SENTINEL WATCH December 6, 2010 Issue

CASTING OUT CORRUPTION IN GOVERNMENT

JEREMY CARPER

While justice was served eventually, in the short term Pete was out of a job. He found work after a time directing security for a large corporation in the private sector, but he missed the camaraderie and sense of public service associated with his earlier career.

Sometimes we may be tempted to think of corruption in local governments as taking place in some exotic locale like the tropics, or in developing countries, and not necessarily something that might be going on in our own backyard. But as a recent government salary scandal in the working-class town of Bell, California, indicated, allegations of corruption, sometimes on a surprisingly massive scale, may found in all kinds of places.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to find a need to clean up our governments. Nearly 3,000 years ago, Amos, the Biblical prophet of social justice, observed, perhaps with a touch of cynicism, "You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts. Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil" (Amos 5:12, 13, New International Version). Confronted with venality in the public sector, we might be tempted to "keep quiet" or give up. But Amos goes on in the next verse to point out that the remedy is to turn to God: "Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you...."

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