INTEGRITY

Wake Forest University philosophy professor Christian B. Miller, author of The Character Gap: How Good Are We? Says “From my perspective as a philosopher, honesty is stunningly neglected, Almost no work about honesty has been done in philosophy in the last 50 years. It’s been largely overlooked.” And yet, when you ask people what they consider to be the most important virtue, a great majority will include honesty.

We are in integrity crises of the greatest proportion. That may sound overreaching, but I think it cannot be overstated. We are in an integrity free-fall that is destroying our country. Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. In an article titled “The Death of Integrity in America” Don Koening (2008) states, “at one time in America a man’s word was his bond, most people had integrity. Today about one half of Americans simply cannot be trusted anymore.” He states the root causes of the lack of integrity appear to be selfishness and having no empathy or love for others. It’s all about ME.

In a recent email to our community men’s golf group the writer said, “Integrity and golf are inseparable for fair play.”

About a year ago I was playing golf with three other guys. Three of us were on the green but one guy was in the rough just off the green and had a difficult shot. But he was just looking around not getting ready to play and to my surprise as I turned my head and looked back at him his ball was no longer in the rough but just off the edge of the green. I guess he used the foot wedge. 😊

If asked if integrity is important most all of us would say yes, but if asked why it is important, we would all have different answers.

Here are 12 Reasons taken from aconsciousrethink.com

1. It underpins trust in a relationship.

2. It is easier to understand.

3. You are more likely to get what you want.

4. It makes space for others to be vulnerable.

5. It shows respect.

6. It almost always leads to the best outcomes in the long run.

7. It is simple.

8. It is better for your mental health / inner peace.

9. It is good for your self-esteem.

10. It is a demonstration of your character.

11. It is hard to challenge.

12. It keeps toxic people away.

The truth is we like honest people because we can trust them.

I was an IBM manager for several years and at one management school they stated that they had taken a survey of 100 managers of what they wanted in a manager and honesty was at the top of the list.

Managers wanted honest managers.

Think of a time when some adult you trusted lied to you? How did that impact you? Sometimes people never get over it.

When I was the executive pastor of a fairly large church the chairman of our leadership board came to me and said “The elders think you are doing a great job and we are going to look for a new executive pastor.”

After doing some research years later my conclusion was that he thought he was making an honest statement. His reasoning was that most of the board thought I was doing a great job but some didn’t and so they all voted to replace me. From my view it was weird that all the leaders thought I was doing great but they were firing me. It didn’t make sense. So I was fired and God has used it for good in my life in so many different ways even though the statement wasn’t exactly truthful.

Lying is destroying our country:

Because of our lying we have had a huge Increase in Litigation and Lawyers

According to Jurgen O. Skoppek “the growth of litigation is destroying the free market, and consequently freedom of choice.” Skoppek also said the number of civil cases in America from 1970 – 1986 increased by 192%. He states there is a “litigation explosion” in contemporary America. So in order to support this growth the number of lawyers must also increase. For a lot of years this has been fairly stable. From 1880 to 1970 the number of lawyers as a percent of the population only grew 24% but from 1970 – 2020 the growth was 157%.

So, Why do we lie? Here are just a couple of reasons:

We lie to control an outcome we want:

The New York Times published an article that documents the persistence of lies told by police to gain a conviction. Through their investigation, the Times discovered that in more than 25 instances since 2015, judges or prosecutors concluded that a New York City police officer likely presented false testimony. Such cases—most of which are sealed—were identified through interviews with lawyers, police officers and current or former judges.

We lie to enhance our Self esteem

University of Massachusetts psychologist Robert Feldman. Says “It boils down to the shifting sands of the self and trying to look good both to ourselves and others. “It’s tied in with self-esteem,” says “We find that as soon as people feel that their self-esteem is threatened, they immediately begin to lie.” For instance, in one experiment, Feldman put two strangers in a room together. They were videotaped while they conversed. Later, independently, each was asked to view the tape and identify anything they had said that was not entirely accurate. Rather than defining what counts as a lie and to avoid the moral tone of the word “lie,” Feldman’s experimenters simply asked subjects after the fact to identify anything they had said in the video that was “not entirely accurate.” Initially, “Each subject said, ‘Oh, I was entirely accurate,'” Feldman told LiveScience. Upon watching themselves on video, subjects were genuinely surprised to discover they had said something inaccurate. The lies ranged from pretending to like someone they actually disliked to falsely claiming to be the star of a rock band.

The study, published in the Journal of Basic and Applied Psychology, found that 60 percent of people had lied at least once during the 10-minute conversation. “People almost lie reflexively,” Feldman says. “They don’t think about it as part of their normal social discourse.”

But we lie mostly for financial gain:

In an article by Amar Bhide & Howard H. Stevenson they said “Treachery, we found, can pay. There is no compelling economic reason to tell the truth or keep one’s word—punishment for the treacherous in the real world is neither swift nor sure.” One in six Americans said they lied on their taxes.

We also tie dishonesty to certain professions. In a 2022 Gallup poll  people were asked to rate Honesty/Ethichs in professions. (Highest to lowest) Here are some of them:

• Nurses, Medical Doctors, Police officers, Clergy, Judges, Bankers, Lawyers, Journalists, Car salesmen, members of congress, and finally telemarketers

In April of 2016, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that politicians can lie during political campaigns. In Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, the Court ruled a politician’s right to lie during a campaign is protected under the free speech provision of the First Amendment.

Lying is beneficial financially but is it better??

Ecclesiastes 5:12 ¹² Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

John D. Rockefeller at age 53 was the world’s only Billionaire. In 1913 his net worth in today’s dollars was $400 Billion. He worried so much over his assets that he was living on a diet of milk and crackers and was close to death. John Wesley advised him to start being generous and he started tithing to his church. His health turned around and his businesses continue to grow and he lived to be 97 years old.

How do we stop?

Knowing that we have nothing to hide:

• Proverbs 10:9 “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his way crooked will be found out.”

For me it’s knowing that telling the truth pleases God.

• Proverbs 12:22 The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth.

Proverbs 28:18a states “Whoever walks in integrity will be delivered”

God is on the side of a person who walks in integrity.