Accountability

I think I’ve finally found a topic that’s less popular than the blog I did on Submission a while ago: Accountability.

It seems to me that society today suffers from a fear of accountability. I believe that not wanting to be held accountable drives a lot of bad behaviour and erroneous belief. This is more than the natural human tendency to “get away” with things.

I believe it is this denial of accountability that is at the base of most atheistic beliefs and behaviour. It drives an ever-increasing scale of excuse-making and blaming and has escalated into an attitude of public mockery without any substance of reason (I’m reminded of Richard Dawkin’s invective call to his followers (with regard to Christians) to “mock them, ridicule them, in public … with contempt”).

As much as we don’t like accountability, we need it. Our justice system cannot function without it. Indeed, some believe that they need to personally hold others accountable when the justice system is perceived to have failed. This accounts for the “protests” after the Michael Brown grand jury decision that somehow end up with stealing and damaging the property of people that had nothing to do with the shooting.

Whether we like it or not, we are accountable. We are accountable to parents, teachers, siblings, governments, anyone who has authority…and ultimately, God. Psalm 10:13 says: Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, "You will not call to account"? Did you catch that? It is wickedness to actively deny or fight accountability, to believe that God will not hold us accountable.

We convince ourselves that God doesn’t exist, because once He doesn’t, there is no one ultimately to hold us accountable. We can bluff, plead, lie, evade, argue, “get a good lawyer to get us off” when the party keeping us accountable is a human or a human organisation. We can’t do that with God, He doesn’t play by our rules. We can’t do that with our heart, or conscience either, because that part is the bit of God we have in us and isn’t fooled either. And, we face death, and any thought/belief of an afterlife means an encounter with God and being held accountable.

That’s where Brittany Maynard’s quest for a dignified death under her own terms fails. She got through all of the accountability barriers, except for God. That’s where officer Darren Wilson and Bill Cosby will be held accountable, if not in this life.

How do you feel about accountability? Is there something right now that you’ve gotten away with that the higher court of conscience is not fooled by? It might be wise to go to the highest court first and get right with Him, and then set about allowing accountability to set us free from the secrets that bind us.