Breaking News! – California Marriage Amendment Upheld

From Preserving Marriage for Califronia’s Future:

The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage but also ruled that gay couples who wed before the election will…

Leadership Starts Here

Because of my career path, I have spent quite a bit of time in management and leadership training workshops, and reading books on leadership.  I am not a born leader, and what skills I have gained in this area have been hard won.

One of my favorite authors in this area is Mr. Max De Pree, former CEO of Herman Miller Inc., a manufacturer of office furniture headquartered in Zeeland, Michigan near the Lake Michigan shoreline.  Leadership is an Art and Leadership Jazz are two of his bestselling books, which look at leadership in the business world from a unique perspective.  I highly recommend both books. 

Some of us truly are “born leaders,” with an innate understanding of how to lead, inspire, and bring out the best in others.  However, I firmly believe that everyone has the ability to develop leadership skills, to grow their understanding of leadership, and to serve in leadership roles when called upon to do so.  Let’s call these people “prepared leaders.”  

Recently, I witnessed an excellent example of “prepared leadership” in action at church on Sunday morning.

Our church has a lay leadership.  What that means is that members of our “ward” (our local branch of the church) are “called” (invited/asked) by the leadership of the church to serve as leaders in various positions, including the ward Bishop, Relief Society President, and the leadership of auxiliaries for youth and children.  Such “callings” are extended by church leaders after much prayer and pondering by the church leader who extends the call, and are considered to be invitations to serve extended by the Lord.

I have served in leadership positions, and have also witnessed the growth and increase in wisdom, compassion, and understanding that can come to a man or woman who accepts such an invitation to serve.  Typically, members are called for periods of a few years, so most local congregations have a depth of trained and experienced leaders in their ranks.

However, despite the church’s penchant for organization, sometimes “things happen.”  One of those moments came on Sunday during a special Sunday School meeting taught by our Stake President.

A “stake” in our church is akin to a “diocese” in the Catholic Church – the “stake president” is the leader over a group of a dozen or so local congregations.  He, like the leaders of the local congregation, is an unpaid volunteer called to the position for a period of five to eight years or so.

The typical Sunday School meeting starts with the “Sunday School President” (another lay leader) or one of his two assistants opening the meeting, making announcements, inviting a member to give the opening prayer, and then turning the meeting over to the teacher.  Due to a miscommunication, none of the Sunday School leaders were in the room when the meeting was scheduled to start.  

Upon determining this, the Stake President simply turned to a member of the congregation and asked if he would step in as the “acting” Sunday School President for the meeting.  The person agreed, and promptly led the meeting smoothly, as if he had done so many times.  A quiet moment of “prepared leadership” if there ever was one.

Interestingly enough, this person also happens to be another designated conservative, a fact I just now recalled – and one that may or may not be pertinent to this story.  I will leave that for you, the reader, to decide for yourself.

For me, it was a reminder of something I read in former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s book, “Leadership” - 

“As my own career progressed, I realized that preparation…was the single most important key to success, no matter what the field.  Leaders may possess brilliance, extraordinary vision, fate, even luck.  Those help; but no one, no matter how gifted, can perform without careful preparation, thoughtful experiment, and determined follow through.”

“Creating reasons for those who work for you to establish their own culture of preparedness is part of being a good leader.”

Was this Sunday School experience any sort of mighty miracle? – No.  Was it even a minor miracle? – No.  It was an example of how a culture of leadership, stewardship, and service prepares people to be able to rise above themselves in the service of others.  This is the way Jesus Christ established His church in the Holy Land, and the way he called His apostles and prepared them to be leaders in the Kingdom.  

The person who stood up and served as the impromptu Sunday School leader had been prepared though past callings and church experiences to step up and lead that morning.  I am grateful to belong to a church that values this culture of leadership, stewardship, and service; and I try to bring that same spirit into my work.  

As managers and leaders in our organizations, we should always be on the lookout for opportunities to serve those around us – and to provide opportunities for those that work for us to lead.  Everyone in the organization benefits when we do these things.

Wir sind alle Mormonen (We are all Mormons)

The whole anti-Proposition 8 protest thuggery aimed at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has seemed to me to be misguided at best. The following article (WE ALL ARE MORMONS….by Rabbi Shifren) sums it up best, especially with the harkening back to previous totalitarian thuggery cultural references.

My first thought upon reading it was of President Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech at the Wall in West Berlin, which expressed solidarity with the German people facing down Soviet and East German thuggery. Now, don’t get me wrong; I don’t view Latter Day Saints as any kind of an oppressed people. However, those scenes outside the Los Angeles Temple and the attacks on Christians in San Francisco should be troubling for all Christians. They are for me….

WE ALL ARE MORMONS….by Rabbi Shifren

We are living in an era of insanity! Witness the latest attempt to remake the nature of our country, founded and established on certain principles that have been the envy of the entire world. The latest assault on our country and its values comes in the form of vicious and criminal violence against the Mormon church in Westwood, California

Interesting how the selective self-righteous indignation on the part of the radical Gay activists is played out here: they bewail the blow to freedom and justice! But I thought we just had elections, where the majority of Californians expressed their views in a free and open manner. Are we not a nation of laws? Dare we relive the McCarthy era, where Americans were harassed and threatened with the loss of their jobs for believing in a certain way? If the Gay radicals should have their way, untold numbers of Americans would live under the threat of the Gay-Lesbian “thought police,” where individuals that reject the Gay lifestyle would be sought out and have sanctions brought against them.

