Church and State

Church and State !

First , I’ll broaden it a bit by calling it , ” Faith ” and ” Profession ” . By labeling it as , Church and State , it will keep your thinking only with religion and government , when the issue goes miles beyond that .

For me , To understand this issue , I have to look beyond my own personal view and see it from the collective . What benefits the greater majority ? What is best for Humanity , for culture , for civilization . To push my personal view and insist this to be the only way , to me , is playing God .

I see a three part equation in this argument . Each side of this chess match wage war as , “for” mixing Church and State , or “against” mixing Church and State . Two primary pieces , One being Church , or faith , the other being State , or Profession . But We can’t overlook the third piece , The go between , Between faith and profession . That being , You ! Or self , or who you are .

I feel , by saying we can’t have state or our job , without faith , that’s the same as saying that you will be a different person on the job , or your faith will be lost if you don’t include faith into your profession . Doesn’t faith dictate who you are ? Doesn’t who you are , dictate what you do ? So if you are a faithful person , won’t you apply your values no matter where you are ?

So by mixing principles of faith into business , we are some how strengthening our own faith , and maybe helping our business grow  ? Or are we pushing our faith onto others ? Are we sure our intent is right for the job ? Or how I see it , are we confusing perfectly sound business principles ? We see how mixing business principles into faith can ruin perfectly good belief system’s , I will leave examples of this up to your own knowledge . So why would we want to confuse business with faith ?

One entity that can get away with the marriage of Faith and business is , CBN Christian Broadcasting network . They have no ambiguities about what they are , or who they are . They are a Christian Programming TV Network , broadcasting to Millions of Christian and faith based people all over the world . They aren’t claiming to be non Christian’s , and trying to target non Christian’s , but with a secret agenda to force feed there audience with that agenda . I am not promoting CBN here , I am just pointing out the uniqueness of their situation and how it relates to the issue of Faith and Profession .

Lets take one fictional company , Fredrick’s sports and recreation equipment . Founder and CEO Fred Fredrick is an Atheist , not saying he’s a devil worshiper , he just doesn’t believe in a higher power other than himself . He goes to his company every day , leaving his belief behind him and focuses on running his company using sound business principles , studying trends and markets etc. 

Now lets say Founder and CEO Franky Fredrick is a devout Catholic . Everyday , he goes to work with the notion that his business will not flourish unless every move he makes has God written all over it . So when a decision to choose a Target demographic for a new product comes up he makes the decision to target elderly wealthy males who play golf and travel a lot . This decision was made because he had a real strong feeling God wanted him to go in that direction .

Now , The product That Fredrick’s is trying to market are the new Line of Nike Basketball sneakers , and the Market research insists this a great product for Males 18 35 , a highly sought after demographic . Old guys playing golf are just not into Nike’s .

Sure this is Hypothetical . But it is actually a good example of what the thinking process is when Faith is mixed into Profession . Do you think Franky , The Catholic , would be less faithful because he left his belief at the door and went with the trends , a wise business move , instead of a message from a higher authority that probably doesn’t really care about footwear  ?

One thing is for sure , Franky would not mistreat his staff and play cut throat business with his competitors , but there is a good chance Fred would . So I say , faith makes us who we are , not what we do , Who we are dictates what we do . Whether you bring faith into the work place or not , It’s always going to be who you are , why confuse yourself trying to incorporate faith into business , isn’t that worshiping your business ?

Wishing to destroy a whole nation of people because your faith prophesied it, is not a wise and diplomatic approach at foreign policy . I mean , I could be wrong , but it seems to me it would be best to exam each other professionally , to see what each other has to offer to make life better for it’s people . Wow ! Imagine that . The irony of it is ,thinking that if you include faith in business , or include church into state , actually has the opposite effect . As I understand it , it goes against the nature of both principles and is bound to have bad results . In politics , it’s suffering and death and destruction . In business , it’s failed companies .
 

Just my perspective .