An excerpt from
Blinders...
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA (insistent): You're afraid of him, Caiaphas. He's not a buffoon--he's a threat! A threat to your power.
CAIAPHAS (steam coming out his ears): How dare you abuse this office so!
JOSEPH (gathering his courage): It no longer matters. I renounce my standing as a member of the Council.
CAIAPHAS (stunned): You what?
JOSEPH I now claim as my master this one you have just consigned to death.
CAIAPHAS (incredulous): You are not only insulting, but making a very dangerous--and costly--mistake.
JOSEPH (sadly; seeing the futility): I was hoping you might see...
CAIAPHAS (exasperated): Why are you doing this to me?
JOSEPH: I'm not doing it to you--or anyone else, for that matter. I'm doing it for me.
CAIAPHAS (with quiet, measured menace): Joseph. Joseph of Arimathea. I care nothing for you or your (mockingly) precious new faith. If you choose to believe the blasphemous rantings of this man, then proceed--at your own risk. And if there were no other considerations, I would run you out of town myself, gladly. (pause) But there are considerations. The Council is much bigger than the collection of its members. And the Council is much more important than the soiled reputation of one of its members. I will not have this august body compromised by your preposterous loyalties. (pause; with venomous satisfaction) I would gladly bring upon you disgrace of the most public kind--but I will not. I will not subject our governing Council to such infamy. (pause; sneering) You represent all that is the worst of your generation! You care nothing for our rich heritage. You so easily discard centuries of tradition for something still in its infancy! You and your kind are never satisfied. And your sedition infects us like a cancer. I detest you. And I detest this Jesus and what he has done to us.
From the Sketch, Blinders
