Archive for the ‘Ethics’ Category

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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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And They Will Know You By How You Live

May 11, 2015

Today’s lesson concerns how we live…ethics.

I learned marketing many years ago and sometimes consult with companies about their marketing strategies (or lack of as is often the case). So, I’m always reading about the topic.

Luke writes at the end of chapter 2 while describing the explosive growth of the new movement of Jesus-followers, “having earned the goodwill of all the people.” People all around the Mediterranean rim at the time were attracted to Jesus because of the way his followers lived.

Jesus even told us that his followers would be known by the way they lived–love being an action verb.

How does that relate to marketing? How does marketing relate to our lives?

A couple of nice examples presented themselves this week.

Some marketing people, and presumably the CEO, of Keurig had a brilliant idea. The company makes household appliances including a one-cup-at-a-time coffee brewer. I have one. Love it. Just like the razor blade model or the ink jet printer model where the company makes money from the continual lock in of replacing blades or ink regularly, Keurig marketers thought they would force customers to use its coffee supplies packaged in K-cups.

Within hours, technology blogs were posted with ways to defeat this lock in so that we could still use our own coffee beans. Sales of the Keurig 2 machine–and for the company–dropped.

The CEO acknowledged the reason for the drop in sales as customers just wanted to use their own beans and so bought rivals’ products. Duh. That’s not unethical, just stupid. Not knowing one’s customers.

But stupid leads to questionable ethics.

I’m watching my granddaughter play a “game” on an Amazon tablet. She’s 5. Building necklaces for the Strawberry Shortcake character.

Strawberry says that you can add a picture of her or one of her friends to the locket. So, little girls tap one of her friends and is taken to a page where you can buy the friend package for $9.95 each. My granddaughter realizes she can’t use those pictures and just starts tapping other things. Mostly she likes taking pictures of herself or other people.

But how can a group of people sit in a conference room and discuss how to increase revenue. Well, we need “in-app” sales. How can we entice our under-10 customers to buy additional items? Let’s make it appear that they can add something only to be diverted to a page for purchasing. If an astute parent has not set blocks and controls, a considerable bill could be accumulated. Or much discord strewn in the home while little Susie whines about wanting more stuff.

Thank you marketers.

I have invested in a coffee shop (hence my Keuring example about coffee) where the fundamental value accepted by all investors and managers starts with ethics. Treat people from the farmer who grows the beans to the employees to the customer to the community with the best ethics.

Others can also decide to build companies on ethical foundation. And all of us can look for ethical companies for our purchases.

People will want to know about us by the way we live, by the way we transact business, by the way we treat all people.

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Let Your Light Shine-Why?

May 7, 2015

I’m up early and in the breakfast area of my hotel in Seattle. They have not one but three TVs all turned to one of those TV talk shows that are designed to heighten fear and anger in the hearts of the sympathizers. It’s hard to concentrate and meditate in such an environment.

I wondered, is that how I would like my light to shine? That I spend so much time being cynical and negative that my face sets permanently in that attitude?

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” Then he went on to state why, “Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give praise to your Father in heaven.”

These talk show people–they make a large income. They have influence over millions of souls. Their legacy, raise fear and anger in people so that they will continue to watch so that advertisers will pay high rates to present their products to the many.

How does this relate to church, you may wonder? Rightly so.

We have churches that operate the same way. They emphasize fear and anger so that people will come and obey.

Jon Swason started me thinking with his article comparing and contrasting evangelism and customer service in business and in church. Many (probably not enough) can do evangelism. But how do we rate in customer service? Do we just give them some words to memorize and tell them to go on their way?

Dallas Willard once said that church was the worst place to come to share your hurts and failures in order to find comfort and healing.

Jesus said let your light shine so that our Father is glorified. Part of that light is to fellow travellers on the way who need help. By so doing, you show people outside the fellowship the joy of becoming a Jesus-follower and joining the fellowship.

Good works, not sowing fear, uncertainty and doubt. What a thought!

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Who Has Integrity in Your Organization

April 28, 2015

I am reading a book on leadership. Got through a few chapters on the plane yesterday. I’ll have more details on the entire book on Friday (I hope).

