more power to you!

DO NOT BE WEARY IN DOING GOOD FOR WE WILL REAP A HARVEST IF WE DO NOT
GIVE UP.

There’s nothing left for us to do but to set an example. In the midst of this lying world, be true. And give glory to the God whom we claim
to be ours. then they will see. Mamamangha sila. Ewan ko lang kung magiging honest sila also after nilang mamangha. Pweo malaking bagay na yun na may nakita silang honest. na kahit naghihirap na at pinahihirapan na, honest pa rin. I think thats the way.

And also teach them. Tell them that God sees everything we do, be it seen by other people or hidden from all other people. Ans God will
reward and punish us accorfing to the things we do, be it seen by people and more so weightily, those deeds not seen by other people.

then, pray for them and for yourself.

Our country is full of talents. But we are at the bottom of the list cuz i think primarily because of this culture of ours: cheating and lying and robbing, etcetcetc. no honor, no integrity, no virtue or anything like that. yet we are still confident, that there are worse people than the
filipinos. and that within each filipino heart is a hunger and willingness to do good. they just need examples, perhaps.

am quite adamant about me posting a lengthy message.

Yet anyway I will do it here for the purpose of making inroads in ethical discussions. The following is my reflection on the issue of “bribery” as it relates to postmodernity and one Christian writer’s persuasion to deconstruct ethics.

I am sorry for the length. I couldn’t help but
participate. He he he.

======================
Bribery
by John Pesebre

There seems to be a substantial unanimity in OT scholars to put bribery as “despicable” in the sight of YHWH. We can see this in Jehoshaphat’s charge to the newly appointed judges, “Now let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Judge carefully, for with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery” (2 Chron. 19:7). The epistemic foundation of
this verse seems to be the character of God of the Bible. There is a tacit confrontation of the God of the Bible and the reality of men.

We may also notice that the association of the verse with “injustice and partiality” is an association of crime and punishment. According to Beyse, “the transgression of bribery is found primarily in legal materials.” Scriptures indicate that this is a crime
prohibited by God in the law of God (Ex. 23:8; Deut. 16:19). Hastings includes “bribery” in the Crimes and Punishment section.

The Hebrew law condemns everything that would tend to impair the impartial administration of justice, particularly the giving and receiving of gifts or bribes, in order to pervert judgment (Exo 23:8).

Allusions are frequent to the prevailing corruption of oriental judges and rulers. “And fire shall consume the tents of bribery” (Job 15:34; 1Sa 8:3; Psa 26:10; Isa 1:23; Isa 33:15; Eze 22:12).

An inquiry may find a modest outcome in the ANE literature because “certain forms of bribery were common in legal and business transactions .” However, “other ANE
documents indicate that bribery of judges to alter averdict was condemned.” “In the code set down by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, bribery was a punishable offense.”

The narrative of the Bible seems to present the
prohibition of “bribery” as normative both in the
social life of the people and their laws.

The problem arises in the distinction between a
“bribe” and a “gift.” The problem of dxv seems to be that in two passages in proverbs it is ethically good:

Proverbs 21:14 A gift given in secret soothes anger, and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great wrath.

Proverbs 18:16 A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.

Some paraphrased version interprets this as something very favorable,

(Good News Bible) Do you want to meet an important person? Take a gift and it will be easy.

(Contemporary English Version) A gift will get you in to see anyone.

(The Message) A gift gets attention; it buys the
attention of eminent people.

It was in this seeming faltering idea that Bernard Adeney in his book Strange Virtues roots his argument:
“a single perspective on bribery cannot be forced on the Bible, because different verses were written at different times for different contexts for different people.” The praxis “cannot be forced on the Bible”
comes from a definite incongruity of biblical data.

John Sanders has argued that in a case of seeming contradiction in the Bible, we should not put preference to the position that has more biblical support because the one with very less biblical citation is also an inspired word. Given Sander’s premise, Adeney’s proposal seems warranted.

However, given the constant appeal of Adeney not to make quick judgments, he seems to do so here. It is not hard to determine that the “bribe” in Proverbs 18:16 and 21:14 is of a different semantic because of two reasons. First, the translation “bribe” in these
passages is not “shochad” but “mattan”. Keil and Delitsch, argues using Hitzig, that
that one mistakes the meaning of the proverb.

The second reason is that even if we will use the English translation of the word “bribe” it is also dutiful to categorize it in Proverbs 18:16 and 21:14 of a different nuance. Like K & D’s use of Hetzig above, the bribe of the verse does not mean he wants to avail, circumvent or prevent justice but a simple “free space, a free path for himself . . . that he shows himself to be agreeable, pleasing where it avails.” The other nuance is to “persuade somebody
with enticement: to give somebody money or some other incentive to do something, especially something illegal or dishonest.”

It was very clear that Adeney was trying to
deconstruct the meaning of “bribery.” He was trying to make the meaning of bribery unstable so that who will give its meaning may shift from the original intended meaning to the reader – in Adeney’s case, the cross-cultural missionary. Yet when we employ to Adeney his tingling impulse for textual analysis, we find that he was not really dutiful. He was not able
to overcome the fact that the bribe-versus-gift
problem is not ethical but semantics. His first duty as a postmodern is to do textual analysis first before jumping into ethics. When Derrida critiqued his teacher Foucault, he subjected Foucault’s History of Madness to a battery of questions relative to textual analysis.

The irony of it all is that postmodernity’s advocate has become its violator. What I mean by this is that the deconstructionist has confined the word bribery to a limited meaning, that is, the act of transfer of good from one hand to another. This does not sound
like a definition from a self- obsessed “overeducated” man.

John Ricafrente Pesebre
Academic Officer and Professor of Systematic Theology Conservative Baptist Seminary – Asia
4/F Back to the Bible Building
#135 West Ave., Quezon City
(00632) 4156793; Fax (00632) 3719491
My Cellphone number is 0906-3034243

then others will see you as a leader, when they see how happy you are that you live a life of integrity and soulfulness, as well as success.

the key in that is not giving up before your success happens.

A few weeks back, while browsing my favorite blogs, I noticed an interesting post by David Maister entitled “How to Get Ahead: Lie and Cheat?“. I threw my 2 cents and shared the result of a study on CEO Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Corporate M…

@ Deb– thank you. You are correct, we must start the revolution in the family. Setting standards that our kids will bring to the real world.

@ demoralized– just relax, keep on being responsible and at the end, fairness will prevail

@sisterinthought– in deed. The thought that we may be in an unpleasant situation because of our principles to transform us and change our character is good enough reason to hang on. Plus the fact that one day, the truth will prevail.

Do not lose faith in the fact that there are people in position of power who stand for what is right. Yes there are many individuals who may choose to use unethical devises, but in the end they lose. We must count it all joy when we are faced with difficult and challenging moments because they are for a greater purpose. Each obstacle represents an opportunity for incredible change-a change that goes beyond our imagination and leads to freedom. Although being in the status quo is comfortable – it can lead to one’s demise. A weak man can never stand against a man with strong character- believe that! And do not be fooled by the illusions of the world for they are passing even as we speak.

I am in the process of a career transition and I have learned a valuable lesson: The process of change initiated by God cultivates a man/woman into one with greater character and courage. A greater character results in self assurance/acknowledgement, power and an ability to drive effective change all for the glory of God. So please do not count your good works in vain for in due season you shall reap your just reward.

May peace be onto you.