The New Normal?

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

July 18, 2010

The New Normal?

Amos 8:1-12

It’s the perfect summer read,

a gripping tale of suspense and intrigue.

It begins with a group of scientists

toiling away in the laboratory of a giant pharmaceutical company,

working feverishly to create a new drug,

a new medicine to treat a serious ailment,

a drug that has the potential to improve

thousands and thousands of lives.

After months and months of long hours and

countless frustrating dead ends,

they finally succeed in creating the right formula.

The medicine works –

it does just what the scientists want it to do.

The scientists are ecstatic,

but they know their work isn’t done yet.

They temper their excitement with realism;

they know every medicine has side effects

and they know they need to test their new drug thoroughly

to determine the extent of any and all effects.

As they complete their studies,

they come to a disturbing conclusion.

The drug appears to trigger a reaction in many people;

not just the occasional upset stomach, or headache.

No, this drug appears to trigger heart attacks.

This drug appears to have a side effect that is fatal.

The team check the data again and again.

They crosscheck every calculation, every dosage,

every possible variant.

A cloud of gloom descends on the laboratory.

The scientists realize this is a dangerous drug;

too dangerous for the marketplace.

They report their findings to the company’s senior executives.

Not safe.

That’s what they tell the company’s top brass.

The senior management listen to the scientists,

impassive, faces showing no expression.

They congratulate the scientists for their accomplishments,

thank them for their hard work,

and then dismiss them from the conference room.

The executives confer among themselves

and they all agree:

the company desperately needs this drug in the marketplace.

They need the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue

they expect the drug to generate;

they need the tens of millions of dollars in profits

they expect the drug to add to the company’s bottom line.

A successful launch of the drug will result not only

in handsome bonuses for each of  them,

but will also lift the company’s stock price higher,

and the executives sitting round the table in the conference room

will be richer by millions of dollars.

They make their decision:

The drug will be put on the market.

When the scientists learn of management’s decision,

they are startled and concerned.

They assume that the drug will carry a stern warning with it,

a warning to guide doctors as they prescribe the medicine,

a warning that there is a serious risk of heart attack

as a possible side effect.

But no, they learn.

There will be no warnings of any kinds.

The chief scientist sends an e-mail to his team

regarding all their reports, all their findings:

“Per Senior Management request,

these data should not see the light of day

to anyone outside [the company]”

All the studies, all the reports that make clear the risk –

they are to be buried in the company’s files.

Scientists will be forced to keep quiet,

not talk with anyone,

This is the order from top management.

The drug hits the market and doctors prescribe it enthusiastically,

unaware that it is unsafe for many of their patients,

especially those with heart problems.

One by one,

people taking the drug begin to die.

The senior executives knew they were taking a risk

in putting the drug on the market.

But it was a risk,

a gamble,

they were willing to take.

There was simply too much money,

too much profit at stake.

This sounds like a plot from a John Grisham novel, doesn’t it?

Just the kind of book to read this summer on the beach,

on a screened porch,

or while lying in a hammock.

Here’s the problem, though:

The story is true.

It was on page one of the New York Times just this past week.

(“Diabetes Drug Maker Hid Test Data, Files Indicate,”

July 12, 2010)

For the past 11 years,

one of the world’s largest drug manufacturers

intentionally kept files, reports, and studies buried,

hidden away,

all because they revealed the dangerous side effects

of a drug that was too important to the company’s profits,

too important to the company’s bottom line.

Who would do something like this?

Surely only evil men and women?

Surely only men and women with no morals,

no hearts, no souls,

no concern for others.

This must have been a company partnering with organized crime,

willing to do anything to make a buck,

even at the expense of peoples' lives.

No, this was a highly respected global company.

The executives throughout the organization looked like us,

looked just like our neighbors.

They were well educated, had families,

were involved in the community,                          

many probably attended a church, a synagogue,

a house of worship.

And yet, somehow money, profit,

the bottom line -

grabbed hold of their hearts and minds,

corrupting them.

It’s troubling enough when we read of

even one such incident,

one report of this kind of behavior.

But what is even more troubling is that

this kind of behavior seems to be the new normal in business:

more and more companies corrupted

by a culture of greed,

short-term profits blinding everyone 
to even the most compelling moral concerns;

executives justifying their behavior as acceptable risks,

the cost of doing business,        

people hurt written off as unfortunate collateral damage,

paid off through insurance,

or money set aside for lawsuits –

just another deductible business expense.

