My friend and InsideWork colleague, Donald McGilchrist was kind enough to share this bibliography on business ethics and corporate corruption.
Donald cut short a business career in Great Britain to add his depth to a 501(c)(3) non-profit. He says, “My agency works throughout the Developing World and is increasingly concerned to bring biblical perspectives to bear on issues of corruption.” If this sounds cut and dried, it isn’t. Donald writes: “Living ‘successfully’ in much of the world tends to require the giving and taking of ‘gifts’ in order to move about and function well.” This inevitably leads to the sometimes-fine distinction between a gift and a bribe.
“Our commitment to ‘seek the peace and prosperity (shalom – see Jeremiah 29:7)’ of the cities to which we are called implies at least passive resistance to the systemic evil expressed in favoritism for people of means and oppression of the powerless. On the other hand, a case can be made that much of what Americans would label corruption is in fact fluent cultural adaptation and that moralizing about it may simply be an attempt to impose alien values under a cloak of presumed fidelity to the Scriptures.
“Can we indeed address corruption biblically,” Donald asks, “without setting it in a comprehensive approach to business ethics? Do not concepts of justice and love demand that we look broadly at morality in the marketplace? In that spirit, here are a few resources that attempt to think biblically about corruption.”
Thanks Donald…
