Archive for the ‘Ethics’ Category

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Why The Hatred

October 20, 2015

“Muslims HATE Christians over there. They’ll all go to Hell.”

Some guy, I would imagine Christian, although thankfully he did not take on the name of Jesus publicly answered a comment I foolishly made on Facebook

I just get so tired of all these memes that get passed around. I’ve seen them since the beginning of the Internet. Once it was emails getting spread around. Now Facebook makes it so easy. 

It was one of those “pictures” that get repeated that spread hatred and prejudice. This one showed a crowd of Syrians (I suppose) pushing against a fence supposedly trying to get into Europe. “How many Muslim countries would take in Christian refugees?” the caption read.

So I, stupidity rampant in my head, commented, “Each one of those human beings was created by God and God loves each one.”

I just got tired of one too many “Christian” comments about Muslims. Yestereday he was posting one of those things that makes fun of Obama’s name. Since it is not English or German in derivation, it must be Muslim, right? Oh, give me a break. I don’t know him personally, but his Christian cred is at least as good as these people who villify him. He is a member of the United Church of Christ. Who am I to judge? (Before you spam me, note that I did not mention politics!)

Could we try a spiritual discipline of love? 
When Jesus walked the earth, the predominant culture was one of power. Every relationship from family to politics was based on power. Jesus broke that cycle. He said that the predominant way to treat others was with love. And if they hate you? Well, still treat them with love. (Hint: it’s in the Bible.)

In fact, Jesus personally dealt with hate. And what about his followers? For two hundred years or more. Yet the church grew exponentially. Why? Because of the way they treated people and the power of Jesus in them. 

Every human being you see, in person or in a photo or on TV, was created by God. And God loves them. There are some who are filled with evil. God hates evil. He loves people. Remember Paul? The guy who wrote most of the New Testament? He was a hater. Look what God did with him.

I have friends who are Muslim. I have friends who are Hindu. I have Buddhist friends. I even have pagan friends. Many of my friends are confused. None are evil. They are all people. God loves them.

I pray every day that we could stop this labeling and name calling and hate and fear and just love people and help people (remember the Good Samaritan?).  It’s not my job to worry about others. It’s my job to help others and model my teacher–Jesus. I just wish I could do it better. I pray we all could.

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Sustainable Leadership

September 11, 2015

There is leadership for a brief season. Then there is sustainable leadership. Take a look at Bill Hybels at Willow Creek Community Church or Andy Stanley at Northpoint Community Church for example. These guys have staying power.

This week’s big leadership news is on the other side of the coin. I follow United airlines. I’ve been a Continental/United frequent flier for about 12 years. I’ve seen it in good times (when Gordon Bethune was CEO), sliding to mediocre times (when he was replaced by Larry (?) a bean counter), and then straight downhill under Jeff Smisek (a mergers & acquisitions lawyer).

Suddenly this week, Smisek is out. Along with two other senior executives.

It’s been building for a while. There have been technical glitches. Employee morale is in the tank. Now there are discussions in the New York Times about ethics problems.

Bethune at Continental and Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines both focused on the customer and the employees. They did things to boost morale. They focused on customer satisfaction. This month’s Leadership podcast from Andy Stanley features Frank Blake retired CEO of The Home Depot. He also discussed customer focus first, employee focus next, and CEO self-focus last.

Sometime you get the idea reading the news that CEOs spend more time negotiating their own pay and perk packages than on thinking about how to lead the company.

Ethics problems continue to bring down high level executives, yet, many think they are immune. Until it all hits the fan.

I’ve seen church leaders flit from one program to the next. No sustainable initiatives. Worse, no focus on the customer (people to bring into the church) or focus on the “employee” (people who volunteer to help the church and are used, abused, and discarded.

Solution? Focus on your customer. Know what business you’re in and what value you provide. Then provide it–with a loyal staff that feels supported and empowered.

You might get your millions, but how do you and your wife face the folks at the country club in the morning?

Sorry, that was a cheap shot. But you get the point.

Ethics and focus on others. Gee, that sounds familiar. Maybe I read it in a Gospel or something!

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Despite Gains, Women Are Still Exploited

September 9, 2015

Laws and opportunities for women have greatly improved over the course of my adult life in North America and Western Europe. As a group, they are treated better by the law and business.

They do remain virtually or actually enslaved in much of the world. At least three speakers on the TED Talks circuit have pointed out one of the major problems still facing the world is treatment of women. Some identify the situation as a major drag on economies. Jimmy Carter called it the biggest problme not discussed.

