My favorite character in the Lord of the Rings has always been Boromir (although sometimes Samwise vies for the crown). I consider the fall of Boromir as perhaps the most emotional and gripping scene in the entire trilogy.

Boromir represents the race of men, both in the book and in real life. He is strong and proud, able to do much good for those he rules and protects. He sees the One Ring as an opportunity; not for evil, as Sauron would, but for good. Its power, when wielded by the right man (Boromir considered himself the “right man,” and not without justification), could bring down Sauron and establish an era of peace for Middle Earth.

For those who aren’t familiar with the story, it sounds like a good plan. Yet those who recognize the corrupting influence of the One Ring know it is doomed to failure. Instead of establishing a reign of peace, a land ruled by Boromir and the One Ring would eventually end up exactly like one ruled by Sauron and the One Ring—just with different management.

Boromir’s temptation is the temptation of the Great Western Powers today, particularly America. Like Boromir, we represent the “good guys.” We’re not Mordor or the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. We’re Gondor. Being the good guys, we tend to think that anything we do, as long as it is for our cause, is just. We can and should wield powerful forces—often more powerful than we like to admit—to advance Democracy and Freedom.

We saw this temptation most clearly with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. You’ll find countless justifications for these immoral acts throughout the internet, but ultimately they come down to, “We were the good guys; they were the bad guys; we were therefore justified in what we did.” Yet Catholic moral theology makes clear that one cannot do evil—and dropping a nuke on a city filled with civilians is the definition of evil—that good may result.

Even if the dropping of those bombs shortened the war—a disputed point—what was the cost of those horrific acts? In the almost 80 years since the destruction of those two cities, many evils have been justified by American forces. For example, I’ve seen politicians recently argue that we should turn Palestine (and some include Iran) into a “parking lot”, and refer to Hiroshima/Nagasaki as a defense. Once you drop a nuke on a city, just about anything and everything is on the table, so to speak. Even if the dropping of those bombs shortened the war—a disputed point—what was the cost of those horrific acts?Tweet This

But the implications of those evil acts can be more subtle. What happened to the American soul with those bombings? We were unquestionably on the side of Good in World War II; yet we committed a horrific act of evil to end that war. Like using the One Ring, embracing evil, even in the cause of good, takes its toll. I can’t help but wonder if the many evils that have arisen in our country since 1945—particularly abortion—have been at least partly due to a huge chunk of our soul being lost.

A more recent example of falling for the temptation of Boromir is the Israeli pager attack on Hezbollah. Thousands of pagers were exploded by remote control, injuring thousands and killing at least 32 people, including two children. I saw many conservatives cheering (and even laughing) at this attack, which cannot be considered just by Catholic morality.

Like the atomic bomb dropping, the pager attack takes another piece of the Western soul. Do we really want to live in a world where our wearable electronic devices are potential bombs? Where we justify setting off explosives in public areas, with no thought of collateral damage, all because we’re the “good guys?”

If an organization like Hezbollah carried out such an attack, is there any question we would quickly label it terrorism and self-righteously condemn it? But when “we” use the One Ring, all is justified. The indiscriminate way in which the “good guys” deal out death and destruction these days makes one wonder if in fact there are any actual good guys left.

In Tolkien’s epic masterpiece, Boromir is eventually redeemed. He recognizes the folly of his “logic” and ends up sacrificing his life for two hobbits. His redemption can be the story of each of us in the story of our own temptations, but I also pray that it becomes the story of the Great Western Powers, who have been using the One Ring so much in recent decades they are becoming gollumized. 

It won’t matter who rules us in the end if the rulers are using the One Ring to stay in power.