Can Anyone Be Trusted?

“He was one of the few people outside the family that my parents put absolute trust in. . . . He portrayed himself as a good and caring person who would never do anything to hurt us. . . . He was one of the few people in my life I came to trust implicitly.”

THAT is how one young woman described the trust she had in her family doctor. Sad to say, it was a seriously misplaced trust. From when she was 16 years old, this doctor sexually abused her. “He lied to me and deceived me,” she told the court authorities, who then meted out justice.—The Toronto Star.

Trust Destroyed Everywhere

Trust, like a beautiful yet delicate flower, can be easily uprooted and trampled underfoot. It is being crushed everywhere! Said Michael Gaine, who was secretary to two cardinal-archbishops in England: “There was a time when everybody trusted a priest. When families would entrust their children into his care. I wouldn’t expect that now. We’re cut off from that trust forever.”—The Guardian Weekend.

Business people cheat competitors. Crafty advertisers mislead and exploit consumers. One callous official plundered his own companies’ pension funds, robbing his employees of their nest eggs. Employees regularly rob their employers. A report noted, for example, that “Canadian businesses lose an estimated $20 billion a year from internal thefts.”—Canadian Business.

Not all politicians are untrustworthy. But reports like the following surprise very few people: “Two weeks after the assassination of one of France’s most controversial woman politicians, the police are ripping to shreds the veils of political deceit and criminal conspiracy that have long masked the business of government on the Mediterranean coast.”—The Sunday Times, London.

Often, in close relationships trust is shattered. Husbands and wives cheat on their spouses. Parents abuse children. Children deceive parents. When the archives of the Stasi, the secret police in former East Germany, were opened, they revealed a “pervasive system of deceit” by people considered friends. In a network of betrayal, says one report, “Stasi tentacles extended into the schoolroom, the pulpit, the bedroom, even the confessional.”—Time.

In Ireland a columnist wrote: “We have been lied to, we have been misled and we have been used and abused and have been held in contempt by those who we placed in positions of power.” (The Kerryman) Because they so often have been betrayed, many people trust no one. What can we do to ensure that our trust is not misplaced? The next two articles will examine this question.