318 Global Ethics for Leadership
ronment, or integrity of individuals or of the communities is very dy-
namic and future oriented, as theologically defined by eschatology: to
preserve integrity means to preserve, to nourish and to grow the poten-
tial of an organism. God has shown it through his promise to create a
new person and a new creature.
Integrity is not only a virtue that belongs to an individual. It also be-
longs to the collective. An ethicist from Congo has published with
Globethics.net a book entitled “Business Ethics in Congo: Weaving a
Culture of Integrity in Central Africa”^243. “Weaving a culture of integri-
ty” is a very nice expression that indicates the effort of the whole com-
munity who places integrity as the foundation and the code of conduct in
a culture, and not as an exception.
26.4 Integrity in the Bible
The word “integrity” only appears—and quite rarely—in the Old
Testament. The profession of Judges alone specified that integrity was
needed. “Do not try to become a Judge, if you cannot extract injustice,
for you could be influenced by the personality of a Prince and thus com-
promise your own integrity” (Sirach 7:6). Straightforwardness (Prov.
1:3) is close to integrity and integrity of faith and says no to former (an-
cient) gods, and has trust in God (Jos 24:14); integrity and faithfulness
are almost synonymous in this text.
There are other expressions that describe many aspects of integrity:
the purity of the heart and the loyalty of the believer, for instance, Da-
vid, following the threat of Saul (2 Samuel 22:21-26: “My God treats me
by my justice, he treats me by the purity of my hands, as I have followed
the paths of God, I have not been unfaithful to my God. All his laws are
in front of me, and I have not disobeyed his commandments. I have been
243
Ntamwenge, Corneille, L’éthique des affaires au Congo. Tisser une culture
d’intégrité en Afrique Centrale, Globethics.net Focus No. 11, Geneva 2013.