This is even among people who consider themselves Christ followers. And sometimes even women themselves are talked into excepting (and promoting) the concept that the Bible says that they are second-class church citizens incapable of participating in church leadership.

Much worse than exclusion from church leadership is the reality of human trafficking–recruiting women by one means or another into sex trade basically enslaving them in a life centered on entertaining the pleasures of men.

A group of people have begun organizing a coalition in our county to raise awareness of human trafficking occurring even in our rural area–probably due to the busy Interstate highway and heavy truck traffic. Only a few men have attended the meetings. I’m the only representative of a church.

One of my small groups is studying the gospel of John. A close reading of the last few chapters shows how important women were in the inner circle of Jesus’ followers. Even if some want to continue mis-reading Paul, Jesus message is unmistakable. 

The remarkable part of the stories recorded in the gospels and Acts is simply the fact that they were recorded at all. Given the culture of first century Mediterranian peoples, giving leading roles to women in some of the stories was actually revolutionary at the time. 

There are so many problems. We can’t solve all at once. But things begin by changing hearts. You do that one heart at a time. You meet someone in an abusive situation, you try to help strengthen the heart to leave the situation. Offering support–emotionally, financially, spiritually. 

And we need to change the hearts of men to overcome whatever basic drives and emotions compel them to be the reason for the problem in the first place.

As a friend of mine said, we can do all manner of things, but unless we work on changing the hearts of people, nothing will change.

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Moral Obligation To Justice

September 2, 2015

I hate blatant misrepresentation of Scripture.

Hate is a strong word, and I am a person of few, if any, hates. But when someone twists a story told by Jesus to wring all meaning from it save some sort of self-serving, political interpretation–well, I hate it. That sort of thing makes disciples look bad all over the globe.

A friend of mine posted one of the pictures that is the dominant theme of Facebook these days (both right and left, religious and pagan). His “picture” was of Pope Francis with a saying about the moral imperative of economic justice.

Someone whom I assume is a friend of my friend ripped the thought and suggested the Pope should read Matthew 20 (OK, arrogance knows no bounds). This is a story about a vineyard owner who decided to pay the laborers who worked 1 hour the same as those who worked all day.

“This shows that I can do with my money whatever I want,” the guy proclaimed.

Unless we missed the message that God has returned to Earth physically and inhabits the body of this guy, we need to take another look at the passage.

The meaning has nothing whatsoever to do with me and my money. It is a parable about God. God is the owner of the vineyard. “For the kingdom of heaven is like….” If God wishes to save people at the very end of their lives the same as those who have been disciples their entire lives, well, God can do what God wants to do. After all, he is, er, God.

Jesus really only gave us two commandments. Unfortunately for us, they are not easy to live out every day. Love God. Love our neighbor.

Which of those two tell us that we can do whatever we wish with our money? Or even says that it is our money to begin with?

So, I’m reading Proverbs 26 this week. Which of these am I doing?

Do not answer fools according to their folly, or you will be a fool yourself.

Answer fools according to their folly, or they will be wise in their own eyes.

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I Confess

August 24, 2015

We were taught as children that God is always watching us. Well, we were also taught that Santa Claus was always watching us, too. And both knew when we were naughty.

The writer of Hebrews, a document in the New Testament, talked about a great cloud of witnesses.

Worse than all of those–the Internet is watching you. The Web knows when you’ve been naughty. And it stores that data. The story is that they store it so that they can serve ads to you that are relevant to your wants. But, who knows what nefarious use could be made from all that knowledge about you?

I confess–that I am not scrambling to do damage control. I don’t have to go to my wife and explain why my name got linked to a Website that is designed for married men and women to “hook up” for casual sex.

I have never seen the Ashley Madison (no link provided) Website. I’ve seen ads. I’ve seen stories about it and its competitors. But I confess, I never clicked. For those who do not follow technology, the Ashley Madison Website was “hacked”, that is, broken into. And the “hackers”, aka thieves, downloaded the customer list including names and email addresses. If you enrolled at that site, soon the whole world will know.

I don’t write about technology on this blog. However, there is a spiritual discipline point to talking about technology.

For whatever reason some (many?) married men and women feel a deep need for sexual encounters. There seem to be many reasons for this. I’m not going to delve into psychology. But for more information, check out the first 9 chapters of Proverbs.

