Ethics, Scandal, And Doing What’s Right In Your Own Eyes

The US federal government has been hit with a double whammy. First the GSA scandal, then the one involving the Secret Service.

I actually had to look up the General Services Administration because I’d never heard of them. How in the world could they be wasting a million dollars (the amount I heard projected for the lavish conferences they were due to hold this year) of taxpayer money and I’d never heard of them?

In researching the organization ever so briefly, I discovered this:

GSA employs about 12,000 federal workers and has an annual operating budget of roughly $26.3 billion. GSA oversees $66 billion of procurement annually.

So apparently wasting a paltry million dollars is no big thing to them.

How ironic that there’s an effort to raise taxes, nationally and in the state of California, which some of us oppose on the grounds that the money going to government isn’t being spent well.

And speaking of money not being spent well, do you think tax dollars went into procuring the prostitutes for those Secret Service and military attachés?

Lust or greed, which is the worst scandal?

The thing is, none of this should surprise us. We taught a generation of our children that they are valuable, important, and deserve all the best there is. What’s more, we reduced morality to not getting caught.

So those children grew up and conceived of ways to get what they wanted by using government and business to their own advantage, legally or illegally. Mitt Romney went into corporate raiding — legal, to be sure, but ethical? Good for the people who worked at the companies being gutted?

And we had a President who felt no compulsion about lying to the grand jury to cover up his sexual liaisons, and another candidate for the Presidency who saw no problem with using campaign funds to provide for his mistress so that he could keep her hidden.

Greed and lust.

Our athletes and movie stars are role models for lust. Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Wilt Chamberlain — these are the Lakers stars who have won championships for the city of LA, but they were also involved in sexual scandal at some point in their past. Movie and TV stars are apt to change sex partners or spouses as often as they change roles.

Greed we see in every commercial that tells consumers they just have to have the next new gadget that is faster, shinier, cooler, hotter, flashier. When do we have enough? Never. Not as long as our economy depends on us spending. So greed needs to be ramped to a fever pitch as often as possible: Get those consumers confident so they’ll go in debt some more.

All of it is so reminiscent of the days before Israel had a king. In reality, God was to be their King, but instead, every man did what was right in his own eyes (see Judges 17:6 and 21:25).

Scripture catalogs gang rape, rampant homosexuality, murder, civil war, sex trafficking, hypocrisy. These were supposed to be the people of God, but they were choosing to live like the peoples around them who worshiped idols.

God would give them over to conquerors, but in His graciousness, when they cried out to Him in repentance, would then send a judge to rescue them.

If only we in the US would recognize the road we’re on — it leads to destruction. There’s only one way off, and it has nothing to do with electing the right people in November. It has everything to do with getting on our faces and repenting for doing what is right in our own eyes rather than listening to and obeying God and His Word.