Reason First: Is it Selfish for Thou to Steal?

When it comes to the believers who entrust their funds in their houses of worship, they expect those dollars to be handled well. This, allegedly, did not happen in Florence Township, New Jersey. Taisha Smith-Dejoseph, 43, is accused of fraud and embezzlement among other charges as the former volunteer of the St. Paul’s Baptist Church. Any non-believer or devout parishioner can see that this is an egregious slight against the letter of the law. For Smith-Dejoseph to so brazenly steal and lie should disturb both camps.

Whatever the “reason” including for her wedding and bills, this woman disrespected other human beings. She destroyed any strands of trust that may have been tied to her. The over half a million dollars that she is accused of stealing represents good money passed through evil hands. From a worldly perspective, this is utterly deplorable. Smith-Dejoseph ought to be found guilty not because she stole from the faithful but because she defrauded her friends, neighbors, and fellow churchgoers. Her selflessness led her to this low point. If she had been selfish, she would’ve found new ways to be honest and maybe would’ve had the ability to start her own business. Her unselfishness has created in the minds of those whom she cheated a sense that she can no longer be trusted. This is a terrible state. The trade that should be involved in meeting other people ought to be objective and clear-eyed. People should be able to engage in transactions with rational estimates of other people. If that tight rope is shredded, it ought to never be tied back together again.

Now, Smith-Dejoseph may be forgiven. Tears may fall from eyes like icebergs from a glacier. There will probably be prayers lifted up to the unknown and unknowable asking for her “sins” to be absolved and for her to be restored. If justice has its way, she will be imprisoned long enough to allow her to think about what she did. But with the state of our emotion-driven, selfless, sacrificial society, it is expected that Smith-Dejoseph just has to confess not her crimes but that she went against the church.

She will be held up and glorified for just saying that she had done wrong and that the folks at the church will embrace her with open arms like a giant hug, squeezing the life out of truth. No matter how many “needs” that Smith-Dejoseph may have had, it doesn’t matter legally. But “spiritually” people will regard the entire situation as an opportunity for the woman to mount up her lies and count them as blessings. Yes, each of her misdeeds will be viewed as cries for help from a “weak, stupid, human.” Because that’s what the people of St. Paul Baptist Church, like most people, will most likely view the actions of Smith-Dejoseph. Her “human” self brought her to commit these ugly crimes. Her “humanity” will be seen as the cause for her misbehavior.

Rather than describing humanity as capable of intelligence, beauty and of course honesty, her humanity will be the focus of why she did what she did. “She’s only human” they’ll bark. They’ll mean that she is stupid, ugly, wretched and capable of all the vices of the world.

In reality, the human is the strong, the efficient, the splendid. If Smith-Dejoseph can expect anything, it is an outpouring of forgiveness. Alms will be showered on her as charity not for her good but because of her wickedness.

Out of all of this, it is possible to surmise the bankruptcy of not the church’s choices in who it hires to govern its funds but of the morality of our age. Dejoseph is just an example of how backwards the current ethic atmosphere is. In order to change this we need not look up but within ourselves.