# Conflicted Interest **URL:** \ **Category:** SC Episodes\ **Tags:** stone-choir, sc-episode, episode\ **Created:** [January 8, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/conflicted-interest/188 "2025-01-08T20:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stonechoir](https://omnifora.com/user_avatar/omnifora.com/stonechoir/32/261_2.png) [@stonechoir](https://omnifora.com/u/stonechoir)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/conflicted-interest/188/1 "2025-01-08T20:00:00Z")
Every man has a collection of interests. A man has an interest in his family; a man has an interest in his job; a man has an interest in his financial positions; a man has an interest in his city; a man has an interest in his nation. These interests can sometimes come into conflict. To have a conflict of interests does not mean that the man in question is necessarily compromised or untrustworthy, but it does mean that he is in a position where he will have to make a choice between those competing interests. In our legal system, we recognize this in a number of ways. We take the interests of a witness into account when weighing his testimony (and not just for credibility purposes); we take into account whether a statement is made _against_ interest; we dismiss jurors who have certain interests in the outcome of a given case. The same is true of many other parts of our government (e.g., regulators are supposed to _at least_ disclose any interests they have in the entities they regulate). It is not that having an interest means that a man is automatically disqualified; rather, it is that the interests of the man must be taken into account when assessing his arguments, and it is also that men should generally disclose their interests — and those who fail to do so are suspect. However, there most certainly are instances where a man with a conflict of interests should or even must be disqualified from participating in the discussion — this is not only to protect the discussion itself, but also to protect the man from having to make a choice between his legitimate (and possibly even equally important) interests. Handling these issues is a matter of wisdom, and one that has been neglected for far too long in Christian circles. God does not command us to be fools; rather, He commands us to be wise and to be wary of wolves. ### Show Notes - [The Small Catechism — The Ten Commandments](https://thebookofconcord.org/sc-i/) #### See Also - _None._ #### Further Reading - _None._ #### Parental Warnings None. * * * This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at [https://stone-choir.com/conflicted-interest](https://stone-choir.com/conflicted-interest)