it’s hard to do what you know is right.