God knows what you do. He knows what’s in your heart. But if you want to do immediate relationship damage, register your email on these hook up or porn sites. When (not if) they are hacked and emails are released, the words of Desi Arnaz will come back to haunt you, ‘Lucy, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.”

The damage between you and God is already done. Better restore that relationship soon.

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Not The Old Yeast of Malice

August 10, 2015

Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerety and truth. 2 Corinthinians 5:8

A friend posted a limerick full of hatred and malice on his Facebook page with a comment about the racism and hatred contained in the poem.

By the time I got to it, several people had posted comments attacking my friend (he’s used to it, by the way) and supporting the thoughts as either truthful or protected free speech.

The US Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the Constitution) are really what sets us apart in our governance. It limits the rights of the government to trample on the rights of citizens.

Many Americans today, however, in this rebellious and individualist time, confuse freedom with irresponsibility. Many have adopted a lifestyle and opinion that the world revolves around them and that therefore they can talk and act with impunity.

With freedom comes responsibility. No responsibility by the people means eventually no freedom.

Paul wrote a whole letter about freedom. The letter to the Galatians is packed with advice about freedom and what it means. We are free in Jesus, but not free to run around and do anything we choose or say anything we wish.

But I’ll stick with the Corinthians quote.

Many people posted that they knew the truth of the incident (this discussion revolves around the incident in Ferguson, MO).

I beg to differ. From the comments I gather that none had been there as an eyewitness to the events. Even had they been eyewitnesses, all criminal attorneys and police know that eyewitness accounts are the most unreliable versions of the facts of the matter.

It was a truism in a politics class I took in the late 60s and remains true today–almost everyone reads the source of news that most agrees with their predisposed opinions.

If all your knowledge comes from newspaper, TV, and Web news, then you know nothing. You know not one true fact of an incident. Well, maybe one or two, such as the names of the people involved.

Beyond that, when you take up opinions and voice them publicly, then you should beware lest you are partaking of the yeast of malice and evil instead of the unleavened bread of sincerety and truth. I believe that means acting and speaking responsibly.

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Whom Are We To Judge?

July 21, 2015

1 Cor 5:12, “For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not for those inside that you are to judge?” 

We are to judge Jesus followers, not outsiders 

We should attract outsiders by how we show love within our fellowship. Hmm, how is that working for us? 

Don’t know about you, but sometimes my local fellowship strays far from this ideal. Rumors, lies, character assassinations. On the other hand, it can be a place of support, fellowship, concern, worship and prayer. 

As I wrote last week, sometimes it’s really hard to know what a “Christian” is by observing and listening.

We’ve had so many “prophets’ who build careers around exaggerated pronouncements about the society around us. Well, duh, Paul would tell us. Of course. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (OK, Paul wouldn’t know about rocket science, but give me a break) to figure out that people who are not following Jesus are also not following all of his commandments.

How to we get them to (for the most part) follow Jesus command? Well, by bringing them into discipleship with Jesus. I say “for the most part” because I wish that I could follow all of Jesus’ commands. But, he set the bar so high. OK, no excuse. Anyway, back to the argument. 

And how do we do that? Well, by showing them the good life that they could have as a disciple. 

Oh, we’re not modeling that love?

Maybe we need to look honestly into a mirror (me, too) and see where we fall short. Where did we say something to someone that was less than uplifting? Where did we not show mercy? When did we ignore a fellow human hurting?  

I’m willing to say that I’m guilty. How about you? 

That’s the first step. 

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Be Ye Doers of the Word

July 7, 2015

Paul’s work in writing Romans results in his mature thinking assembled into one letter.

He starts with why we need God. He continues with how through Jesus we have access to God’s grace. Then he concludes “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.”

That was in chapter 10. Not satisfied to stop with the basics of spiritual formation, Paul continues with many examples of how we continue our spiritual formation journey through how we live.

I told yesterday how I struggled with Romans 13 in my younger years. But if you read the first several verses of the chapter you can see where Paul was going. Government is instituted by God to create order in society punishing the wicked and upholding the good. Insofar as government does that, it is fulfilling its work as ordained by God.

The 20th Century witnessed the rise to power of the idea that government should take a much more active role in promoting the welfare of the citizens.

It’s kind of like we transferred the idea of God as the “big vending machine in the sky” as when Janis Joplin sang, “Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz” to the idea of “Oh [insert name of capital city], won’t you give me…”

Before you jump all over me on a liberal or conservative slant, step back and look. From my perspective as merely an observer, I see people of all political stripes in almost all countries with their hands out to their governmental leaders at every level looking for money or favor. Business people want tax breaks or preference for roads and sewers. On the other hand is the dependency we’ve created with the welfare state.

