When a public servant takes public money or misuses privileges for his personal gain, how can you say it is wrong? What happened to the most peace-loving and tolerant culture, why are we becoming intolerant? Are we not post-modern thinkers now? Are we not better educated now? Don’t we believe that there is nothing like right or wrong in this world?
Recently I was watching a talk show where one IIM-B professor said “there is nothing right or wrong in the philosophical sense”. I even heard many popular new age gurus say the same thing. One very popular guru when asked about how to make a decision between right and wrong, he answered “there is never a situation to make a decision between right or wrong only between good or better”. Even one popular Indian philosopher in his monumental speech in Chicago said that right and wrong are relative. You may have heard this statement many a time, “Good to me may not be good to you”. So what is big deal against corruption? Why are we wearing this “Holier than thou” mask, like some people who say, corruption is a sin. Sin is an old-fashioned term; but not for us anymore.
Wake up! We don’t like morals anymore; we redefined them. Now we simply call them values. We believe everything is ok as long as it does not hurt anyone. We have opinion poll, talk shows to tell us what everyone thinks, what everyone does is normal and what is normal is good. Did we not re-define what sexuality is all about. Whether it is between opposite sex or same sex or with animal or things? How can anyone say it is wrong as long as you are enjoying and not forcing someone? Now we don’t prefer marriage, we just live in. Our psychologists also say that guilt and shame are just normal feelings and there is nothing right or wrong about it. Our new philosophical minds have legitimized all that we thought before were wrong. So just take it easy, don’t be judgmental. Let people be themselves. In fact we all believe that man is essentially good, only our behavior sometimes lets us down.
Ok let’s now forget about public servants, even in our daily lives don’t we believe that its OK to download pirated movies and MP3s, use pirated software, get unqualified certificates to get jobs, get false medical bills, tamper electricity/water meters? etc. Don’t you know dowry is still very common in India? Aren’t we traditionally driven to gift some goodies to compensate our lack of merit? The decisions that we make daily are driven by our values and our values are driven by our beliefs and our beliefs are formed by our worldview. So, what I do is driven by what I believe.
So a pluralistic country like India cannot logically fight against corruption because a we believes that evil is illusion, there is no distinction between right or wrong. It believes in an amoral world. An atheistic or a non-theistic or a humanistic or an agnostic also does not believe in absolute morality. A name-sake Christian who does not live by its teachings cannot say corruption is wrong, in fact he takes part in many corrupt practices. I think only a true follower of Jesus Christ can legitimately fight against corruption first, by example because he or she believes in absolute morality which the Bible consistently differentiates sin from righteousness.
Anyone can practice some good morals without being a committed follower of Jesus and fight against corruption saying that is an evil in our society and rightly so, but logically we cannot explain on what basis we consider them good and live consistently by our worldview, in fact we contradict. It does not mean that all those who follow Jesus are absolutely sinless, no, they fail sometimes but they are being perfected day by day by thriving to be like Jesus.
So if we are fighting against corruption? that is good, but why are we doing so? It is foolish to fight against some areas of corruption or any form of evil if you don’t believe in absolute morals and it is hypocrisy to point a speck in another’s eye when you have a plank in your own. First remove the plank from your own eye, so that we can clearly see the speck in other’s eyes and help to remove.
Once Jesus entered and walked through Jericho. There was a man there, his name Zacchaeus, the head tax man and quite rich. He wanted desperately to see Jesus, but the crowd was in his way, he was a short man and couldn’t see over the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by.
When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home.” Zacchaeus scrambled out of the tree, hardly believing his good luck, delighted to take Jesus home with him. Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, “What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?”
Zacchaeus just stood there, a little stunned. He stammered apologetically, “Master, I give away half my income to the poor—and if I’m caught cheating, I pay four times the damages.” Jesus said, “Today is salvation day in this home! Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”
This is the greatest anti-corruption movement that can happen anywhere, recognizing the corruption in our own heart which is the source of all forms of corruption and seeking God’s help to transform us from being corrupt to pure and truthful individuals and change agents.
