To say I was shocked to hear of the death of Kenneth Lay, Enron CEO and convicted felon, is a serious understatement. After several years in the U.S. criminal justice system and his recent conviction, Ken Lay still maintained his innocence in the collapse of the country's biggest energy company.
His sentencing hearing was scheduled for September 11, which struck me as a bad sign right off the bat. But not this bad a sign. Dead at the age of 64. Released from his obligations to court and country, but still, possibly, on the hook with a higher authority.
Mr. Lay was the son of a Baptist minister. He maintained his membership at a Methodist church. But who can say what his relationship was with God? Will he stand before God the judge or God the scapegoat?
No matter what those of us who work hard to do the right thing might say, our eternal destiny in not determined by what we do or don't do. It's not determined by how early or late we came to believe. It's not decided by the way we dress, the good deeds we've done or even the completeness of our understanding.
So, while we wait for the reactions to come out from people who think Ken Lay got what he deserved and others who wish he would have suffered longer for his crimes, let us pray for the day of our own "release" and beg the God of all mercy that justice not be served on us.
2 comments:
Very insightful!
"Released" is such an interesting way to look at his death and all the folks who were affected by his decisions. As a former Enron employ, in the late 90's, I used to willingly acknowledge I worked for ECT (my first job out of college for a year) and still hold rather strong emotional feelings about the company. Today, I am less willing to admit it. The thing that suprised me more was the amount of feelings I experienced upon his death than what I experienced over the course of the bankruptcy, trials, and other major events. Ken Lay was definitely a complex guy, he tended to do things on a "large" scale.
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