National consultation on Corruption and Spirituality: Discourse
in India in a Globalised world
Joint programme with ACISCA
Joint programme with ACISCA
August 27, 2012
Rev.
Dr Reji Samuel, Dean of the ISET, ECC , coordinator of the consultation welcomed the participants. He introduced the
program, persons and presented the agenda for the consultation.
There
was a traditional way of inauguration of
the day with the lighting or the lamp by the director of ECC, Rev. Dr. Cherian
Thomas. Rev J.R Paul Singh, the Deputy Director of ECC introduced the ministry
of the Ecumenical Christian Centre.
Dr A.J. Anandan, I.P.S. (Retd.), former
Director General of Police, Karnataka presented the Key note Address on Corruption and
Spirituality: Are the citizens’ attitudes towards corruption shaped by their
religious beliefs and devotion? He defined various meanings of corruption. He
also addressed on the different types, causes and the history of corruption, giving
a clear picture right from the early years till now explaining with the related
instances from holy books of the religions and from the society.
In
the second Session Fr. Dr. Sebastian
Periannan, Professor from St Peters
Pontifical Institute and Seminary gave a pictorial representation “Corruption:
A Christian response”. He stated about the spiritual trends of the millenniums and the globalised world.The
theoretical framework of corruption starts from society, to the government,
then to the education field and ends up in media. Corruption has become a
political tool for the misuse of the public for the private gain. Fr. Sebastian
gave the instances from bible, how corruption started right from Adam and Eve
during the time of kings and prophets of Israel, how they denied God and
practiced the corruption. Violence begins in the mind; likewise corruption
begins in mind; only spirituality changes our heart and mind. So applied
spirituality to us enables to infuse values that distance us from corrupt
practices.
He
suggested Four pillars for today 1) Hospitality like that of Abraham, 2) Honesty
3) Hard work and 4) Holiness
In
the third Session Participants shared their own experiences of corruption.
In
the fourth session Dr. M.P Joseph from Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan
presented on Globalization and Corruption: Soul-mates or antagonists? Dr. M.P
Joseph presented the corruption analyzed the whole issue of corruption. Corruption is
one of the most visible forms of untruth but it has become the normative statement
of faith; it is a `daylight robbery’ by the privileged. He concluded by giving
the “Vision for a Corruption Free world” “Corruption being untruth, it can
always lead to insanity and truth alone leads to wisdom”.
The second day( 28-08-2012) started with an
Environment - friendly worship led by Ms.Lalbiaknii and every one actively participated in the worship which emphasized about the beauty of nature.
In the first session Dr. M.P Joseph dealt
about Corruption and Spirituality: Towards an Ethical reflection. He started
with an emphasis of the need to understand corruption and engage in a new
discourse on corruption. He stressed on creating a system where money will not
determine our being and the need for the process to reverse the transfer of
resources. Two elements of spirituality:
openness and responsibility, which are inter-linked. He concluded with the need for “I and Thou”
relationship where thou should not be treated as “it”, where the personal
identity is lost. So he suggested to do away with the “corrupt god” concept and
spirituality should be a determination of active following of JESUS.
In the second session Rev. Vincent Rajkumar,
Director of CISRS, Bangalore discussed the question: “Do the dispositions of
religious leaders to corruption by the way of denunciation, tolerance or even
over involvement is corrupt activities influence the laity’s attitudes towards
corrupt behavior?”He compared politicians from the earlier days who were
professional, eminent who came from grass-root who looked for the welfare of
the state and the present day politicians who concentrate on the welfare of the
political parties. He emphasized the role of religion which is transactional. And
religion is a feudal system of govt to manipulate and control people for the
betterment of the select group in the society. He concluded by saying that
every individual should take a step to say “no” to corruption and also not to
bribe God.
The
third Session was an inter religious
Dialogue on Corruption and spirituality:
The panel Included Prof. Seenu Iyengar(Hinduism),
Upasaka G. Sudhakar Rao(Buddhism) and Dr.
Bhatia( Sikhism) Dr. Bhatia speaking on corruption said that, corruption is
based on selfishness. The classification of evil and good are based on the
natural principles and not on anyone’s views or opinions. Spirituality is a
process of scientific education based on universal laws. He brought a three
word formula: 1)Meditating God 2) Honesty 3) Work and sharing
Mr. G. Sudhakar Rao speaking on the topic on
the perspective of Buddhism said to avoid uncontrolled thinking and to keep the
mind in a concentrated state then to lead the life selflessly, synchronizing
with the universal characteristic of nature. Only such a life can lead us to full security, peace and
freedom.
Dr
Sreenu Iyengar sharing his views on corruption in the Hinduism perspective said
“Most people who are truly spiritual are not religious”. There is a restriction
between the religious and spirituality. True spirituality transcends the
material world. Corruption is an ego of mind to have most connection to materialistic
world. Then he brought out the Hinduism concept of Dharma: 1) Dharma 2) Artha 3) Kama 4) Moksha.
In the Second day afternoon session Dr Kiran
Bedi, (Rtd) IPS officer, New Delhi talked about the question: “Do public
servants see ethical teaching as implementable or practicable at work or as a
utopian, difficult to implement or non operable in practice?” Dr. Kiran Bedi addressing on the subject said
that the humanity which lacks in the human beings is cause for all the mischief.
So all are required to be humans first and then act to the situations. She said
that the future of the country does not lie in politicians but the parents and
teacher and in religion preachers. We should do anything not because we are to
do it but we want to do it because we join anything unconditionally. So all
those who deal with people require ethics and we should develop ethical values.
Understanding ethics is a continuous education. So render the values the
selflessly rather measuring them. The work we do remains as long as we do not
scale our values. Be a person with humanity and include ethics, that is human
values in all you do.
In
the last session of the day
Rev.
Dr Dexter S. Maben, Associate professor, UTC, Bangalore Personal transformation as Response to countering
Corruption. Dr. Dexter came out with a new idea of comparing the present
governance that of the governance of the Bible. He brought out the three main
points in governance to bring about the transformation from corruption (from
Bible, Luke 19:1-10) as : 1) Issue of accountability 2) Issue of capability 3) Issue of transparency
On
the third day(29th Aug’12) Rev.Dr.Dexter Maben continued the Bible Study about
Countering Corruption based on the text Rom 13:1-7. He emphasized the role of the tax payers.
Rights of Tax payers or the citizens:1) Right
to Participate 2) Right to Deliberate
3) Right to celebrate
In
the second Session, Capt. Jose P.O brought a case study on the lay people
response to Corruption in Ecclesial Communities based on attempts done in
Bangalore. He invited us “not to be immune to the broken(i.e)corruption”Facts
of Corruption : 1) Universality of
Corruption 2) Brotherhood of Corruption 3) The ugliness of corruption is
intolerable. Church and Corruption-Responses by Laity:1)Ignorant acceptance of
the corrupt system 2) Despondency3) Holding leaders accountable and responsible
In the last session of the program Rev.
Dr. K.C Abraham presented on How to work towards a Just Society. He emphasized
on Dharma : Doing one’s duty. Caste Dharma – doing things for their own
caste. It is nepotism. Corruption is
multi-dimensional – It is very difficult to root out corruption because of its
systematic character. Moral man and immoral society. Good people who are caught up in bad system. Ethos
– a complex of fundamental values. Rooting out corruption is not possible, so we
have to create an ethos where corruption is not possible. Our emphasis should be what is proper and
what is appropriate. The heart of
Christianity – the rules, the manner of life in which are conducting our life.
The consultation was concluded with
words from Rev. Dr.K.C. Abraham //
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