It is a human condition; not a political one.

From God’s point of view, we should obey that government that provides justice and order so that we may go about God’s work in us for our spiritual formation and to teach and to love our neighbor.

I think part of the church’s role in loving our neighbor is not abdicating our role to the government. When a plague hit Rome in the early years of the church, it became a time of great growth in the church. Why? Well, the brave heroes who governed Rome took off for the hills leaving behind women, children, sick, and elderly. Who took care of them? Christ followers left their hiding and cared for the sick and weak.

Should we work to change governments that fail to live up to God’s work for them? Of course we should. Just look to the example of the prophets. Even Jesus tackled the problem of his local government leaders (the Jews, not the Romans).

Should we work to tackle some of the social problems we’ve abdicated to government? Yes! I know the theology that says that all we should do as followers of Christ is to preach. But I cannot find that theology anywhere in the New Testament.

As James instructed, “Be ye also doers.”

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Trust And Respect Are Earned

July 3, 2015

“I should be respected because of my position,” the manager told the board out of frustration. Knowledge was even spread outside the organization of the lack of respect and trust in that manager by those inside and outside the organization.

My response was, “Respect, as with trust, must be earned. One does not have it inferred because of a high ranking position.”

Indeed, years later that individual earned that respect and trust as a leader.

There is even little respect for the office of the President of the United States judging by my Facebook “news” feed. If the President cannot command respect due to his position, being even subject to lies and slander, how much respect can your committee chair demand from that position?

Do you do what you say? That is the key question leading to trust. Beyond that, do you act and decide ethically considering the situations of all stakeholders? If so, then you will earn respect. 

I write this and sound like I know what I’m saying. But…it really challenges me to look back at my leadership times–both the successful and not so successful. It’s easy for me to access my memory of former bosses, company presidents, and the like. I can remember where trust and respect broke down. The challenge is when my actions went over the top or when I was quiet when I should have spoken.

How often have I fallen short! It does no good to point to others when I am challenged. If someone loses my respect and trust, I tend to just drift away (or run as fast as possible).

Perhaps there are two tasks for us. First, we need to always be aware of the impact of our decisions and actions. Second, we could find someone drifting the wrong direction in this situation and mentor them back onto the road to trust and respect.

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Business As Mission

June 16, 2015

I’ve been gone for several days. The schedule was packed and my daily habits were upended.

Bev and I went to Colorado Springs to attend a conference where the speakers introduced ways they were using business to further God’s Kingdom. I had no knowledge of YWAM, Emerge, or Sustainable Communities Worldwide until just a couple of weeks ago. Prior to that I had heard of Business as Mission, but knew only a little about that movement. 

I studied the plight of farmers in developing countries for many years. I used to give talks as a representative of Bread for the World in the 80s. But that organization focused on political action. We’ve learned that government aid, indeed most efforts at just giving money, are almost always detrimental to the intended recipients.

For exmple, we can give big lots of shoes to people in an area–and in so doing drive all the local sellers of shoes out of business. By providing temporary help to some people, we cost others their livelihoods.

Often farmers are caught in a cycle of debt to bankers for short term loans such that they are actually the same as indentured servants. Many years ago it was pineapple and sugar. Large companies come in, bribe the local officials. Grow products to ship back to the US and western Europe. The local farmers become the same as slave laborers. Plus they lose their land and can no longer grow their own food. A terrible viscious circle.

Coffee has become the more modern equivalent. There are so many middlemen that the farmer seldom can make a living and often goes hungry for months in a year.

Direct trade coffee (not Fair Trade which may or may not actually help the farmer), cuts out several layers of distribution and offers farmers a sustainable income.

Other presenters told about how they have built businesses in cultures often unfriendly to Christians and had great influence in their communities and even brought many people into knowledge and experience of God.

They build ethical businesses practicing both good business practices and making disciples. The combination wins over local–and sometimes even national–leaders. And it leads to the spiritual development of many.

It was a great conference. We met many successful business people and some mission leaders.

Best of all, it helped to overcome my prejudice against “Christian businessmen.” Every time I have run into one of these guys in my career, I came out on the short end. They broke contracts, didn’t pay me money owed, and showed other unethical or devious behaviours. Here were a group that showed the true example of how to do business and maintain the type of ethics of which Jesus would be proud.

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