[Avodah] Publicizing a Chillul Hashem

[Akiva Miller]

.
I'm currently discussing a specific event on Areivim, and this is the place
to ask my question in general terms:

If someone commits a public Chillul Hashem, of course we must protest it to
the onlookers, to impress upon them how awful and unacceptable such
behavior is. I think Pinchas is an adequate demonstration of this.

My question concerns the people who DON'T know about the event. Is it a
chiyuv / mitzva / good idea to inform them about this, so that we can tell
them how awful it was and that they should not do such things?

My feeling is that one should NOT tell other people about it, because that
very act will be a Chillul Hashem itself (or at least akin to Chillul
Hashem) because this new information will tend to desensitize people about
such things. This is especially true if the perpetrator of the Chillul
Hashem is someone who the audience perceives as an admirable frum Jew.
One's brain - or at least a tiny part of it - will inevitably be influenced
to think that "If such a person is doing it, it can't be so terrible." This
desensitization - this lessening of respect for Hashem and His Torah - is
the very definition of Chillul Hashem.

If someone already knows about the event, then his mind has already been
poisoned, and we must act like Pinchas, to mitigate the damage to whatever
extent we can. But telling the blissfully ignorant - I see no positive
value to such a thing.

Are there any sources that anyone can suggest which discuss this question?

Akiva Miller
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