Beware of anyone telling you they have the one cause for the financial crisis. This was the advice given by a professor of one of the best business schools in the world to a classroom packed with family and friends of soon-to-be graduates.

The professor was lecturing on the financial crisis. When he explained the cause of the crisis, he gave a range of reasons including dishonest households, conflicts of interest with ratings agencies, poor regulation of financial firms and poor leadership from the government.

Contrary to what he said, a deeper look at all these reasons does reveal a single cause: greed.

Yet the professor didn’t mention greed, except to respond to an audience member’s question by discounting it as a possible cause. He told his audience there is no way to measure an uptick of excessive greed before the crisis.

Greed is, by definition, excessive, and never good. That is not to say a proper measure of self-interest is bad for society. But a proper measure of self-interest is not what happened in our financial system. Our financial leaders sacrificed their businesses and even their own jobs and reputations to get quick profits. Households sacrificed their financial stability for their excessive desire for bigger homes. Our government sacrificed responsible lending practices to avoid alienating voters and donors.

Every reason smacks of greed, but that professor couldn’t admit it or see it. And if we can’t admit or see a problem, we can never solve it.

This professor’s solution was to introduce tougher regulation for systemic risk. Current regulatory bodies have focused on institutional risk: determining whether an individual bank is viable or not. But they failed to forecast how the collapse of one mega-bank could put the whole financial system at risk.

The professor’s solution is exactly the direction President Barack Obama’s proposed regulatory reforms are going. On June 17, President Obama announced a proposal that would give more responsibility to the Federal Reserve for monitoring systemic risk and regulating institutions that are “too big to fail.” However, lawmakers and regulators are failing to address the cause of the crisis.

It’s character that needs to be reformed first and foremost, or this crisis will never completely go away.

Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria put it this way: “We are in the midst of a vast crisis, and there is enough blame to go around and many fixes to make …. But at heart, there needs to be a deeper fix within all of us, a simple gut check. If it doesn’t feel right, we shouldn’t be doing it” (June 22). This is a good observation, but even it misses the bull’s-eye: Many people live their lives by doing what feels right, and are still dead wrong. Our conscience needs to be properly informed before it will serve as a good guide.

Nevertheless, the point stands: Regulation is no cure-all. There needs to be a deeper fix within all of us. Sadly, however, this deeper fix will not happen. How can it, if our teachers of future business leaders don’t even see or admit that this crisis is a result of flawed character?

A Founding Father and our fourth president, James Madison, linked proper conduct specifically to the Ten Commandments: “We have staked the whole future of American civilization … upon the capacity of each and every one of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments.”

Morality cannot be separated from right religion, and a strong foundation in both is needed for government and finance to run properly.

The professor’s omission of greed as being a cause of the financial crisis may be one small example, but it is symptomatic of a system that has left God out of education. From the earliest grades to the graduate schools, our system has hamstrung its ability to teach morality by removing even references of God as our Creator. It has rejected His Word and the greatest regulation system man will ever know: the Ten Commandments. Without this moral code emphasized and reinforced in our educational institutions, is it really any wonder we are in this mess now?

The painful times we are living through now are the result of this missing element in our education. The rudimentary need for religion and morality was obvious to the men who established this nation; it should be obvious to us today. (For more information on this subject, request our free booklet Character in Crisis.)

The founders staked America’s future on the people endeavoring to regulate themselves with the Ten Commandments. Now our national leaders stake our future on changing government regulations, without a moral code.

There is room for regulation, but regulation can’t govern a people without a moral and religious foundation in God’s Word. Without that foundation, you simply cannot legislate your way to success. The only solution to our problem lies in reforming our character.

Here is a reform that would work: Bring back God and His Ten Commandments to our schools. Teaching the future generation God’s Word would equip them with the moral character needed to make sound decisions. Teaching the Ten Commandments would reinforce that one should not steal, lie or covet material possessions or positions. In other words, greed is bad. This truly would build well-rounded leaders.

Sadly, our nation and government are past the point of passing such extraordinary “regulations.” However, soon a new government will be ushered in that will have God’s Word as the foundation of its education system. It is a wonderful vision for the future, a vision that one school in this nation tries to capture.

That school is Herbert W. Armstrong College, where students are taught true, godly values. This college emphasizes character building, and developing a sound mind that can make sound decisions (request our free booklet Education With Vision for more information).

This college’s policy follows that of its namesake, Herbert W. Armstrong, who established three colleges beginning in 1947. He wrote:

[T]rue education is not of the intellect alone but of the whole personality—not alone of technologies, sciences and arts, but an understanding of the purpose of life, a knowledge of the spiritual laws which govern our lives, our God-relationship and human relationships; not a memorizing of knowledge alone but a thorough training in self-discipline, self-expression, cultural and character development ….

True education is the only kind of education that will produce the moral leaders America needs.