The Journey 244: Cheating is easy, try something more challenging like being more faithful
Read: Romans 12
Cheating In Harvard? Shocking: Certain news bring shock especially when the news is related to human tragedy or may be when it is related to natural disasters. But yesterday the people in the United States were shocked at a news of a different kind. All the news agencies reported about a shocking incident, Cheating in exams at the prestigious Harvard University. Cheating in Harvard?. People are still asking this question. What is happening? And what is this reflecting?. According to the news agencies, the administrators of the Harvard College have accused about 125 students of cheating during the final exams that was conducted last spring. One of the professors who taught “ Introduction to Congress” saw that there were similarities in the answers written in about 20 answer scripts. This made him to alert the administrative board of the college who then conducted an inquiry. In the inquiry there was still more shocking news to come. It was found that more than 125 scripts had similarities thus confirming the fact that these students had committed malpractices in the exams. If this is happening in Harvard, then what type of graduates are coming out of such prestigious universities is the question that people are now asking. According to a former Harvard graduate and author Eric Kester, who was reported in the abc news that this incident of malpractice reflects what seems to be “A Culture of Cheating. I think this is something that we need to reflect. All of us live in a culture where it seems to be OK to cheat and commit malpractices without feeling guilty because that is the practice of the day and since everybody does it, most of the people think it is normal . It is in such a context that we need to reflect and think as to how are we to live transformed Christian lives in the midst of the culture of cheating.
We are meditating on the theme “Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Romans 12. Here Paul talks about how we can live the new life in Jesus Christ, in a culture of cheating and malpractices. He uses two words that are very relevant in our time. The first one is he says in v:2, that we are not supposed to be confirmed to the patterns of the world. Here is Paul emphatically saying that as Christian when we live in the world we will be tempted by different forces, forces in the world that will tell us that it is ok to do certain things. It is in such a context that Paul states that as Christian we need to stand for our faith and our values so that in no way should our faith living be compromised according to the patterns and the values that the world promotes. This is something that we all find it very tough. We all in a subtle way know how to be beat the rules of the world, how to live in a sly way both the worldly and the spiritual. We need to note just as Jesus said that “ we cannot serve God and mammon”. Either we are with God and his kingdom values or we are with the world and the values of the world. For this Paul secondly states that, we need a renewal of our mind and only then can we know the will of God in our life. Thus in a world of today, in a culture of cheating we need to consciously remember and empower ourselves by the renewing of our mind, so that we become a channel of change in a culture where cheating seems to be OK, breaking rules and moral fabric of the society seems to be the order of the day. Sin is Sin before God whether it is small or big, whether you cheat in exams or cheat in while paying taxes. Let us take a decision that we will do our best to live according to the standards that God wants in our life rather than falling into the temptation of the standards of the world, so as to achieve shortcut methods to fame and glory.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla
Cheating In Harvard? Shocking: Certain news bring shock especially when the news is related to human tragedy or may be when it is related to natural disasters. But yesterday the people in the United States were shocked at a news of a different kind. All the news agencies reported about a shocking incident, Cheating in exams at the prestigious Harvard University. Cheating in Harvard?. People are still asking this question. What is happening? And what is this reflecting?. According to the news agencies, the administrators of the Harvard College have accused about 125 students of cheating during the final exams that was conducted last spring. One of the professors who taught “ Introduction to Congress” saw that there were similarities in the answers written in about 20 answer scripts. This made him to alert the administrative board of the college who then conducted an inquiry. In the inquiry there was still more shocking news to come. It was found that more than 125 scripts had similarities thus confirming the fact that these students had committed malpractices in the exams. If this is happening in Harvard, then what type of graduates are coming out of such prestigious universities is the question that people are now asking. According to a former Harvard graduate and author Eric Kester, who was reported in the abc news that this incident of malpractice reflects what seems to be “A Culture of Cheating. I think this is something that we need to reflect. All of us live in a culture where it seems to be OK to cheat and commit malpractices without feeling guilty because that is the practice of the day and since everybody does it, most of the people think it is normal . It is in such a context that we need to reflect and think as to how are we to live transformed Christian lives in the midst of the culture of cheating.
We are meditating on the theme “Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Romans 12. Here Paul talks about how we can live the new life in Jesus Christ, in a culture of cheating and malpractices. He uses two words that are very relevant in our time. The first one is he says in v:2, that we are not supposed to be confirmed to the patterns of the world. Here is Paul emphatically saying that as Christian when we live in the world we will be tempted by different forces, forces in the world that will tell us that it is ok to do certain things. It is in such a context that Paul states that as Christian we need to stand for our faith and our values so that in no way should our faith living be compromised according to the patterns and the values that the world promotes. This is something that we all find it very tough. We all in a subtle way know how to be beat the rules of the world, how to live in a sly way both the worldly and the spiritual. We need to note just as Jesus said that “ we cannot serve God and mammon”. Either we are with God and his kingdom values or we are with the world and the values of the world. For this Paul secondly states that, we need a renewal of our mind and only then can we know the will of God in our life. Thus in a world of today, in a culture of cheating we need to consciously remember and empower ourselves by the renewing of our mind, so that we become a channel of change in a culture where cheating seems to be OK, breaking rules and moral fabric of the society seems to be the order of the day. Sin is Sin before God whether it is small or big, whether you cheat in exams or cheat in while paying taxes. Let us take a decision that we will do our best to live according to the standards that God wants in our life rather than falling into the temptation of the standards of the world, so as to achieve shortcut methods to fame and glory.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla