The Virus of "Corbanization"

Presented as a worship talk at the General Conference office, October, 1959.

AGAINST the requirements for hospital approval by the Joint Commission on Accred­itation is a new one that was recently added— that a careful record be kept of infections and contaminations, and that each instance be care­fully investigated. This is a good idea. Unfor­tunately, hospitals are not the only organiza­tions subject to infections and contaminations, and all infections and contaminations cannot be demonstrated under the microscope or cul­tured in the laboratory in the ordinary sense of the words. Nations, societies, movements, churches, institutions, and institutional families are also subject to these hazards. Sometimes they strike in individual instances. All are conta­gious. Sometimes they are near-epidemics, and like many a subtle virus, often the infected are not even aware of the disease.

I would like to consider a few of what I be­lieve to be the more common and deadly viruses that are abroad in our land today, frequently undiagnosed and unquarantined, frequently fa­tal and untreated.

Consider the virus of "corbanization." This infection is nearly as old as history. The viru­lent outbreak that gave it its name occurred about a.d. 32. It is most prevalent among the most pious. Like some drugs, it tends to des­troy a clean conception of right and wrong. It does this in a subtle way. A strange rash of rationalization breaks out by which the infected rationalizes to himself that wrong is not very wrong, if it is intended that right be done. The division between right and wrong becomes blurred and indistinct. The most noticeable effects are usually in the area of truth and honesty. Most cases are mild and do not result in outright prevarication or perfidy, but rather in misrepresentations where technical truth is told to the end that error is believed. While thievery would not be countenanced, profit­able evasions would be considered to be clever or even of the Lord's leading. The sharp lines of black-and-white integrity become blurred and changing shades of gray.

A review of the case history that gave this disease its name might be of help in understanding its devastating virulence. In A.D. 32 children had distinct responsibilities and obligations to and for their parents, as they have in every age. Recognizing these duties cost money, and discharging them at times made it impossible to acquire the new chariot that was so beautiful and so needed. To ignore the obli­gation made one look like a heel to the neigh­bors, and worse than that, made one feel like a heel. It wounded the self-respect and irritated the pride. Then—ah, then—the virus struck. It was discovered that to pass the hands over the pile of gold and say the magic word "corban" enabled the infected to obtain the chariot and freed him from all sense of obligation by the simple means of cloaking selfishness in a garb of piety. A compromise with integrity became in a sense a holy fraud, the providential leading of the Lord. The embarrassed blush of a heel became the glow of pride of a hero.

God looked down over the banister of heaven and said that the man was a knave and a fraud and that there are no compromises with abso­lute unimpeachable integrity; that the God of love is also the God of candor and frankness and never the God of evasions and dubious explanations of chicanery.

The amazing extent to which this disease can progress is well demonstrated by the story of an outbreak that occurred about 400 years ago as told in the book The Conquerors:

On a hot day in Old Panama City in 1524 three men sat and discussed a matter. Of these three, two were of illegitimate birth and could not read or write. The third was a priest. This conference ended in the writing of a strange document. It was headed "The Eucaristia" and commenced by in­voking the aid of the Holy Trinity and our Lady the Blessed Virgin. This contract provided that the priest would put up 20,000 gold pesos .,. . and the other two would provide their time and skill as sol­diers. Concluded, Pizarro and Almagro made their marks, for they could not write, and the priest signed his name with a flourish. The loot was to be divided equally three ways. Then they traced the sign of the cross and as a finishing touch the Sacra­ment was administered, the wafer being broken into three equal parts. Thus the three, in the name of the Prince of Peace, ratified a contract whose only objects were pillage and bloodshed. This contract was, in fact, for the greatest conquest of the New World, the destruction of an empire, the enslave­ment of a great people, the wrecking of a civilization and the looting of the greatest treasure the world had ever known.

This is the disease at its worst.

The alarming thing is that there are outbreaks today—less flagrant, of course. A Catholic attor­ney friend of mine who handles the legal busi­ness of several churches and for many pious and godly people asked me not too long ago, "Why is it that the finest, most devout people will try to get me to do the worst things for them?"

The answer is simple—they corbanize. I warn you against any acts that have to be explained to yourself to make them right, against the first stated truth that results in misrepresentation, against the first urge to evade, against even generalizations and ambiguities that even if true lead others to wrong conclusions.

Recently a corporation was considering a con­tract with the Government, which, though pat­ently legal, still contained its quota of loopholes and questionable clauses. A Unitarian attorney arose and said, "This contract is doubtless legal, but is it intellectually honest? If it is not intel­lectually honest, it is not honest at all." Intel­lectual honesty is not just a standard for Uni­tarians but for all of us as well.

Some years ago a pious sister was raising her Ingathering goal on the streets of Boston when her pastor observed her. She was holding out her can to the passing public and saying these words, "For the blind in China—for the blind in China," and then in prayer meeting she gave her earnest testimony of how the Lord so marvelously worked for her and blessed her. She was corbanizing.

Churches are in danger of becoming infected and developing their own particular kind of pious evasions and holy quasi-dishonesties in their promotions, in their working practices, and in their business dealings.

Religion that does not make us completely honest, that does not make us despise evasions, and does not result in umimpeachable veracity is a fraud—not upon the world, but upon our­selves—for we are the ones most deceived.

The saints and angels, Lord, may rightly pray

Thy holy blessings on the heathen far away,

Thy mercy on the sinners, Lord, that stray,

Such prayers are not for me.

A saint can for a sinner intercede,

And pray the Lord to save him from his greed,

But sinners for themselves alone should plead;

It is my needs I see.

Lord, make me honest with myself, clean through and through,

And clothe with simple candor all I do, Nor with a wrong intent hold rendezvous,

Nor sham my feet ensnare.

Make me despise that pious sentiment

That cloaks with holy garb, some base intent,

Permitting wrong to dwell in virtue's tent— This is my humble prayer.

H. E. R.