because i'm a pedant like this in response to the last paraphrase from of asbury's the great illusion i'm tempted to call npov here asbury states that neither pussyfoot nor his associates were punished or even reprimanded further he even states that they were justified however there's a distinct difference between whether something is moral or justified anyway i'm nitpicking here's the passage so you can judge for yourself although pussyfoot johnson's political operations failed by a large margin to conform strictly to the christian principles upon which the league had been founded neither he nor others who employed similar 'variations' were ever punished or even reprimanded it was generally felt by prohibition leaders that since the league acted as the agent of the churches and was therefore engaged upon the lord's business anything was justified which might help gain the ends desired by the almighty