Actually people can do both. I am doing neither.You can lie to yourself but you can't lie to others....I don't claim to be morally superior. I claim to be awake.Unfortunately true.I always get a good laugh when folks proclaim themselves to be morally superior. Folks like Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, etc... They're the ones who fall the hardest.
It's fine to stand for a cause and to fervently believe in one's own perceptions, but to believe they are morally superior crosses the line, IMHO.
Those you mentioned deserved to fall. They preyed on others even as they claimed they prayed for the weak.
Your belief in what is moral is defined by society. I have a higher standard than that.