Another Example of How Pride Corrupts

It appears that I will be producing a series on the pride and arrogance, vanity and just plain selfishness. After reviewing some old school work to see what I could use to submit to Associated Content, lo and behold! What do I see? An article about corruption from Reuters, New York that describes the participants as mayors, rabbis, and other politicians are embroiled in international money laundering and public corruption.

Not that any of this is new; but what is unusual is the mix of "alleged" criminals in the scheme. 30 or 26 people depending on what you read, Reuters or AP so far; people who are supposed to be of high moral character, soliciting the public trust and the trust of the members of the congregations as God-fearing men and suffering the humiliation of the synagogue being raided while people were praying and a school where children of Sephardic Jews (Jews of Iberian origin) were taught.

If you read previous articles of pride, the connection is unmistakable how this weakness draws the worst out of people to commit some of the most horrible acts. The following is a school assignment I having been waiting for an opportunity to publish. With this "scheme" as the foundation you can better understand just what sinful pride is.

Chapter Six: From your own personal experience, describe how you have seen pride destroy or harm a person's life.

Their pride was in their ability to steal, to manipulate others out of their property, ability to fight; not being able to turn from an opportunity to battle with someone over some relatively minor affront. It is pride in the basest aspect of human nature. The main purpose of this pride is money, money at all costs and always at others expense.

The families of these people were hurt by the eventual arrest and jailing of their families members, the shame before the public and the pain of those who were victimized by them and the general unrest and suspicion developed by their presence in the neighborhood. This attitude is arrogant in the extreme, without concern for anyone in the way of reinforcing that attitude or the actions derived from it.

Not once have I seen anyone with this kind of pride stay out of jail or a courtroom, divorced, separated, or avoids getting hurt and even killed. These are a lot of problems and trouble for the sake of quick gain. They are broken stereotypes. Stereotypes of religious leaders, assumed to be law-abiding and honest and politicians...if you voted for them; they are honest, if not they are just reinforcing a stereotype. Naturally, all will claim innocence but time will tell.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56M3QU20090723

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iK4nrZ7GALyorz4G34gTnFocFM9gD99K8G5G2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardic_Judaism