Make the sale,

push the goods out the door into the marketplace.

How many mortgage brokers pushed people

they knew weren’t qualified

into mortgages they knew they couldn’t afford,

all so that the brokers could book the sales,

and collect their commissions?

BP has been filling newspapers with ads

proclaiming that they will make things right

after causing the single biggest environmental disaster

we’ve ever witnessed.

Yet, BP’s record reveals a company built on a culture

that aims for quick profits,

never hesitating to cut corners,

even at the expense of worker safety,

or complying with environmental standards.

How many times have we heard stories this past year

of investors defrauded,

men and women trusting investment advisors with life savings,

only to learn that their advisor stole their money,

spending it on himself, on living a life of luxury

even as he pushed his clients into poverty.

This is the situation that existed back in Amos’ day,

more than 2700 years ago.

God looked and saw people more concerned with business,

than with righteousness,

more concerned with money

than with faithfulness.

Did you hear how the men of commerce

whined and complained

that they could only sell their goods six days a week,

and not during religious observances:

“when will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain,

and the Sabbath so that we may offer wheat for sale.”

Do you hear what they were saying:

“Every time one of those religious days rolls around,

we lose the opportunity to make money!”

God was disgusted by what he saw:

Merchants who didn’t deny their dishonesty:

“We will make the [the measure] small,

and the shekel great,

and practice deceit with false balances.”

God looked upon his children and

saw too many who paid no attention to the Proverb,

“Better to be poor and walk in integrity,

than to be crooked in one’s ways even though rich.”

(Proverbs 28:6)

God saw too many of his children

who were nothing more than crooks, con artists,

men and women who thought nothing of being

fundamentally dishonest in their business dealings

as long as it made a profit for them.

Where God had called his children to look after the poor,

to tend to the concerns of the needy,

what God found were men and women

who could “buy the poor for silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals”.

These were the precursors of credit card companies,

loaning the poor money to buy grain and food,

and in the process pulling the poor deeper into debt,

pushing them into lives of servitude, slavery.

                 

God wanted none of this;

This was not what God expected of his children,

and drastic action was needed.

So God decided to bring famine upon the land,

but not a famine of food.

No, if the people are more interested in chasing money

comfort and success than in following God,

if they find the poor a nuisance,

and observing the Sabbath an inconvenience,

if they really have no need for the Lord God,

then so be it:

“You who trample on the needy,

and bring ruin to the poor of the land,

you shall run to and fro,

seeking the word of the Lord,

but you will not find it.”

Go ahead, God declares,

sell your grain on the Sabbath;

cheat the poor;

put a dangerous drug on the market;

make cigarettes seductive and cool,

especially to teenagers;

push more debt onto people

who are already drowning in it;

falsify your financial reports;

cut back on worker safety.

Tell the world your job is to

“maximize shareholder value.”

Tell the world, “it’s only business”.

Spin it anyway you like.

But I the Lord God am not buying what you’re selling:

‘Ah, I am rich,’ [you say],

I have gained wealth for myself;

in all of my gain no offense has been found in me

that would be sin.”

(Hosea 12:7ff)

God hears such talk and probably doesn’t know whether

to laugh or cry.

God isn’t anti-capitalist,

or anti-business.

But God is utterly contemptuous

of the business person who is dishonest,

unethical,

who operates without integrity,

who puts profit before people.

And God isn’t interested in rationalization,

or public relations spin.

God doesn’t want to hear,

“I’m not as bad as others.”

God expects honesty, integrity

in everything we do, including our business dealings.

Hasn’t our Lord Jesus Christ taught us,

“whoever is dishonest in a very little

is also dishonest in much.”

(Luke 16:10)

John Galt, the protagonist of Ayn Rand’s

magnum opus “Atlas Shrugged”,

a favorite of the business world for its celebration of

the business man as hero, asks,

“Do you ask what moral obligation

I owe to my fellow men?”

And Galt's answer is firm:

“None.”

(1022)

That may be a good strategy for enhancing the bottom line,

but it is also faithless.

That’s the attitude that was so pervasive in Amos’ time,

and seems to be more and more pervasive in our own.

We can continue down that path,

and watch our bank accounts grow,

but the prophet Amos would tell us

“Be careful.

For some day from the comfort of your affluence

you will seek God,

and you will not find him,

for God will have turned from you.

And you will find the silence deafening.

And all the gold in the world

will not comfort you."

AMEN