Scott Peck on Blasphemy

"A person who has occasional profane thoughts but does not act upon them is not a blasphemous individual. Rather it is the person who mouths holy thoughts but behaves profanely who is the blasphemer. Blasphemy is the form of compartmentalization that allow some routinely to profess the truth while routinely acting the lie. Any form of behavior that stems from a lack of integration, that represents compartmentalization, is blasphemy. The businessman who goes to church on Sunday mornings, believes that he loves God and God's creation and his fellow human beings, and then on Monday morning has no trouble with his company's policy of dumping toxic wastes in a nearby stream--who is "a Sunday morning Christian"--is guilty of blasphemy. Regardless of its intensity, regardless of the degree of consciousness or deliberateness involved, such compartmentalization of religion is invariably blasphemous. And the fact that this country, on whose coinage is written the words "In God We Trust", is the leading manufacturer and seller of weapons in the world means that we are a largely blasphemous nation. The degree of compartmentalization in American life is such that blasphemous behavior is the norm rather than the exception." -- M. Scott Peck, The Different Drum