'To Bless All Mankind' September 28, 2015 Issue

Overcoming corruption through understanding God

Lyle Young

Originally printed in The Christian Science Monitor, July 29, 2015.

Truly, corruption can greatly affect the quality of life in a country. And where the justice system is open to being bought, it may be hard to feel happy about your neighbors and your country.

While laws play a key role, ultimately eliminating corruption requires changing attitudes and perceptions. And here our concept of God enters the picture. Does humanity labor under a misconception of God, and does that “corrupted” sense of God color our perception of those around us—lowering our expectation of ourselves and others, diminishing our expectation of quality of life?

When St. Paul preached on Mars’ Hill in Athens, he educated his listeners about the “unknown God” (Acts 17:23). He put aside the stereotypes about God as being a far-off spiritual being who created the world and generally leaves it up to us to be moral or not, and then punishes us here or hereafter for our behavior. He defined God as knowable.

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