The Eruption Of Corruption Interruption

Last week, I started a three-part series on the worldwide eruption of corruption, especially in the United States. You've heard and seen the headlines: public servants demanding or accepting money or favors in exchange for services; politicians misusing public funds or granting public jobs or contracts to their sponsors, friends, and families; and corporations bribing officials to secure lucrative deals. As I said last week, it’s all around us, personally, nationally, and globally. 

Last week, we defined corruption as the misuse of public or private power for personal gain. It harms society by wasting public funds, slowing economic growth, increasing poverty, and eroding public trust in leaders and the law. Simply put, corruption is "the abuse of entrusted power for private gain." 

In his 1991 book, “Corruption and Sin: Reflections on the Theme of Corruption,” Pope Francis offers real insight into corruption. 

“The problem of corruption had become so widespread that people began to expect it as a normal part of life. While many sins can lead to corruption, sinners recognize their own weakness and the possibility of forgiveness. From there, the power of God can come in. But corrupt people, on the other hand, have become blind to God, replacing God with their own powers and abilities. A sinner expects forgiveness. The corrupt, on the contrary, don’t because they don’t feel they have sinned. They have prevailed.”

Pope Francis also said, “One who is corrupt is so holed up in the satisfaction of his own self-sufficiency that his bloated self-esteem refuses to face the reality of his fraudulent and opportunistic behavior. They’re afraid of the light because their souls have taken on the attributes of an earthworm: in the shadows and underground.”

Corruption, however, can never remain hidden forever; evidence of it eventually oozes or bursts forth, like all things forced to stay closed in or wrapped too tightly within themselves. But the corrupt don't notice the stench; "It's like bad breath. Rarely does the person with bad breath realize it. It's others who notice it, and they must point it out for him. But the amount of built-up resistance in a corrupt person (or institution) is enormous."

Corruption isn’t a single act but a state of being, a culture that an individual or an entire society can become caught up in and accustomed to without realizing it. Pope Francis called for “our constant vigilance because a condition of daily complicity with sin can lead us to corruption. Corruption is worse than any sin because it hardens the heart against feeling shame or guilt and hearing God’s call for conversion.”

Here is what God thinks of corruption. Proverbs 17:23: A wicked man accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the course of justice. Isaiah 1:4: Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. Hosea 9:9: They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.

Amos 5:12: For I know how many your offenses are and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. Ecclesiastes 7:7: Extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart. Micah 7:3: Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire – they all conspire together. Isaiah 61:8: “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing.”

Here’s a series of thoughts that summarize corruption: As God disappears from a culture, the door to corruption opens, and an eruption follows. Don't let the corruption on the outside of you get inside of you. Corruption flourishes in cultures without consequences – corruption works because no one stops it. Sin and corruption are intimately linked. Corruption, like plaque in an artery, is clutter – everything takes longer, costs more, creates relational poverty, and is deadly to both the victimizer and the victim. Compromise is the doormat of corruption. Corruption is The Ultimate Selfishness. 

Corruption thrives on companionship and multiplies. It is a ‘blinding darkness’ – a darkness that corrupts entire systems and people. The corruption of who and what are supposed to be the best in society becomes the most corrupt and worst of all. That affects everyone beneath it. Corruption erodes trust – no one trusts anyone, especially large institutions and influencers. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, corruption sometimes hides behind fig leaves of goodness, romancing poverty for political or financial gain. It's time to elevate the less fortunate without romancing poverty. 

Institutional corruption invites institutional judgment. Economic power can’t shield moral corruption. Just because a nation or leader has money doesn't mean God approves what they're doing. Corruption has a shelf-life; it will eventually be exposed.

In a way, many of you knew corruption but didn't know it well enough to do anything about it. This writing is not political; it's biblical. It should be something that all of us, no matter what the political party, can agree upon. Next week, let's explore what we can do about it. Let's step into our uplifting, God-sized future.