Posts on single word topics like integrity are common and usually terrible reading. This one is good reading. Integrity is little discussed. I tend to write more about hypocrisy and honor, the same kind of turf. But this author chooses integrity and does well with it.
Good read.
James Pilant
via Precocious Lotus
I didn’t believe that this could even happen. Ethics Alarms has the story.
Is “I need the money.” an excuse for these kind of actions?
James Pilant
Please go to Ethics Alarms and read the whole post.
via Ethics Alarms
This is a thoughtful post about telling the truth. The truth is a strange creature but our writer in this blog is well aware of that and many other things. I like what he has to say. I will let him tell you his story.
James Pilant
A gentleman named Marv Knox, wrote an opinion column in the Associated Baptist Press entitled:Opinion: Baptists and the role of faith in public policy.
I think this paragraph of his sums up what he is trying to say:
Extremists stake out opposite ends of the spectrum, with some saying religious perspectives have no place in public policy and others claiming religious views should trump all others. But most citizens come down in the middle. We realize faith is integral to people’s lives and cannot be banished. We also recognize no religious tenet or organization has the right to dominate others. The tension between the extremes holds up a tightrope we must walk as we balance competing perspectives.
I liked what he had to say and encourage my readers to read his opinion piece. I wrote this as a comment on his writing.
There are many competing forces in the United States that figure in the debate over right and wrong. The Christian religion because of its long historical experience and great learning has much to contribute. I perceive that Christianity prospers in the free arena of ideas. The dangers of exclusionary polices against other religions and of active proselytizing have to be defended against. If the truth sets us free, what kind of Christians are those who demand that their message be the only one? Let us struggle forward seeking what is right but always remembering the dignity and trust we place in our fellow citizens.
My comment was answered by another comment who was critical of my point of view. This is what was said:
We can only hope Huckabee’s presidential hopes are dashed. It was Huckabee who took votes away from Romney which got us (Republicans) stuck with McCain! McCain couldn’t beat Obama but Romney could have won.
My thoughts concerning proselytizing are this. If someone has found Almighty God, the very essence of good in the universe, and does not feel burdened to share then full of bull is the only phrase that is properly descriptive. To know God, maker of heaven and earth, is to share Him.
And I responded with this:
There are appropriate and inappropriate places for proselytizing your religion. There are an enormous number of places where one can advocate for their religion. Using teaching jobs, supervisory positions and government offices for such purposes is wrong. People have a right to work without being told they should be a Christian, a Moslem, a Buddhist, an atheist or a deist.
One of the primary obstacles to the use of Christian principles in teaching morals and ethics is the belief, in my experience justified, that some teachers will use it as an opportunity to push for converts. I teach with Christian principles as one of the alternative ways of thinking about business ethics. I think that it is important to use these teachings. Society needs ethical principles. Business needs ethical principles. But if an advocate of Christianity is compelled to witness at all times and in particular through his job, the absence of Christian principles in all teaching might be a better alternative to putting children and adults in multi week conversion class.
Currently this is where the discussion stands. I realize that this is my forum and I have an advantage in my wordiness. If you would like to comment, I will add them directly to this posting.
James Pilant
(This is a repost of a essay written on this blog, December 11, 2009. I thought it was time to revisit the issue.)
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Arthur Dobrin (Arthurdobrin’s Weblog) had these thoughts in a post he called, Closing schools, Martin Luther King and ethics. This is an eloquent discussion of the importance of citizenship. Here is an excerpt.
We have confused citizenship with consumerism. A citizen is one who is concerned with the public realm and makes choices about representation and policy; a consumer is concerned with the private realm and makes choices about products and prices. By closing schools on national holidays we reinforce notions of buying. If schools remained open, there is the opportunity to underline what it means to be a citizen.
