OK all you theologians, politicians, missionaries, pastors, and moral theorists out there I need your help. Stacey and I are in the process of moving to Cameroon, Africa and have recently been confronted with a reality that we will have to face. According to the World Corruption Index, Cameroon ranked 146 out of 178 countries in regards to its freedom from corruption. The nation has actually improved quite a bit in the last 20 years, but there is still corruption, some that we even experienced while we were there.
We were driving down the road and reached a checkpoint (very common in Cameroon). At the checkpoint a government official asked us to pull aside. He then proceeded to tell us that our vehicle did not have the proper reflective stickers for our truck. What he was claiming that we needed to have was only actually required of large trucks (we were in a Toyota LandCruiser). He said that he would allow us to pass, but only if we paid a fee.
Bribe – money or any other valuable consideration given or promised with a view to corrupting the behavior of a person, especially in that person’s performance as an athlete, public official, etc.: “The motorist offered the arresting officer a bribe to let him go.”
Extortion – the crime of obtaining money or some other thing of value by the abuse of one’s office or authority.
Exodus 23:8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.
Ezekiel 18:18 As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity.
