Understanding Bribery

Bribery is an issue that must be confronted in the business world, including by Christian businesspeople--but what I have often heard Christians say about the moral dimensions of bribery things that are unbiblical, overly simplistic, and fallacious.  But before I examine the morality of bribes I need to clarify what a bribe is and what it is not.  There are two things which I need to distinguish from bribery, as the three are different and must be treated accordingly.

Facilitating payments are intended to accelerate a decision or action, not change the actual decision made or action taken.  For instance, a facility might close down for a weekend, and a shipment that would otherwise be shipped out on the next Monday could be moved up to the preceding Friday by a facilitation payment.  This payment was not used to persuade someone to overlook an illegal or immoral act, or to illicitly secure a certain outcome, or to appease corrupt leadership.  It was simply made to bring about a planned activity faster.  However, some might still object to facilitating payments because of their capacity to allow successful companies to have an advantage over smaller businesses that do not have as many resources.

Giving a gift is separated from giving a bribe in that gift giving is an act of benevolence and kindness, perhaps to smoothen business relationships, whereas bribery is intended to obtain an advantage by swaying a course of action.  There is no gift size or frequency of giving at which point a gift becomes a bribe; calling something bribery because of size or frequency inescapably involves arbitrary lines.  The intention behind giving to another party determines if bribery is occurring.  With the distinction between facilitating payments, gifts, and bribes addressed, I will now turn my attention to the morality of bribery.

Anyone who objectively reads the Bible will see that bribery is not intrinsically immoral under all circumstances (only divine revelation can reveal moral truths, not conscience or social consensus).  Exodus 23:6-8 condemns bribes--but in the context of civil and criminal justice.  Likewise, using a bribe to intentionally, maliciously harm another party is wrong by extension, but this is not because bribery itself is intrinsically sinful.  Simply using money to motivate someone else to do something nonsinful is not wrong.  The Bible has nothing against using bribery outside of malicious intentions, perversions of justice, or to persuade someone to commit any other sinful act; any use of bribery that does not fall into these sinful categories is permissible (Deuteronomy 4:2).

Yes, bribery advantages some businesses over others by giving them better opportunities to succeed and by depriving other parties of certain opportunities.  But all business contracts and decisions by nature exclude some other party from an opportunity, so, although smaller businesses will not have as many resources to expend in bribes, there is still not necessarily anything wrong about using bribes in business contexts.  The goal of the bribe--what the bribe is intended to bring about--and the motives behind it determine if it is immoral or not.