Introduction
In New York City, there are eight million cats and eleven million dogs. New York City is basically just concrete and steel, so when your pet dies, you can’t just go out in the back yard and bury it. The city would dispose of your dead pet, but charged $50
So one lady had this great thought: I can get rid of dead pets for less than that! I’d be providing a service to people in the city and saving them money. She placed an ad in the newspaper saying that she would provide this service for just $25 – half what the city charged.
Her plan for disposal was brilliant. She would go to the Salvation Army and pay 2 bucks for an old suitcase. Then, she’d pick up the dearly departed pet and put it in the suitcase.
She’d hop on the subway, put the suitcase down, and act like she wasn’t watching it.
Invariably, a thief would come by and steal her suitcase.
Not only did she save money for grieving pet owners, but she may have rehabilitated a thief or two!
This woman was able to use the prevalence of theft to her advantage, but most of us aren’t so fortunate.
The cover of the July 14th issue of U. S. News & World Report has a picture of an All-American teenage boy wearing a pair of headphones –looking pretty much like millions of teenage boys in any city and town in america. The caption says, “Wanted.” And in smaller letters, asks “Got a digital pirate in your house? Got a lawyer?”
If you’ve listened to much news lately, you know that the entertainment industry has decided to crack down on an extremely popular practice that goes by the seemingly-innocent name, “file sharing.”
Sharing is normally a good thing – like if I have two cookies and I give you one. But “File sharing” looks more like this: I get a music CD, put the songs on my computer’s hard drive, and with the right software – which I got for free on the Internet – I can “share” them over the Internet with anyone who might want them.
And, of course, I also have access to the files of millions of others who are doing the same thing.
Most PC’s are able to then burn or write the music to a blank CD, or I can just play it an MP3 player – a device designed to play back music files without having to write it to a CD. Since millions of people are doing the same thing, I could get pretty much the music I wanted the same way. So, why buy CD’s at 15-20 bucks a pop when I can get all the music on them for free? Even if it is illegal.
Now that more and more PC’s have the ability to read and write DVD’s, file sharing has expanded to include movies. It’s estimated that 400-600,000 copies of films are traded digitally every day – Many movies are available on the Internet before they hit the theaters, thanks to illegally copied pre-release versions which are offered to the press.
The U.S. News & World Report story quotes Vik, a 21- year old college senior from Baltimore on “file sharing” music, “For all practical purposes, it is stealing music, but I have no moral qualms about it. When you can get free music, it’s hard to resist.”
Vik is able to say, “It’s stealing (and presumably, that makes it wrong)” and at the same time say, “I have no moral qualms about [doing] it.”
He says, “It’s hard to resist,” but apparently means, “I have no intention of even TRYING to resist!”
Mark, a college student from Geneva, Ill, “When you go out and buy a CD, it’s $5 more than it was a few years ago. I can’t afford to quench my [music] habit because it’s too expensive.”
Mark’s argument is just, “If I can’t afford everything I want right now, I’ll just steal it.”
Having failed miserably in many attempts to thwart the work of file-sharing software and the companies that produce them, the recording industry is now trying to sue the pirates themselves. But it’s no small task – one source I read estimated the number of people practicing file sharing is around 60 million in America alone. And as the music industry develops smarter ways to crack down on pirates, the pirates develop smarter ways to avoid getting caught.
The illegal distribution of copyrighted music, movies and software, is just one of many forms of stealing that has become popular in our day.
As I was doing research for this sermon, I’ve become convinced that stealing has become the “Great American Pastime.” Not so much the “Stick ‘em up and give me all your cash” kind of stealing, but statistics show every form of stealing that can be done in secret is skyrocketing. Here are some examples:
Cheating
In 1969, 58% of high school students let someone else copy their work, In 1989, 98% did so
Almost 80% of college students admit to cheating at least once
Plagiarism – taking the words and ideas of someone else and without acknowledging it, is another form of cheating.
In April-May of 2000, 30% of a large sampling of University of CA at Berkeley students were recently caught plagiarizing directly from the Internet-- results of a Turnitin.com test
And although many instructors are aware of the problem, most feel powerless to stop it.
36% of undergraduates have admitted to plagiarizing written material-- Psychological Record survey.
And it’s not just students who are stealing words and ideas – In May, Jayson Blair, a star reporter for one of the most respected newspapers in the country, the NY Times, was fired for plagiarism and other deceptive practices. He wasn’t the first, and he probably won’t be the last.
And speaking of stealing in the Work Place …
In 1996, Adrian Rogers claimed that:
The American economy loses $40 billion annually from theft on the job. That’s everything from pilfering to embezzlement.
And then there’s that even more popular form of stealing in the workplace: plain old wasting time at work. In a 1999 book, Michael Mortiarty said,
“Workers around America frankly admit that they spend more than 20 percent of their time (seven hours a week) at work goofing off. That amounts to a four-day work week across the nation.
Almost half of Americans admit that they regularly call in sick when they’re not
One in six Americans regularly drinks or uses drugs on the job.
I read about one young man who went to look for a job at a place where they really weren’t looking to hire anyone. The conversation went something like this.
Manager: "I’m sorry I can’t hire you, but there isn’t enough work to keep you busy."
Applicant: "You’d be surprised how little it takes." - Unknown (PULPIT HELPS, Sept., 1990)
Insurance Fraud
In 2001 PA’s Insurance Fraud Prevention Authority estimated that insurance fraud cost the average American household over $5,000 year in the form of higher premiums and higher prices for goods and services.
