And when evaluation time comes at the end of the year, we see how many needs have been met to determine how well we have done. We urge people to give because we have a need for a new building. Now of course I am pleased that we are meeting the needs both spiritual and physical through the ministry of the church. I believe that the gospel meets some basic human needs for meaning and forgiveness because God created us with those needs so that we searched for a relationship with the divine. But there are some dangers when that becomes our primary way of thinking.
Sex is a good example.
Justification for not telling the truth can be the need to protect the family from shame or the need to keep a job by not telling what we know about our superior. Folks don't report income or over-report deductions on their taxes because they rationalize their need for funds is greater than the government's. So what we need becomes much more important than what is right. And we end up with a society with little integrity in public life. What happens in the impeachment hearings will be determined by what senators think they need to do to get reelected in 2000 rather than on the merits of the trial.