The Importance Of Poor Character

Churchgoer: So many people have poor character. The world would be a better place if everyone had good character.
Philosopher: What led you to that belief?
Churchgoer: I always witness people doing immoral things. Whenever someone does wrong, it harms good people and makes life harder.
Philosopher: What do you think character is?
Churchgoer: Character is an individual’s mental and moral qualities. If you have poor character it means you lack moral or ethical strength.
Philosopher: What happens if you lack moral strength?
Churchgoer: Someone who has weak morals doesn’t feel remorse when they do wrong. A lack of moral strength also makes a person more likely to act immorally.
Philosopher: Should a person feel guilty for doing wrong?
Churchgoer:

I am not wise enough to say for certain whether this is always true. If you wrong one person in order to benefit another, is the action still immoral?
Churchgoer: I believe so. Could you explain an example of this?
Philosopher: Let’s use your example of stealing. You implied that stealing is wrong and an indication of poor moral character, correct?
Churchgoer: Yes that is true.
Philosopher: Let’s say you stole food from a rich person. You are poor and can’t always adequately provide for your family. The person you stole the food from doesn’t miss the food and doesn’t know you have stolen it. You use the stolen food to feed your hungry family. If you steal in order to help someone else, is it still wrong?
Churchgoer: I think it is. You could choose to act morally and work to provide for you family.
Philosopher: What if you do not make enough money to purchase all the food that your family needs? If acting immorally is the best option, does choosing the immoral way make you a bad person?
Churchgoer: I suppose in certain cases it wouldn’t be wrong to steal. However when a person chooses to be immoral instead of being honest, it reveals that they have poor character. As I stated before, people with poor character make life harder for the rest of