There has been a huge uproar over the TSA’s new security procedures — from their nude picture-taking body scanners to their enhanced pat-downs that border on sexual assault (if they do not cross that line already). As Americans look ahead to another holiday travel season, these new procedures are met with a mix of discomfort, embarrassment, and anger.

But why are these procedures necessary?

Of course, those who defend the new procedures will say they are necessary to keep travelers safe. Are the presence of security personnel, metal detectors, and guns in the cockpit not enough? If we need more security than this, there are other measures that can be taken instead of the nude scanners and enhanced pat-downs, such as bomb-sniffing dogs and targeted profiling based upon relevant intelligence information.

Security at the airports is crucial. Therefore, Americans are generally willing to tolerate some inconvenience and delay in the name of security. But what we should not have to tolerate is being required to forfeit our dignity for the possibility of slightly increased security. (There is no guarantee these measures actually keep us safer.)

The unreasonable and irrational demands that the government has now placed upon air travelers, not only are unnecessary and ineffective, but they are potentially dangerous. There has been a lot of speculation about this being done to see just how far the American people can be pushed and how much we will tolerate. But I believe there is more to this potential danger. It is more than just seeing what the American people will tolerate, it is also about what the TSA workers will tolerate in the instructions they are given.

Others have made the point that there is no way the average TSA worker is happy about having to conduct these scans and pat-downs. I believe this is probably correct. No one should be happy about this — travelers or TSA workers. Why? These procedures are demeaning to the travelers and violate the basic principles of human decency.

So in order for the TSA workers to do their job, they have to ignore their natural conscientious objection to these procedures. Herein lies the danger — people surrendering their conscience to the government and its wishes, even when the government requires some immoral action on the part of its workers.

All Americans — air travelers and TSA workers — need to be careful of the level of trust we place with those who are in power. Remember the words of the Declaration of Independence: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” We are to obey our leaders in what is right, not in what is wrong. (The apostle Peter expressed this same sentiment in Acts 5:29 — “We must obey God rather than men.“)

We must guard our conscience against being taken captive by the ever-expanding federal government. Otherwise we run the risk, through our seared conscience, of becoming an instrument of evil for the state.

-Andy Sochor