On Apple vs. the Government

The government wants information from Apple and Apple refuses to provide that information. It would seem that most of us would naturally gravitate towards supporting Apple. After all, who wants "big brother" cracking into our precious devices? The very thought conjures up the Hunger Games society of President Snow.

Yet Apple is seemingly losing the court of public opinion on this matter. And if you break it down, it is not hard to determine why. We all desire two very core things in the society we live in. The first is basic safety and protection. Who knows how many were involved in this act of terrorism. The uncertainty of it and the fact that it came out of nowhere feeds our insecurities of basic safety. The second core societal issue is the need for justice. Justice has already been served for the main perpetrators - they were killed. But there are others out there and we demand a sense of justice. So in the end, we are willing to give up a potential right to privacy to advance these two basic needs.

The bible advances that same concept. A Christian is a "doulos" or slave. But he is not a slave because he has been compelled to be. He is a slave because he completely trusts the master and the master has shown himself worth to be trusted. The master holds the key to security and justice and God has shown in Christ perfect love and perfect justice. Therefore we rest in the arms of the master as a slave. God knows us so perfectly that this willing act is not for God but for us. The government as a human institution is not perfect like God and there certainly can be some distrust. But at the end of the day, the government advances our own interests of security and justice and that is a stronger basic need than privacy. How much more can we trust in God for these same basic human needs?

The Case of the "Secret" Service Worker

This week, I heard the case of the Spanish water utility civil servant who did "absolutely no work" for six years but continued to receive pay. Apparently the utility thought he was transferred to the local city hall. The only reason he was caught was because they were trying to recognize him for 20 years of "service". Spanish media has dubbed the man "el funcionario fantasma" which means the phantom official. The man was ordered to pay a fine of $27,000 but apparently the pay is his to keep.

What would cause someone to receive benefits but provide no service? That is the question I ask myself. When I came to know Jesus Christ as my Savior, I became the beneficiary of an incredible gift that I did not earn in any whatsoever. I also became part of a larger family, the church - the family of God. I have the benefits of being part of that family, but I also am expected to do my part. But so many of us are like the phantom official - they want to receive the benefits but provide no services. The church is a working organism that is reliant on each of us to do our part. Growing up, if I did not do my part as a member of my family (e.g. cleaning my room, doing the dishes, etc.), I was not a member of the family. I was a tenant or a border. The family necessitates each to do their part.

Madoff and Forgiveness

I was completely absorbed into the Bernie Madoff documentary this past week on ABC. It is just intriguing to me how this man got so many people to invest in him over such a long period of time. He did it because he played hard to get and he had the trust of people. So few people suspected what was going on. And then it came crashing down.

After the documentary aired, they interviewed some of the people that had lost money and some much of their life savings. They also interviewed Stephanie Madoff, Mark Madoff's wife and daughter-in-law of Bernie. Two years after the scheme broke, Mark Madoff committed suicide. Stephanie Madoff told of her hate for Bernie Madoff and said she would "spit in his face".

It is so easy to play armchair quarterback and dismiss the reactions of people who placed their trust in a man who so calculatingly betrayed that trust. However, hate of this kind hurts the victim a second time. It creates an incipient, festering wound that grows and grows over time. It can't change the circumstances and the hate can't change the other person. It seems counter intuitive that forgiveness would actually heal someone but it does. And forgiveness is not dependent on the repentance of the other person. To be clear, I am not talking about justice. Bernie Madoff needed to pay for his crimes. But for the sake of the victims, they can only heal if they forgive.

The standard by comparison is the forgiveness of God. A fully just God could come at me with full wrath for all of the times I have sinned against Him. But that same God is infinitely merciful and He forgives my sin. He cannot forgive my sin without justice for He cannot just overlook sin. So the justice is meted out on His Son. Therefore when a human being faces betrayal, he cannot look at the debtor and see the size of the debt circumstantially, but he must look at the size of the debt relative to the larger debt that God has paid on his behalf (Matthew 18:23-35).

Something weird happens when forgiveness happens. It heals the person. The reality of the debt is still there, but the offended person can somehow move on. I think that change can only be explained supernaturally. In our natural tendency, vengeance and hate just seem right when in fact it is so wrong.