National holidays should be time for discussions about the difficulties and dilemmas of ethical choices in a democracy, the hard and sometimes muddy choices. There is George Washington, the man who could have become king but walked away from a third term as president, the same one was the leader of a troop that engaged in an Indian massacre; Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator of slaves, who also suspended the writ of habeas corpus in several places, then ignored a court orders to restore it; the veterans who served when called upon, occasionally in wars that shouldn’t have been fought; and, of course today, MLK, the civil rights hero who broke the law for the sake of fulfilling America’s more nobler self.
Citizenship and patriotism have been hit hard in the last few years. Oh, I have no doubt that virtually all Americans consider themselves, and justly so, to be patriots. Nevertheless, the development of an American economic class with slender ties to the United States is a disastrous event. Further, the ascendency of economic theories, free market fundamentalism, allows certain individuals to make decisions damaging to the nation which they pretend to be justified philosophically.
If a human has the heart of a patriot, hollowing out the nation’s infrastructure and manufacturing is not justified by any theory at any time at any place.
Citizenship is a similar issue. It is difficult to live anywhere in the United States where companies are not seeking through legislation, favors, “economic development zones,” and outright blackmail to evade paying taxes. They use the educational system, the roads and the other infrastructures but they will not willingly pay any sum whatever for the support of their community or nation.
This is citizenship only in “reasoning” built on deluded greed.
Yes, the holidays should mean more than a day off. We all need to consider the duties of citizenship and patriotism from time to time.
James Pilant
We know a lot things. It’s just that sometimes we need to remind ourselves. I thank Arthur Dobrin (pictured below) for reminding me.
James Pilant
This picture is wonderful and perceptive.
Click on it to get a better view and visit the blog, Management Briefs.
James Pilant
In a post in his blog, Paul Krugman channels John Bordley Rawls –
My vision of economic morality is more or less Rawlsian: we should try to create the society each of us would want if we didn’t know in advance who we’d be. And I believe that this vision leads, in practice, to something like the kind of society Western democracies have constructed since World War II — societies in which the hard-working, talented and/or lucky can get rich, but in which some of their wealth is taxed away to pay for a social safety net, because you could have been one of those who strikes out.
From Jomelgamba’s Blog from his post, John Rawls: A theory of Justice –
The author (Rawls) appeals to the social contract. Justice as fairness is thus offered to people who are neither saintly altruists nor greedy egoists. Human beings are, as Rawls puts it, both rational and reasonable. Because we are rational we have ends we want to achieve, but we are reasonable insofar as we are happy to achieve these ends together if we can, in accord with mutually acceptable regulative principles. Rawls gives us a model of a fair situation for making this choice (his argument from the original position and the famous veil of ignorance), and he argues that two principles of justice would be especially attractive.
And from the University of Sydney –
I ran into the name John Rawls while exploring philosophy long before I began blogging. I saw an article in which he was mentioned a few months ago and the next thing you know it’s six degree of John Rawls. He was everywhere. Since then, I have read much more about him and have concluded that he well deserves to be everywhere.
I am at the beginning of my work with Rawls’ theories and I’ll mention interesting steps in the journey as I go along.
James Pilant
From KAKE ABC Channel 10 –
Friday, January 14, 2011
A church in northwest Kansas says it wants its baby Jesus statues returned, no questions asked.
Thieves took two baby Jesus figures from nativity scenes at the United Methodist Church in Quinter, along with a hand-painted portrait of Jesus.
Gove County Sheriff Allen Weber says the portrait, which hung in the church since the 1960s, was recently left in a car and returned to the church.
Neither of the missing statues has much monetary value. But they have sentimental value, particularly one made of wood that was hand-cut and hand-painted by church members. The other missing Jesus was taken from a ceramic Nativity scene inside the church.
Weber told The Hays Daily News that church leaders simply want the thieves to leave the items in a conspicuous place so they can be returned.
Teenage prank or the beginning of the Apocalypse: I leave it your judgment.
James Pilant
I really, really wanted to drop this subject as soon as possible. The Arizona tragedy has too many commentators already and I have done as much as I want.
But I read this blog.
This is so good, I can’t let it go by. It’s intelligent and gutsy. Read the blog and see how a fervent commentator is handled.
This has my recommendation.
via Kittywampus
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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