The other night, I was talking to a gentleman about nothing and everything. We spoke of current events, the economy, Israel, taxes - you name it. Then, the conversation led to how I treat people in positions of authority.
I lamented the fact that many people I know tend to view their bosses as a sort of master and become "yes" individuals, losing all sense of creativity or individuality. As in the book, "The Five Dysfunctions of the Team", you see that this is not only bad for the individual's career, but the company they work for will suffer.
Disagreement is paramount. Differing viewpoints that can and do lead to constructive disagreement. The company that relies on god-like management is a company that will be caught up in slow or stagnant growth, or fail altogether.
I mentioned how I treat my job differently and used the unfortunate words, "I don't respect authority very well."
To that, this gentleman replied with a chuckle, "Yep! And you don't respect God currently either."
My response was non-committal. "Well, if that god wants to get my attention, he has every opportunity to do so. I'm ready for the lightening bolt."
He replied that, by then, it would be too late and that god would smash me deep into the ground.
Really?!
Think about it. God apparently loves humanity. A human decides that God is evil, according to the holy book all his followers claim that god wrote. Then, that human decides to go his own way, deciding plainly that he is perfectly fine without a fairy being. The god - who loves you deeply - decides that the only way to bring you back to him is to hurt you.
Seriously?!
Yeah. Typical. It's all over the Bible. Exactly what he did to the nation of Israel. Exactly what he did to Paul. Exactly what he did to millions in those pages.
No thank you. I'm fine. I'll stick with people I can not only see, but actually love you, even if you don't love them perfectly.
I lamented the fact that many people I know tend to view their bosses as a sort of master and become "yes" individuals, losing all sense of creativity or individuality. As in the book, "The Five Dysfunctions of the Team", you see that this is not only bad for the individual's career, but the company they work for will suffer.
Disagreement is paramount. Differing viewpoints that can and do lead to constructive disagreement. The company that relies on god-like management is a company that will be caught up in slow or stagnant growth, or fail altogether.
I mentioned how I treat my job differently and used the unfortunate words, "I don't respect authority very well."
To that, this gentleman replied with a chuckle, "Yep! And you don't respect God currently either."
My response was non-committal. "Well, if that god wants to get my attention, he has every opportunity to do so. I'm ready for the lightening bolt."
He replied that, by then, it would be too late and that god would smash me deep into the ground.
Really?!
Think about it. God apparently loves humanity. A human decides that God is evil, according to the holy book all his followers claim that god wrote. Then, that human decides to go his own way, deciding plainly that he is perfectly fine without a fairy being. The god - who loves you deeply - decides that the only way to bring you back to him is to hurt you.
Seriously?!
Yeah. Typical. It's all over the Bible. Exactly what he did to the nation of Israel. Exactly what he did to Paul. Exactly what he did to millions in those pages.
No thank you. I'm fine. I'll stick with people I can not only see, but actually love you, even if you don't love them perfectly.
When I left Christianity, a friend of mine (who, having now worked past this, is ironically one of my best friends now) misguidedly thought that a good way to bring me back to Christianity was to call for all true Christians to pray for my death. In his words, "if you won't glorify God in life, you will glorify him in death." Needless to say, this only drove me further from Christianity. Now, to be fair, the majority of my Christian friends were horrified by such a thought...but to be fairer, such a though is not at all out of character for the God of the Bible.
ReplyDeleteOne of my best friends, whom I'd actually considered a liberal Christian in some ways since she votes liberal and is a passionate advocate of gay rights, chose Jesus over me this past week and hasn't spoken to me since. I sure didn't make her choose between us but she couldn't stand me pointing out the irony of Jesus dying to save us from our sins when he and his father created us as sinners in the first place, "in sin did my mother conceive me" etc. This being the case it is God's obligation to save us or else it makes him cruel, picking out a few favorites to spend eternity in heaven and sending the rest of us to hell for just being the way he made us. My friend shrieked at me and starting sobbing that Jesus was her best friend and then went on to cut me out of her life. (Like we were supposed to go out for drinks on my birthday this week but she will be spending it with her TRUE best friend I guess). Why again are Christians convinced they are loving? I'm so exhausted from dealing with them after coming out as agnostic last summer. Now I'm some inferior, evil, stubborn person...
ReplyDeleteDon't get caught up in their pretzelified logic either. They'll try to explain your point away in many ways. Some will sound logical, but they really aren't. Christians believe in a god who designed a video game. Only problem, the game is rigged and pretty stupid to boot.
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