As a spiritual buddhist at heart, I find myself very leery of organized religion and the legislation of actions between consenting adults.  With that said, I agree that a large percentage of Americans (US Citizens too) define the United States as a christian country.  Christian or otherwise, I consider freedom of religion and separation of church and state to be the single thing that has allowed our country to survive for more than 200 years.  What do I really mean by that?  Our legal system identifies morality, separate from religion.  This is what allows two people from differing religious viewpoints to be in the same courtroom.

In the US, many christians have felt the need to equate religion and morality.  The two are overlapping circles on a vin diagram at best though.  Many religions, christianity, judaism and islam especialy, commit incredible acts of oppression in the name of god, yet still feel the right to imply that I am not a moral being because I don’t embrace an organized religion.

When they equate religion and morality, people are abdicating their moral responsibilities to a “higher power”, or worse yet, to a religious entity.  Deaths and atrocities seem to follow.  I just read, “The Places in Between” about a trek from Herat to Kabul undertaken on foot by a single Scottish guy three months after 9/11.  One of the things that stands out the most is the death in the name of islam by people who haven’t ever read the Koran (it can’t really be translated out of Arabic) nor questioned it.

Morality is a complex and layered thing, and religion is about “faith”, often in impossible things (miracles).  Wonderful and Terrible things are and have been done in the name of gods, but few deeply moral solutions to human suffering seem to have come about.  Morality is about loading the scales of justice and using logic, while religion is about the aforementioned miracles and divine intervention.

In many cases, religion may be a great way to become a moral being, but religion and morality take opposing roads regularly (birth control comes to mind quickly as lack of birth control is a direct cause of overpopulation and death by hunger).  People are judged not by who and what they espouse to follow, but by the intentions and results of their actions.

So you can think of the US as a christian nation if it gives you comfort, and I’ll fight for your right to live that way.  But only with the assumption that you will fight for my right to view it as a secular government.  AND, I’ll fight for the right of anyone to have their own religion, as long as it never compels anyone else to join or live under it!

Ben

So Mike Rowe has some advice on a “Prison” workout.  Were you a CEO at AIG?  Bernie Maddof, are you reading this?  Did you invent some new esoteric financial product about 15 years ago?  Perfect.  Here’s some advice on staying fit in prison!

Mike Rowe’s Prison Workout

Actually, I’m just kidding.  If you were one of those people, you’re going to get yours pretty darn quick in prison would be my guess.  But enjoy your time while you still have it!

Tom Peter’s blog has a great post from Steve Yarrow today.  One that comes to mind every time I hear a the “Across the Board” statement.  Basically, he is saying that any time you hear, Across the Board Cuts, you should be leary and call the person out.

While I’m not sure it is always a good career move to call your boss (or her boss’s boss) out, the thought is spot on.  What you should be doing, just like in good times, is taking a hard look at ops and expenses throughout the organization.  Across the Board should refer to the look, not the cuts.

Maybe you can’t afford an expensive gamble project right now.  Maybe however you have a new team looking at making an investment to save you 10%.  That team probably shouldn’t get cut right now!  Not to be too heavy on Tom today, but Tom posted another one today about Warren Buffet and his investment rule about understanding every company in which he invests.  Same thing here.

You have to understand something to invest in it, internally or externally, and you had better understand things before you cut them!  Just a thought!