Crisis of Confidence ?

Our Nation is experiencing a “crisis of character” that produces an insecurity in all decision-making and results in a “crisis of confidence.”

In a recent interview of Chuck Colson, by Dr. Joe Stowell, President, Moody Bible Institute, Chuck addressed the “crisis of character” issue in our Ivy League Universities. “But it’s the direct result of what we’ve been teaching in our business schools for the last twenty years. I went to Harvard in 1991 and wrote an article saying: Harvard had taken a $22 Million grant, from a friend of mine, as a matter of fact, to teach an ethics course. I wrote an article saying why Harvard can’t teach ethics. Harvard Business School wrote me a nasty letter and said they were teaching ethics. I wrote them back that they couldn’t teach ethics, because ethics derives from the Greek ethos, which means an absolute, a hiding place, a resting place is what ethos means literally, and ethics rests upon absolute. Harvard, as an institution is committed philosophically to relativism, so it’s impossible.”

In a culture and season of time when we have no “foundation” on which we choose to build our personal and professional lives the outcome is really quite predictable. Our economy has received yet another “performance shock” that has caused this “crisis of confidence.”  The real culprit is a “crisis of character” in our leaders and in most of the business world in general. We accept “whatever it takes” to get results in the name of performance instead of filtering our decisions through our God-given consciences and standing firm on the decision adjusted by our conviction. Conviction arises from what we learn from God’s Word and the confirmation through our conscience of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God Himself.

It’s the small impurities that escape through the filter of the conscience that eventually clog the flow of truth in our dealings in all areas of our life. As those impure decisions begin to “mount up” we are no longer even aware of the “ethical issues” (an academic description for just “telling the truth”) that we have faced and failed to select “what’s right” in favor of “what’s best” (in our blinded state of vision)

When “all hidden things are revealed” the truth will triumph but much pain, damage and loss will have been left in the destructive wake of the “crisis of character”. However, There is a better way ! Pray that our Nation will begin to discover the “better way” before our wealth and power and usefulness is drained and our enemies triumph to force our eyes to be “turned upon Jesus” – The Better Way.

J. C. “Jim” Rushing III

Email: info@jimrushingonline.com