“Dishonesty”

Religious people have, for many years, bemoaned the moral decline of Western Civilization. In the US we hear a lot about this nation's problems, but they're not really specific to the US.

Religious activists and 'leaders' -- the people in the news or quoted in the editorials -- generally claim that the solution lies with the government. They would have everything regulated, essentially turning the government into the "morality police." Others believe that the solution is for everybody to start going "back to church" to be reminded of their morals and where they came from.

The issues discussed most are related to sex, drugs, and violence: premarital sex and cohabitation, increased acceptance of "alternative" life styles, widespread use of recreational drugs, glorified violence in the entertainment industry (TV, movies, video games, etc), homicide rates in our inner cities, etc., etc., etc.

The most basic trait of a moral character is honesty, yet little or nothing is said about it by the activists. Religious "leaders" almost never use the word, but surely some of them must realize that a complete breakdown of honesty by all of the religious and secular "leaders" is a much more serious problem than who's having an affair or getting high.

Humanists like to believe that people are basically good, and that laws (including the consequences of breaking them) are needed to punish the few who are not. How, then, can the news be filled with these monumental fiascos, every day?

• Enron and Worldcom and all the other companies that did something similar
• Pedophile priests all over the world, and the leaders who protected them for decades, and who are still protecting them
• Bill Clinton, Buddy Cianci, and Gary Condit: all names of people that you wouldn't trust alone in a room with your kid or even a wallet containing more than $2, but these are examples of the people that have run our governments for the last decade

There's a principle of honesty and trustworthiness which says that if a man can be trusted in the little things, then he can be trusted in the big things, and if a man can't be trusted in the little things then he can't be trusted in the big things.

What would life be like if we could actually trust the words that come out of the mouths of this country's religious, business, and political leaders, and we knew that not only were they telling the truth, but they were telling the whole truth, keeping no secrets from those they serve?

What if we could believe that our competitors in the marketplace would never do anything sneaky or underhanded, would use fair and honst marketing tactics, and would only try to succeed based on hard work, a good product, and a bit of luck?

What if everybody paid for the software they use? (Can you claim to be honest if you don't?) What if husbands and wives did their very best to never even look "that way" at another person of the opposite sex?

What if children were taught that there really is such a thing as "wrong," that it has consequences and is to be avoided?

Sadly, life teaches us that this world just described doesn't exist, and we can't create it. Dishonest people can't create an honest world without first choosing to be honest.