Saturday, June 27, 2009

Corruption in Public Office

Corruption is not not new among today's public officials. It seems that temptation placed in the path of our United States congressmen and senators is impossible for many of them to resist. This is not a new scenario for us to observe and be shocked. "Political Bozos" have always been on the scene. For several years we have been studying the Cuneiform writings. We have on display at the Library in the Palms Research Center several clay tablets. One is a medical record. One is a legal document. One is a student' learning tablet. We also have many fragments of ancient writings and biblical coins on display. In our research, we have learned that the ancient Horites in their elaborately developed culture northeast of the Persian Gulf left a record of a civic swindle that occurred around 1500 BC. At the recently discovered site of the city of Nuzu, Edward Chiera came across an ancient villas loaded with thousands of clay tablets. He recovered more than twenty thousand clay tablets in the year, 1925 AD. Translators were immediately called in to decipher and translate the ancient clay tablets in order to obtain a more complete idea of their culture. New light was thrown upon the life of these people that lived at the emergence of the Israelites as a distinct people. As the Nuzu clay tablets were observed and categorized, many were recognized as legal documents, court records and legal struggles over ethics and morals. One of the tablets recorded the actions of the city's mayor, Kushshiharbe. He was so abusive of his office that citizens brought charges against him and convicted him of all charges. You see, Kushshiharbe used civic workers for his personal projects and had close ties with organized crime. He was convicted of kidnapping and living in immorality. Obtaining money and covering it up in secret was at the top of his list. He accepted bribes and charged big dollars for his approval of city activity. Can we say again, "Nothing is new under the sun."

1 comment:

  1. Sorry, You the same Jerry Bernard, who preached in Kiev (Ukraine, ex.USSR) in 1990?

    ReplyDelete