Ignoring that Three-Letter Word
By:  Reed R. Heustis, Jr.
October 21, AD 2006

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Very much is said about political corruption these days. Virtually nothing is said about the corruption of Man and that dirty three-letter word, S-I-N.

Die-hard Democrats rant and rave about how corrupt the Republican Party is. True-blue Republicans rant and rave about how corrupt the Democratic Party is. Both point fingers at each other's corruption. Both are convinced the other party is corrupt to its core.

With elections looming, Democrats are giddy over the possibility of "voting the rascals out" after Republican scandals and corruption have plagued the GOP, which is led by two-term President George W. Bush.

Meanwhile, Republicans warn of the many Democratic corruptions of yesteryear, and point to the specter of a return to more Clintonian shenanigans.

Disgusted independents and third party activists are not immune from this finger-pointing game.  Independents rail against the whole "corrupt system," while third party activists rail against the "corrupt two-party system."

Everybody screams, Corruption!  Nobody remembers the three-letter word.

Recently, one observer commented, "...there is just something about political parties that gives them an intense spirit of corruption. I can no longer trust any political party, and thus I don't want another one. Unless I find reason to do otherwise, I'll remain an independent...."

There is no doubt that corruption exists in the entire one-party-masquerading-as-a-two-party-system. Corruption exists in the Democratic Party, and corruption exists in the Republican Party.  Corruption can be found in any political party, big or small, and in all political systems. Corruption even exists in political parties that supposedly promote high moral values. Corruption plagues all levels of government - federal, state and local.  Corruption exists in all branches of government - the executive, legislature and judiciary.  You cannot get away from it.  It's everywhere.

When people say that there is corruption in politics, they're right.

However, when people "go independent", join a third party, or revel in their membership in one of the two major parties for the sake of avoiding "the source" of corruption, they are missing the point. Like a shadow, corruption follows people wherever they go, whether they be party members or independents. People must understand where corruption comes from.

Corruption does not exist in political parties simply because political parties are somehow inherently corrupt, but rather because Man is inherently corrupt.

To put it simply, corruption exists in political parties because corruption exists in Man.  Therefore, the problem of political corruption does not stem from political parties. It stems from Sin, that dirty three-letter word that people love to ignore.

Man is inherently sinful, and so Man is inherently corrupt.

In Chapter 6, "Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof," The Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 (LBC) states the situation clearly:

"Our first parents...fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

"They being the root, and by God's appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation, being now conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin, the subjects of death, and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free."  (emphasis added)

People today are quick to point fingers at the corrupt nature of their adversaries. Very rarely will they point fingers at their own corruption.

When voters "go independent," join a third party, or revel in their membership in either the Republican or Democratic Party in order to avoid corruption that exists "elsewhere," it begs the question, Do they acknowledge the desperate wickedness and corruption of their own hearts? If they do not acknowledge their own sinful corruption, then their political activism is nothing but self-righteousness.

The framers of the United States Constitution understood the sinful corrupt nature of man and why it leads to partisan bickering and faction. In addressing the problem of faction in The Federalist No. 10, James Madison observed, "...the reason of man continues fallible...." By this, Madison understood that man's reason was fallible because man's reason was corrupt. Madison therefore agreed with the LBC in that "all are dead in sin," and are "...wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body."

Madison explained that this corruption naturally leads to man's division and faction:

"The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts."
(emphasis added)

If any one faction were to gain too much power, corruption and tyranny would be the likely result. As John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton once wrote, "All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

In penning the Constitution, the framers installed safeguards that would allow ambition to counteract ambition, and faction to check and balance faction. They created a form of government, albeit far from perfect, never hitherto seen in the annals of human history that was designed to control the effects of faction and corruption.

People must understand that political parties are not inherently corrupt, but that Man is. As the American Heritage Party's Digest of Principles correctly states, "The sin of man is the ultimate cause of all pain and suffering. Sin (rebellion against God) is responsible for man’s fall from grace and the corruption in the world and ultimately of nature itself. Man, existing in a fallen and sinful state, is in need of salvation and government."

If a political party does not acknowledge Sin to be the source of all political problems, then that political party should not be trusted in anything.  If a party ignores that dirty three-letter word, then that party should be ignored.

For Christians active in politics, a constructive way to combat the effects of Sin in politics is to organize themselves politically in such a fashion whereby firstly they recognize the corrupt aspects of their own sin; secondly, they rely solely upon the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ; and thirdly, seek to conform all laws, institutions and practices to Biblical principles.

A political party should not be seen as inherently corrupt.  Instead, a political party can serve as a useful tool if it is built by Christian men upon the Truth of Christ, and is operated faithfully in accordance thereof.

People are so quick-on-the-trigger to holler "political corruption" when it comes time "to vote those rascals out" through elections.  Maybe it is time that they stop ignoring a certain three-letter word.

© AD 2006 The Heustis Update, accessible on the web at www.ReedHeustis.com .  All Rights Reserved.