In her new book, _Bribery: The Ethics of Giving and Receiving Gifts_, veteran missionary to India Beth investigates what the Bible says about bribery to help mission workers do the right thing when confronted with corruption. The U.S. outlet is Jade Books at this address:
Or email Janice at
For more information about the book and a short interview with the author, see this link:
http://brotherhoodnews.com/2009/01/30/what-bible-says-about-bribes/
Has anybody had success finding this book for sale on internet? I tried at jade.com & chula and no success finding it at either place. (Calling internationally is too difficult.)
The link is jadeBOOKS.com and not jade.com. The email given is also valid.
I haven’t yet read this book, but I read the interview.
My question is this: in cultures and societies where government officials are not paid a living wage, they require these these so-called “gifts” just to get by. Aren’t these “gifts” just a form of direct taxation?
In our country, we are taxed in order to pay our government workers enough to survive and even thrive, thus there is no need for these workers to collect gifts.
Any thoughts?
I hope the author clearly distinguished between bribery (paying someone to do something for the briber’s personal benefit) and extortion (forcing someone to pay someone to do what they ought to do without extra pay.) Much of what is called bribery in today’s corrupt world is really extortion.