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Yesterday the Church of England was accused of hypocrisy, because two cathedrals were advertising jobs with salaries below the living wage.

Just a week ago the House of Bishops published its pre-election letter, Who is my Neighbour? in which it ‘backed the concept’ of the living wage. Against the wave of media criticism the Archbishop admitted embarrassment and rightly so. But he also appealed for patience in the long-term game of institutional change. This has echoes of the previous incident when the church strongly condemned payday loan companies only to discover that they also had indirect investments in Wonga.

But of course, careless neglect is not necessarily the same as hypocrisy.

The story embroils us all in a much bigger narrative. Every day the headlines invite us to become participant observers in the drama between public servants and private citizens.

The danger is that the constant stream of disclosures and our revolt against deception is creating automated responses of mistrust and a moral restlessness in which no one knows whom to believe. And truth has no agreed credentials.

As the Old Testament prophet puts it, ‘Truth stumbles in the streets.’

And I’m wondering too, if something even more unhelpful is taking shape: it’s the nurturing of a culture in which repentance – the ability to say ‘sorry’ – is absent because there is no room for restoration when people get it wrong. And I wonder if public servants are more likely to come clean in a society which believes in redemption as passionately as it does in transparency.

In a vigilante morality, we don’t get the public servants we deserve. We get the public servants we create.

I’m all for transparency. Until a few weeks ago, I spent the past 3 years heading up an international Christian campaign raising awareness of the $1trillion which goes missing every year through global corruption and tax dodging.

We should all be outraged. These things need investigating. But I think something else is needed.

Given the reality of the human condition, which Christians call ‘sin’ our efforts must include the tough ideas of forgiveness and restoration. If they are absent, our crucial calls for transparency could lead us to a future of obsessions.

First broadcast on Tuesday 24 February 2015

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