The adoption of religious, moral codes in societies can lead to abuse of these codes through hypocrisy. People living in a society that enforces religious, moral codes will manage to find a way around the codes and do what they want regardless. Not only this, but people can abuse the codes by claiming to uphold them and creating an enemy out of anyone who doesn’t, meanwhile they aren’t really upholding the code. Proof of this reasoning has existed since 1692, when the Salem Witch Trials were taking place, and has continued through history to exist in modern day.
Adopting religious codes can leave for no “wiggle room” in morally fuzzy areas - like accusations of witchcraft. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, living in a strict, religious society had life or death consequences for many people. Prior to the witch trials, Salem is a pious town with equally pious citizens. However, with the excitement that the trials cause, the people prove themselves to be as religious and respectable as a tax collector would have been. Most of the high-status members of
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In Christianity, Sunday is a day for the Lord. Christians should not do any work and use the day to honour God. Douglass sees the hypocrisy in the way his owners and overseers regard this belief. Slaves can relax on Sundays, but Douglass lacks the energy that he needs to use the time to honour God because of the labour he has done during the week. He describes the way he feels as an animal, saying, “Sunday was my only leisure time. I spent this in a sort of beast-like stupor, between sleep and wake, under some large tree.” Overseers claim to bring religion into the lives of the slaves, yet on the holiest day of the week, slaves are unable to take part in the religious traditions. Sundays, unfortunately, are not the only hypocritical part of life that Douglass