Religion & Law

Check out this essay, at Huffington Post, by Prof. Ronald Colombo, connecting the credit crisis (and related downers) with the development of (or failure to develop) the virtues.  A taste:

Unfortunately, since morality and virtue are developed over time, via repeated decisions to choose what is right and to forego what is wrong, there is no quick fix to our present problems. Moreover, law can do very little to make people virtuous. Indeed, "coerced virtue" is oxymoronic.

But law can help foster an environment in which virtue can be developed and exerted more readily. We would do well to reconsider our abandonment of "values" education in primary and secondary schools, and should bolster the ethics training of M.B.A. and J.D. candidates in business and law schools. Corporate and securities law could be revised to enhance disclosure of, and shareholder input on, issues of moral concern. Directors and officers could be empowered and encouraged to take moral considerations into greater account, and unshackled from the constraint to operate their corporations with an unwavering focus on maximization of shareholder value. By providing instruction on basic moral principles, by sensitizing market participants to the moral implications of their choices, and by creating more opportunities where moral choice can be exercised, the law can play an important role in helping individuals grow in virtue.

Some, of course, will argue that it's too difficult to cultivate virtue. Simpler and more effective, they will suggest, would be more corporate regulation, stricter enforcement of antifraud legislation, and heavier penalties heaped upon wrongdoers. Such suggestions are certainly worth considering. But even under the best of laws, our resources and ability to prevent and detect wrongdoing will always be limited. Moreover, law's reach is itself quite limited: for regulation has an unfortunate tendency of preventing only a repeat of yesterday's wrongdoing; it oftentimes does little to forestall the wrongdoing of tomorrow. And this is inevitable, given the creativity and persistence of wrongdoers.

We need and can enjoy better protection from future corporate corruption, fraud, and the general dereliction of duty that lies at the heart of the economic calamities we are now facing. This protection lies not simply in a fine-tuning, an overhaul, or even a paring of our regulatory regime. It lies in a more virtuous markeplace. We ought to think seriously about ways in which to bring this about. For when no one is looking , and when no can catch us, or when there is no law to hold us accountable, or no other means of chastisement, the only thing that compels us to do what is right is virtue.