There was a thought that was mentioned in a chapter on integrity

In every organization, there are one or two people at the senior level who operate as chief ethics officers. You know them—they’re the ones you go to when you need to talk with someone you can trust,

So, aside from you, my readers, whom I am positive are the paragons of integrity–OK, enough of that–can you identify someone in your organization, team, committee or group who is the moral compass of the group?

I recently read a book where the starting premise was that Adam (of apple fame) should have spoken up, should have been the moral compass, should have known better and set a better example, but he didn’t. He wimped out. Instead of saying, “Eve! Are you out of your mind?”, he said, “OK, give me a bite.”

In my long and chedkered business career, I’ve worked for guys whose moral compass was a few degrees off true north. I know there were times when I said something. But how many times did I simply stay silent? Maybe I eventually quit rather than be part of it. But was that the coward’s way out?

What organizations have you been in where the senior leadership did not exhibit integrity? You could not trust them. What was the atmosphere within those organizations?

What should we–you and I–be doing right now to be one of those chief ethics officers? What impact would that have on the organization? On our colleagues’ lives? On our life?

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Given a Second Chance, What Would You Do?

April 27, 2015

What would you do if you were given a second chance to live? Wither away in bitterness? Help the person who tried to kill you? Dedicate your life to helping others in similar situations as your attacker?

Ten days after 9/11, a shocking attack at a Texas mini-mart shattered the lives of two men: the victim and the attacker. In this stunning talk, Anand Giridharadas, author of “The True American,” tells the story of what happened next. It’s a parable about the two paths an American life can take, and a powerful call for reconciliation.

Watch this TED Talk for a moving story of redemption. Not explicitly Christian, but that’s OK. It’s the power of love.

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They Came Over The Hill

March 17, 2015

These posts are usually meditations with a point. However, last week several of us visited Tijuana for a mission trip. In addition to serving at an orphanage with children (from 4 to 20), we also visited an active landfill. The experience was overwhelming. I’ve changed literary styles for this meditation.

The scene was eerie, much like a movie about an apocolypse. 

Our van was stopped by security where we were questioned. Allowed through into the landfill, we parked near some newer cars. Some sort of business was transacted there that I do not wish to know.

We grabbed our two boxes filled with 100 ham and cheese sandwiches and three packages of bottled water. 

We are outside Tijuana, Mexico. It is desert. Hot, even in March. Dusty, with spirits blowing mini-dust storms as if impeding our way.

The dirt and dust dried out our sinuses and became grit in our eyes.

We hurried beyond the cars, across a road and over a rise. The scene below was beyond belief. Hundreds of people. Maybe 500. Maybe more. Sorting through the days droppings from the parade of waste trucks. Hoping for enough valuable material or recyclable stuff to get paid to make it through another day.

They saw us. Over the ridge. I looked up. Men with hoodies and neck cloths protection from the dirt. Coming toward us. At first, admittedly a little fear. But there was no harm.

We offered a sandwich, a bottle of water, a blessing “Dios te bendiga”.

Each one offered a grateful “gracias” in return. I have even witnessed these people sharing during my past trips. They often look out for each other. A spark of humanity and God.

When we had given the last of our offerings, we hurried back to the van. Escaping the sights, the smells, the dirt.

Had we 400 more sandwiches, we would not have had enough. When asked why even bother, I responded, “It’s like the story of the starfish thrower. We can’t help them all, but those we do help appreciate it. And out of their misery and slavery, perhaps they hear the blessing of God.”

One little church was built in their little tent city on the other side of the hill. The people who built the church and visited on Saturdays had led one man to salvation by the power of the Gospel. That’s one. It’s a start. Just like our sandwiches. A start.

Just like back home. We can help one. Maybe we can’t help everyone. But one at a time. That’s not unlike what Jesus did. One at a time.

It was the juxtaposition with the bright and happy kids cared for by the orphanage that was most shocking.

Why do we go on these trips? 

We are called to coviction about how great we have it. And how great to burden and calling to share what we have. Not unlike the rich young man in Matthew 19, where he proclaimed that he had followed all the comandments since he was a youth. “Sell all your possessions and give them to the poor, then follow me,” Jesus replied. We gave only a little, but we were reminded about how great the task is that remains.

Our hearts were enlarged by the experience. May we always retain the perspective of life in the spirit.

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