David,
You said,
"I am a Minister in the Baptist Faith, and I agree with what you say.
However, I do not think you go far enough. I do not find in the Holy Bible
ANYTHING that says I speak for God. That is a human thing."
I guess this is a semantic issue. Ministers do not speak for God, in the
sense that they tell God what to say. They do, however, speak the word of
God. That is what I meant.
This does raise a difficult problem for organized religion if they change
their doctrines to adapt to changing cultural norms. The tacit message is
"God's word, which I spoke, has changed." But God is supposed to be
"unchanging" and so one would assume so would his "word." Its a
philosophical conundrum for those religions who try to change with
society.
I do, however, respect those religions who say, "Yes, society has changed.
But God's word hasn't. We're not changing to conform to society. We'll
stand on our own." That at least gives credence to the idea that these
people really believe their following God.
Part of the deeper problem I see, however, is that when we rely on faith
as our guide we run the risk of conflicting with reason. This applies just
as much to business as it does to religion.
I've heard a number of managers -- all at different levels in the
organization -- say "well, we've got to run on faith. What other choice do
we have?"
Running on faith is an act of ignorance, and I'm not sure ignorance ever
produces the type of results we want.
The alternative to faith -- or, depending on how you look at it, the twin
of faith -- is reason. The use of reason in governing our own lives and
the lives of our organizations is critical to our long-term success.
More and more people are becoming skeptical of "pure" faith in all aspects
of their lives. People are looking for rational explanations for the
guidance provided by those who either do have some type of authority
(manager, politician, etc.) and from those who claim to have authority
from God.
--Ben Compton bcompton@emailsolutions.com
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