Corruption in religion
The Bangkok Post addressed an interesting area of corruption in religion. This manifests itself in many different ways. During my time in Afghanistan, the Ministry that was working with Hajj pilgrims was notorious for bribes being paid by pigrims for space at the Hajj pilgrimage. As you can imagine, it is a bit surprising, but this article reminds us that this is not simply a problem for Afghanistan. In Bankgkok “[t]he Centre for Protection and Security of Buddhism has received more than 200 complaints since its inception… most of the complaints relate to financial misconduct by monks and inappropriate relationships between monks and women.” These complaints are being investigated and reminds us that government needs to be accountable, even when we are looking at religious actions.
Why should we pay attention to these issues? Many governments do not have religious governmental structures and those that do, the implication is that there is no need to monitor as they are part of the religious structures. Additionally, it is important to ensure that enforcement mechanisms are there and that religion is not used to avoid responsibility and liability. Monitoring is extremely important by CSOs and the government, and this article reminds us that everyone should be accountable under the law.
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