A discussion about religious morals made me look at the actions of priests who recently exhibited somewhat questionable behavior: fire someone for converting to a different belief, lie to their flock, preach hate, or discriminate against women and homosexuals.

In all these cases we can objectively say that their behavior was ethically wrong. So why did they do it? Are they bad people? Their actions certainly indicate so.
Well, not always. When you look more closely, a pattern emerges: In general, priests try to avoid unethical behavior. They usually know when they are doing something unethical – and don’t like it very much. Sometimes they just have to do it – it’s expected of them.

Similar to firemen rushing into a burning building, priests sometimes have to do dangerous things. Like bodily harm to a fireman, a priest has to shoulder the risk of destroying his integrity.

For a priest, lying, hate-mongering and spreading homophobia are occupational hazards.

It’s part of their job.