The recent scandals swirling inside the beltway seem to have come one after another—Benghazi, the AP records seizure, the IRS audits. While investigations continue about the details of each, the incidents have been enough to raise bigger, broader questions of responsibility, moral integrity, and creditability of those in power.

This kind of questioning is more signficant than just cynicism. After all, public faith in governance is key to a democracy like ours. Once that faith has been lost, how can it be restored? Or, as Publilius Syrus, a 1st-century Roman-slave-turned-Latin-writer, asked, "What is left when honor is lost?"

It's a concept that has thundered down through the centuries: Moral integrity is foundational for truly successful leaders. Socrates advised, "Let the man who would move the world first move himself." Confucius asked, "If he cannot put himself aright, how can he hope to succeed in putting others aright?" From beginning to end, what matters the most about leaders is who they are, not simply what they do. And right now, there appears to be significant flaws in the characters of our government officials and politicians.

Take the case of the Islamist attack on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi back in September, where we're left with conflicting reports over whether the assault was spontaneous or, as critics argued, a premeditated act of terrorism. While it's worth investigating whether such an incident could have been avoided, the bigger question in America's minds is one of integrity, of whether people in power deliberately covered up the facts. We cannot expect our leaders to foresee and prevent every tragedy, but we can—and should—expect them to respond truthfully. We can expect them to uphold a sense morality and doing what's right.

The character of those involved has come into question as e-mails released last week revealed that Democratic talking points following the Benghazi attack were revised 12 times, expunging references to intelligence that indicated the assault was a terrorist attack. Earlier this month, U.S. officials testified that "everybody in the mission" knew it was a terrorist attack "from the get-go." At some point, the truth stopped becoming a priority (perhaps to protect Obama's popularity headed into re-election).

Last week, in the midst of the Benghazi coverage, the Associated Press revealed a scandal of its own, reporting that the Department of Justice secretly seized the records of more than 20 separate telephone lines in April and May of 2012 in what an AP top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion." The DOJ maintains that the move was necessary to identify who provided information regarding a May 7, 2012 story on a foiled terror plot, but the White House said there was no credible threat to the public at that time. Again, our integrity slips. It's no longer important whether or not an action is right as long as it's expedient and legal… or simply permissible, since the secrecy and "chillingly broad" scope of the DOJ seizure seems like such a blatant disregard of the constitutional rights of the press.

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Then, there's the Inspector General's recent report, stating that the IRS had singled out conservative groups by using "inappropriate criteria …to identify organizations" that might demonstrate "significant political campaign intervention," such as Tea Party groups. When these groups sought tax-exemption status, the IRS asked about private e-mails, Facebook posts, prayer requests, lists of events, and lists of donors.

President Obama decried the IRS's targeting of political groups and called for the resignation of Stephen Miller, the acting IRS Commissioner, though Miller was already scheduled to leave June 8. Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS official directly in charge of scrutinizing political groups, received $103,390 from 2009 to 2012 in bonuses and now heads the "Obamacare" division in the IRS. Officials in the Obama administration knew in June 2012 there was an investigation regarding the IRS targeting conservative groups. Even if the IRS was in compliance with the law, and merely providing "horrible customer service", officials knew of this a year ago and chose to do nothing. No one is actually taking responsibility for these actions.

I'm grieved, but not surprised by these events. It's been a long time since we've heard anything about what it means to be a good, virtuous person, much less saw those characteristics demonstrated regularly throughout our political system. "We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise,' wrote C.S. Lewis. "We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."

It's not only our politicians. It's endemic to our culture, baked into the structure of our society. This corrosion of morality affects our businesses, schools, appetites, sports, and yes, churches. In my role as a seminary professor, I've interacted with seemingly innocuous colleagues who were eventually charged with heinous crimes and then went on to rationalized them, rather than take responsibility and offer remorse. I've seen administration manipulate faculty and students abuse professors, cheat on assignments, and rarely receive anything more than an academic penalty and an apologetic slap on the wrist. We don't even have the appropriate safeguards in our churches to ensure those helming the ship aren't sexual predators.

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It's a tale as old as time. We sweep the sin under the rug and make the victim go away. In cowardice we fail to confront evil in our midst because we all too often care more about power and money (which is nothing more than monetized power) than we care about the integrity, the character, of our leaders and future leaders.

The answer to Washington's troubles isn't punishing the bad guys and getting them out of office. As gulag survivor Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, "If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

As Christians, we need to set the example, committing to continual spiritual growth through the cultivation of the virtues by practicing spiritual disciplines, and we need to hold others to that standard. This is the hardest part of leadership, for the hardest person to lead is ourselves. We need to be the kind of people we ourselves would want to follow. As Dumbledore tells Harry Potter once it is clear that Voldemort has returned, "Dark and difficult times lie ahead, Harry. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy."

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