Confessing Quickly Or Ratcheting Up Your Crime (March 14, 2004)

I think Martha Stewart deserves to go to jail, but not because she was guilty of making use of inside information. That was bad, of course, but I can understand it if a person got a call from a broker saying “Dump this stock - it is going to tank” and in a moment of unguarded, unpremeditated weakness the client said, "Thanks! Sell!" That is illegal, of course, and worthy of a fine, but it is not the same as plotting fraud or clubbing someone over the head to steal his wallet. A slap on the financial wrist and a term of community service would suit the white-collar crime.

But Stewart deserves prison time because of the way she chose to escalate matters when she got caught. Rather than admitting guilt, she stonewalled. She lied, obstructed justice, lied, falsified documents, lied, covered up, lied, sought out fellow conspirators, and lied. At this point it would be a miscarriage of justice to let such relentless contempt for the law evade the iron bars of confinement.

More misery is wrought by moral misfits feigning innocence than this world dreams of. If you are caught doing wrong, admit it - just admit it, take your penalty, repent and go on. That is what President Clinton should have done six years ago when he was busy expressing outrage that anyone should accuse him of marital infidelity. Rather than coming clean, he chose to drag the nation through an embarrassing and expensive investigation that we all had to endure and fund. Shameful.

When I worked with at-risk middle school students I frequently had to contend with delinquents who had mastered the art of contemptuous escalation. Brian, for example, would crumple up a piece of paper and throw it on the floor. I would say calmly, "Brian, you need to put that in the wastepaper basket." Brian would pretend not to hear, so I would repeat. Brian would say, "I didn't put that there!" I would say, "Even so, Brian, I would like you to put it in the trash." "I ain't no janitor!" he'd shout, and things would proceed like that until he got suspended. In his view, he got suspended for a picky little thing like throwing a piece of paper on the floor (when nobody was supposed to have seen him do that anyway). But in reality he was suspended for the tantrum and the shouting and the insubordination that followed. Things could have been so simple, so easy, if he had just thrown out the piece of paper in the first place.

As I read through the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel with my boys it impresses me that, though David sinned a lot, he responded quickly to rebuke and took full responsibility for his actions. He promptly admitted that his lies triggered the slaughter of the priests of Nob (1 Samuel 22:22). He acknowledged that he was the villain of Nathan's parable (2 Samuel 12:13). He allowed Joab to slap some sense into him (2 Samuel 19:5-8). You do not see David saying, "Who? Me? I didn’t do anything. I did not have sex with that woman, Mrs. Bathsheba."

Denial escalates mistakes to misdemeanors, misdemeanors to crimes, and crimes to atrocities. Confess your sin quickly and honestly. It is the right thing to do, and it might save you a lot of trouble in the long run.