According to various studies and polls, the trust of many people is currently at a low ebb. There is a growing concern that a number of society's institutions, political leaders, and also individuals who provide the basic services of daily life may not be worthy of one's confidence. Caveat emptor, "let the buyer beware," has almost become an accepted standard for the way many approach even their routine contacts with one another.
An essay in a popular news magazine, referring to this particular social malaise as it seems to have affected much of the population in the United States, asserts bluntly that people "are finding it ever more risky to trust the world about them." It has also been argued that the erosion of trust tends to encourage more dishonesty—in effect, the lack of confidence in others feeds on itself, creating an ever bigger monster. The magazine essay listed some of the fundamental reasons for the current trend of deceptive practices: "greed and the lust for special advantage"; "the general relaxation of moral codes"; "the steadily growing pressure for personal achievement in an increasingly competitive world"; "the fact that society is more and more an aggregate of strangers dealing impersonally with each other"; and "the snowballing impression that everybody must be cheating."Time, October 20, 1980, p. 106.
What a vivid human picture! And it demands healing. Because the disintegration of basic trust, coupled with an acceptance of deception as virtually a way of life, may be symptomatic of a deeper and far greater ill: a loss of faith even in those spiritual truths that offer salvation to mankind.