In a 2001 study, 58% of our fellow Pennsylvanians said they might commit insurance fraud under certain circumstances. (Polk-Lepson Research Group)
More than one-third of people hurt in auto accidents exaggerate their injuries, adding $13 - $18 billion to America’s annual insurance bill. (Rand Institute for Civil Justice)
Shoplifting
One in eleven Americans shoplift
Retail businesses around the country are victimized by shoplifting at a rate of $25 million a day
And in a new high-tech twist to shoplifting, there are websites where you can print up your own barcodes to replace the ones on the products you are purchasing
So you can choose the price you will pay, instead of paying what the store charges
Tax fraud & evasion
I couldn’t even find specific national statistics on these – but it appears these forms of stealing are also on the rise in America
Corporate Fraud seems to have become business as usual for many firms.
WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, Enron, Martha Stewart – the list goes on and on…
It sure seems that stealing has become the Great American pastime. People are surprised if you DON’T want free copies of software, music, movies and so on.
And in the midst of this society, God says, “Thou shalt not steal."
Stealing is easy to define – it’s taking something that isn’t yours. And it’s wrong even if the person you steal from has lots more money than you – and you figure you deserve it more. Even if you steal from a corporation or a government. Even if you’ve decided the people you’re stealing from are corrupt. Even if you feel they’re guilty of stealing from you – It’s still wrong.
Christians cannot participate in a mindset that says, “Everybody out there is trying to rip me off – I need to get what I can out of them before they get what they can out of me.”
Stealing is wrong for (at least) two reasons
1. Stealing is a purely self-centered act.
It says, “I really don’t care what this costs anybody else, I’m going to take whatever I can get my hands on.”
2. Stealing violates Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor” If you love someone, you wouldn’t steal from them. And saying, “Well, I’m not stealing from a PERSON, I’m stealing from a corporation –" That just means you are one part of stealing people’s jobs.
One of the tactics the entertainment industry is planning to use to discourage file sharing is showing how it affects not just the rich corporate executives, but also the ordinary folks who work in those corporations or individual record store owners and such.
Stealing disregards the needs and well being of others – making ME more important than whoever I’m stealing from.
Stealing also has an impact on our relationship with God, because it says, “I don’t really trust you to
give me what I need God.” Or even, “My desire for material possessions is greater than my desire to obey you.”
Throughout this series on the 10 Commandments, we’ve tried to see not only what they say we should NOT do, but to flip them around to see what we SHOULD be doing.
The Apostle Paul does that for us in his letter to the Ephesians:
Ephesians 4:28 Anyone who was a thief must stop stealing; instead he should exert himself at some honest job with his own hands so that he may have something to share with those in need. New Jerusalem Bible
The opposite of stealing is honest work. Some people have gotten the idea that work was a part of God’s curse. So they avoid it like crazy! But God actually gave Adam the mandate to care for creation BEFORE the fall. Eating that stolen apple resulted in a curse on work, but work was not the curse. Work is a gift from God. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Or maybe not if you’ve ever kicked your feet up and taken a look at the fruit of your labor, whether it’s ripe tomatoes from your garden, Or enjoying a great clean house, Or watching your son or daughter receive a high school diploma.
God works – and he allows us to participate in His work in many ways – not just in “church work.” The capacity to work, to create, to contribute something valuable to our families and to society is a gift, really.
But Paul doesn’t JUST say, “Don’t steal, work!”
He says, “Don’t steal, work… SO THAT you will be able to give to those in need.”
As believers, we recognize that God has been faithful in giving us SO much And if God’s Spirit dwells in us, and we are becoming more like Christ, then we will become givers, too. If we really care about people, we will WANT to become givers. And giving is pretty much the opposite of stealing, isn’t it? Stealing is grabbing what’s not yours without paying for it.
Giving is letting go of what IS yours and handing it to someone who hasn’t paid for it.
Conclusion
Last fall on The Punxsy Spirit’s Appreciation Day in the park, members of our church fired up a recently donated professional popcorn-maker and handed out bags of popcorn for free. It may not seem like a big deal – I mean it was popcorn, not hundred-dollar bills! They had a little bit of info about the church, but we weren’t taking names or asking for anything from the folks who got the popcorn. And people were just blown away. In a nation where stealing has become a national pastime – true giving is a shock.
Imagine that the American economy was going to be changed entirely to Euros – and the day the switch came, dollars would be worthless. And you didn’t know when the change would happen. The smartest thing to do would be to start changing your dollars into Euros, keeping just enough to live on. Then when the change came, you wouldn’t get caught with a pile of worthless dollars.
The fact is, something very like that change IS going to happen: the day we die, all our money – as well as all of our possessions – will become worthless. All that really matters is how much of it we have invested in the bank of Heaven.
"When we let go of money, we are letting go of part of ourselves and part of our security. But this is precisely why it is important to do it. It is one way to obey Jesus’ command to deny ourselves.… When we give money, we are releasing a little more of our egocentric selves and a little more of our false security.… Giving frees us to care. It produces an air of expectancy as we anticipate what God will lead us to give. It makes life with God an adventure in the world, and that is worth living for and giving for." [Richard J. Foster, quoted in "Reflections," Christianity Today (6-12-00)]