It’s bad enough for those working in the entertainment industry here in Los Angeles, where a fog of political correctness and a bending over backwards to accommodate, even promote Gay lifestyle is in full gear. Let none dare say that this type of activity is anathema to our country, our morality, and the debauchery of our young people.

Let it be stated unequivocally: The radical Gay attack on the Mormons is the shot over the bow against the United States of America. There was a time when what a man did in his bedroom was sanctified between himself and G-d. Now we are being served an “in-your-face” smorgasbord of smut and licentiousness as being between people who only “want their civil rights.”

Hogwash! We are dealing with the equivalent of a moral takeover of the country that has as its bedrock a belief in G-d and His promise for humanity. They don’t want civil rights! What they desire is quasi Gay/Lesbian hegemony, where a huge “bookburning,” reminiscent of the Nazis, will purge any remnants of the “Christian, White, mainstream America” that has given ALL AMERICANS the most profound scope of freedom, liberty, and justice that Mankind has yet to experience.

People have perhaps wondered: why the Mormons? Answer: they are a small, yet vocal Christian minority. They have been selected by the mobs as vulnerable, a group that might not have such massive support among America’s Christians.

We who are friends of the Mormons, their patriotism, their family values, will not falter in our continued support of these dear Americans. Let us recall the Christian minister Niemoller, whose admonition during those dark years of Nazi Germany moved us to our core:

“When they came for the gypsies, I said nothing, because I wasn’t a gypsy. When they came for the homosexuals, I said nothing, because I wasn’t a homosexual. When they came for the Jews, I said nothing, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I said nothing, because I wasn’t a Catholic……then they came for me, and there was no one left to defend me.”

My fellow Americans, in the coming battle for the heart and soul of America and everything we cherish, may this call to arms be the mantra of every concerned patriot:

“WE ALL ARE MORMONS!”

=====================================
Rabbi Nachum Shifren
Lecturer and Author, “Kill Your Teacher: An Expose of Corruption and Racism in LA Schools” & “Surfing Rabbi: A Kabbalistic Quest for the Soul”
http://www.surfingrabbi.com

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California Proposition 8 and the teachings of Jesus Christ

With friends and family in California, I watched the recent election battle over Proposition 8 with interest.  However, we humans are complicated creatures, so I suspect that for many people (not just me) opinions and feelings about gay marriage are complicated too:

1.  As a Christian, I believe that marriage is an eternal institution established by God to be between one man and one woman, and that no government can legitimately alter that.  I supported Michigan’s 2004 constitutional amendment and favored passage of Proposition 8 this year.

2.  As an American, I believe in democracy and the supremacy of the people.  In the U.S., laws are established by the people (through referendums like this one) and through the people’s elected representatives in Congress and state legislatures.  The liberal activism of the California Supreme Court offends me.  It is not the place of the judiciary to make laws, and it is certainly not the place of a judge to stick his or her finger in the proverbial winds of culture to decide cases.  The law is the law.  It is the role of judges to enforce the law, administer justice impartially, and limit interpretation of the law to those instances where the intent of the legislature is unclear from the text and where a law may violate Constitutional limitations on government power.

3.  As a person with a close family member living a homosexual lifestyle, I was happy to receive word that he and his long-term domestic partner had decided to marry in San Francisco.  Long ago I welcomed his partner in as part of the family, and I love my family member no less because of his lifestyle choices.  I’m glad that they have chosen to take this step to further their commitment to one another.

I don’t find any contradictions in these seemingly conflicting ideas.  As a complicated human being, I can hold these apparently opposing beliefs simultaneously, because they are all grounded in the Gospel of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ taught that we must abhor sin, but love the sinner.  He taught that we all sin, and we all can be forgiven of our sins if we repent and come unto Him.  It is through our behavior that we sin, not our feelings.  We all are tempted to sin (including those that have feelings of same sex attraction) – to be tempted is not the same as sinning.  We sin when we give into temptation, including homosexual sex.

I am a Christian, and I work to keep His commandments and follow His example.  I believe that as the United States keeps close to the intent of our Founding Fathers, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, we will prosper as a country.  We are at heart a Christian nation founded on Christian principles.  When we fall away from those principles as a nation, we will fail.  Being a Christian nation does not mean an autocratic theocracy, but it also does not mean that we should accept the redefinition of sin into virtue.

I love my family member who is living a gay lifestyle, I could not forsake him anymore than I could cut off my right arm.  He knows my beliefs and I know his, and because we love and respect one another we have a good relationship.  My love for him and my happiness for his decision to marry does not change my belief that these gay marriage court decisions are undermining the foundations of our constitutional democracy and damaging our American culture.  I accept the will of the people who elected Barack Obama our next President, and those protesting the approval of Proposition 8 should accept the will of the majority there too.  

Apparently the large majority of voters in California still agree with my view.  After all, in the year of Obamamania, gay marriage proponents had the best chance they may ever have to succeed, and they came up short.