Posts Tagged ‘white collar crime’
The Attacks – 6: White-Collar Crime – Greed
White-collar crime includes fraud, forgery, bribery, embezzlement, tax evasion on a large scale, companies swindling companies and people, companies defrauding governments funded by the taxpayer; cartels, monopolies, and so it goes on. All motivated by GREED.
We don’t bother about it too much until we see a real case reported in the press. It’s easy for both onlookers and operators to forget this IS criminal activity, it IS sin, and its bottom line is usually pain and suffering for someone.
“He who oppresses the poor to make more for himself, or who gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.”
Proverbs 22:17“The acquisition of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor, the pursuit of DEATH.”
Proverbs 21:6
My inspiration for this drawing came from a recent newspaper report about an elderly couple who were defrauded out of their life-savings and left in debt by the combined efforts of a shonky lawyer and a shady investment company. I used the idea because it is here that we see the effect of white-collar crime on real people – a middle-aged, honest working couple who, trusting their “advisors”, have just unwittingly signed away their life savings on a crooked deal.
White-Collar Crime : Fraud
Here is a more recent report in the New Zealand Herald of the havoc caused in the lives of ordinary people by the actions of Blue Chip boss Mark Bryers, who has had a total of 73 charges laid against him. Unfortunately, bringing these people to some form of justice does not mend the damage they have caused.
Right now the bugs are well and truly coming out of the woodwork. Finance institutions and banks going to the wall, major players in the manufacturing industries going offshore and laying off staff while paying their top brass outrageous salaries, individuals burned by plummeting real estate prices after being encouraged to borrow with no equity – all of these things are symptomatic of greed operating unchecked in commerce.
Cunning as ever, the devil sows the seeds for this greed with the same stealth as with drugs and drink – small frauds to start with – “nice lttle successes”, then gradually getting bigger as the serpent’s grip tightens. Someone somewhere said very truly:
“No-one goes off the rails overnight. You get into these sins one small step at a time, and each time the process gets easier until you are well and truly enmeshed in wrongdoing.”
It is shocking how many high-flyers and CEOs in these companies lined their own pockets with shareholders’ and lenders’ money, knowing full well their companies were foundering. The sight of these people, rushing in private jets and limos to persuade government – the taxpayers like you and I who are struggling to make ends meet – to bail them out of their self-made difficulties is nauseating.
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.
BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.”
Saint Paul in Romans 12:19-20, quoting Proverbs 25:22
None of us are in any doubt about the seriousness of the current financial situation. Take up a Bible, or go to BibleGateway.com and read Proverbs. I believe there is a purpose behind all our current woes.
The Creator is starting to call in the cards.
Put To The Test
In the post “The Attacks 6: White-Collar Crime” I quoted the following scripture:
Unbeknown to me, matters were already in train that would put me to the test on that very issue.
I’d been hired by a woman living locally (whom I had never met), to install a membership site. I worked on the job for almost 3 weeks. First of all I had to work through with her a complete redesign of the rather shoddy site she already had, with a lot of chopping and changing about how she wanted it to look. Then out of the blue she reneged on the deal and said she had to go back to the friend who had been building it in the first place. She had offered me $5000 to take on the job and she freely acknowledged that she owed me that money regardless, but said she was unable to pay until she got the site up and earning.
I very much doubted I’d recover the money or any part of it without a fight – which has proved to be correct. Several people (Christian and otherwise) voiced their thoughts about taking her to the Small Claims Tribunal, and of course I knew all about that. What’s more, I had a written acknowledgement from her that she had breached our contract.
I pondered on this for some days. I was devastated, of course. – and the Devil kept kindly reminding me that I had probably been the subject of a behind-the-scenes hatchet job : something that really upset and rankled me. On top of that came all the goads about needing to stand up for oneself and not be a wimp.
As I wandered around in this cloud of negativity, struggling with the Devil’s confusion tactics, I could only hold onto the Lord blindly for all I was worth, and keep affirming that despite appearances I knew He was working in the situation. I kept on asking Him to show me what to do.
I have to say I got absolutely no peace until I made the decision to let the whole thing go, much as I needed the money.
On the day the decision was finally made I had to drive about 3 hours on business and I used the driving time to seek His presence. I have never felt closer to Him than I did at that time. Moreover, as the decision crystallized and I began to put the Devil behind me, scriptures in support came flooding into my head – including the quote above. This continued over a couple of days, with the rightness of the decision becoming more and more apparent as time passed.
It was made very clear that not only is there nowhere in scripture where the Lord tells us to pursue our debtors into the courts : such action is in breach of the words of the Lord’s own Prayer, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Ooops! And the only time He is on record as mentioning the recovery of debt in court, He makes it plain such action is best avoided at all costs.
I was also granted a very powerful insight into how the Full Armor of God works. Though some people tried to tell me that as a Christian I’d have its protection if I went ahead and pressed my claim, I was given a much deeper insight than that. I was shown that the full armor of God works only when we are walking in the spirit and following God’s guidance. Suddenly the awareness came to me that the courts are Pharaoh’s system, and if I chose to use that, I would quite rightfully forfeit the benefit of God’s protecting armor. How slippery is the slope we stand upon if we do not listen VERY CAREFULLY to what the Holy Spirit has to tell us, and really open our hearts to what the Lord wants us to learn! How easy is it even for believers to be drawn astray and then wonder why God was not with them!
Once my decision was made, the peace of mind was mind-blowing.
I became humbly grateful for the whole awful experience, because I realised without question it had been one of the most valuable in my whole Christian walk to date, and I’d been given the opportunity to step up a notch in maturity and gain a new insight into the Lord and His ways.
I came out from that experience with the absolute conviction that what I had gained was worth far more than the $5000 I’d lost. I am still of that view, nearly a year later, which is why I want to share this insight.
Hallelujah!
One other thing was made blindingly clear to me. There are many people who read and quote scripture – it’s not that hard to do. Where the difficulty can lie for all of us is to see the application of the Word to the events of OUR OWN lives, especially when we have vested interests at stake. It’s the mote and the beam …
Peace.
Patricia
PS: Some months later, the Lord showed me that He had been working on my finances all along. I am not out of the woods yet, but my greatest financial concern is being taken care of. That is another story.