To Cry About

He's trying to persuade them not to join an organisation that uses violence, yes. This is stated pretty explicitly in the chapter, but perhaps it's worth mentioning that Joel fully believes in the nonviolence of Dorothy Day and Daniel Berrigan; he's not just using it as an excuse to throw at Department H. He thinks it's worth thousands of dollars to keep a friend from doing violence, so he pays up. There was never any other option for a character like that.