You may have heard the news that the Senate finally passed the much-anticipated “STOCK” bill. The bill now has to be approved by the House and signed by the President to become a law. “STOCK” stands for “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge,” and it is one of those bills that make you think, “why did they have to pass that?”
The purpose of “STOCK” is to make it illegal for legislators and executive branch employees to trade stocks or to unethically gain a market advantage based on information which is not available to the public. The only problem? Not only was it already in the legislative rules, but it was already illegal to profit from inside knowledge. Rather than simply enforcing existing laws on Senators and Congressmen, we apparently needed another law to make them follow the same rules as the rest of us.
Insider-trading is not a new issue. Perhaps one of the early inside-traders was Rahab, an “inn-keeper” who had private knowledge of the coming destruction on Jericho and bargained with the Israeli spies to save her family. Michael Douglas’ character, Gordon Gekko, popularized the idea of “the value of information and how to get it” in the 1987 movie Wall Street. Of course, Gekko went to jail for his actions. As investors, we like the idea of getting information before others. The problem comes when the information we gained is due to an unfair advantage we have because of our job or position.
Thankfully, the good news of the gospel is that insider-trading has no place in Christianity! The gospel is for all – the information is freely available. We have an obligation to share the news that the long-anticipated Messiah has come and that we can have salvation by believing in Him. In addition to being freely available, the law applies to all – there is not one law for the common people and another for our elected officials. Everyone will face the same judgment. How blessed we are to have such a giving God who desires that all would repent and be saved.
