I recently posted a commentary about religion in America and additional data based on a massive study by the Pew Foundation. Today I want to seek your opinion on a passionate controversy ignited by a You Tube video posted by a 22 year-old named Jefferson Bethke.
COMMENTARY 765.4: Using All Your Strength
A young boy was walking with his father along a country road. When they came across a very large tree branch, the boy asked, “Do you think I could move that branch?” His father answered, “If you use all your strength, I’m sure you can.” The boy tried mightily to lift, pull, and push the branch, but he couldn’t move …
WORTH READING: Wow! Lots of interesting findings and facts on Religion in America
Today’s commentary looks at some of the data in a major survey conducted by the Pew Forum for Religion & American Life. The study comprehensively details the belief patterns of the 14 largest religious traditions. Below is a more complete summary of key findings I found interesting. BELIEF IN GOD. 92% believe in God or a universal spirit; only 8% say …
COMMENTARY 765.3: Religion in America
Many people see a close connection between religion and ethics for good reason: ethical principles like love, compassion, mercy, charity, and justice are common foundations to all major religions. This doesn’t mean that religious beliefs are essential to ethical conduct or that everyone who professes to be religious is virtuous. History is full of examples of hypocritical and exploitive religious …
GUEST POST: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes by Anne Josephson
Anne Josephson, the wife of Michael Josephson, founded The Josephson Academy of Gymnastics (JAG Gym), one of the largest and most successful gymnastics schools for children in Los Angeles. She is a prominent member of the gymnastics community and an expert on youth sports. She writes a regular blog posted on her website. This post originally appeared on her blog …
WORTH SEEING: Poster – Don’t Make Things Worse
When bad things happen to you, DON”T MAKE THINGS WORSE by starting to see yourself as a victim, or someone who doesn’t deserve
OBSERVATION: You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present. — Jan Glidewell.
Bad things happen to us and around us. Often the best we can do is to limit the harm with a resolve to move forward with open arms.
OBSERVATION: Bad News and Good News
Here’s the bad news: Virtue isn’t a golden ticket to a pain-free life. Bad things happen to good people as often as they happen to bad people. It seems unfair, but in the natural order of the world, suffering is random. To expect otherwise is to sentence oneself to despondency, disillusionment, bitterness, and anger. Here’s the good news: The magic …
OBSERVATION: “Don’t confuse fun with fulfillment, or pleasure with happiness.” — Michael Josephson
One of the gifts of maturity is to realize that happiness is bigger, broader and more enduring than pleasure, and that fulfillment is more meaningful and rewarding than fun and that sometimes, the pursuit of pleasure and fun obstruct the achievement of happiness and fulfillment. — Michael Josephson www.whatwillmatter.com.
COMMENTARY: Dealing With Grief — If You’re Going Through Hell, Keep Going
A few years ago I spoke at a fundraising dinner for the Erika Whitmore Godwin Foundation, the creation of Susan and Wendell Whitmore, a couple who transformed their personal mountain of sorrow into a living monument to their daughter Erika who died in the prime of her life. The Whitmores created a website, www.griefHaven.org, to help parents and others maimed …
COMMENTARY 764.5: Being Right or Being Kind
Watching parents struggle to keep their young children quiet on a recent plane trip reminded me of how stressful traveling was a few years ago when my kids were really young. My wife Anne and I would do everything we could to keep our kids from annoying other passengers, but no matter how hard we tried, one would always scream …
WORTH READING: “…Jesus did not say: First, administer a breathalyzer test to the supplicant, or, first, sit him down for a pep talk on ‘focus’ and ‘goal-setting.'” — Barbara Ehrenreich
Freakonomics.com is a website that explores the economics of everyday life, written by an economist and a journalist. A few ago, the collaborators behind Freakonomics asked several writers and thinkers to respond to the following question: You are walking down the street in New York City with $10 of disposable income in your pocket. You come to a corner with …
QUOTE: “Since all motives at bottom are selfish and ignoble, we may judge acts and qualities only by their effects.” — H.P. Lovecraft
What effects do you produce when you give to a panhandler? What effects do you produce when you do not give?
COMMENTARY 764.4: Don’t Miss the Chance
A listener got me thinking about the challenge of dealing with aging parents who become more and more needy and the conflicts one is bound to feel. It motivated me to write this poem: Don’t Miss the Chance They said I was lucky my mom lived near, But she was pretty old and it wasn’t so clear.
COMMENTARY 764.3: Eight Laws of Leadership
Take a look around. Business, education, politics. If there’s one thing we don’t have enough of, it’s good leaders – men and women who have the vision and the ability to change things for the better. Former Air Force General William Cohen wrote a fine book called The Stuff of Heroes in which he identified eight laws of leadership. Here …
COMMENTARY 764.2: Everyone Needs a “Me File”
During a dinner with friends I mentioned an e-mail I’d received from a 13-year-old thanking me for the way my commentaries had influenced his life. I was clearly proud of the note, and Sally Kinnamon said I should save this and other affirming mementos and put them in a “Me File.” At first I thought she was being sarcastic, but …
OBSERVATION: When bad things happen to you don’t make things worse.
In the natural order of the world, bad things happen randomly. They happen to good people and bad people. When bad things happen to you don’t make things worse by starting to see yourself as a victim, or someone who doesn’t deserve better, or a bad person who deserves what you got. None of these things are true! What happens …
HELP WANTED: The Downey, CA, school district has asked me to record daily commentaries for teens based on my radio commentary series so that they can be played daily on the school-wide P.A. systems in their middle and high schools.
If successful, we will offer the commentaries and scripts (with follow-up discussion questions for optional use). The opportunity to talk directly to thousands of teens every day on school announcements is exciting and daunting. I want to talk about choices and character in a way that’s valuable. If you know of a school that might be interested in playing the new …
COMMENTARY 764.1: Choosing Caring Over Judging (The Ethics of Giving to Panhandlers)
Every time my wife and I leave a Lakers game we’re confronted by half a dozen or more beggars with outreached cups. Usually we try to avoid eye contact and pass quickly – annoyed rather than moved. I’ve got lots of justifications for this callous indifference:
COMMENTARY 763.5: The Scorpion and Human Nature
Terry and his dad Glen were walking along the shore and came upon a scorpion struggling in the tide, trying to get back to the sand. Glen tried to scoop the creature up, but the scorpion stung him and fell back into the tide. Glen tried again and was stung again. Terry said, “Dad, leave him alone! He’s not worth …
COMMENTARY 763.4: Being Basically Honest
After a workshop, a fellow came up to me and complained that I had made him feel uncomfortable. “I’m not perfect,” he said, “But I’m basically honest.” His implication was that it’s unfair to expect people to be honest all the time. His comment reminded me of a cartoon where one fellow confided to another, “I admire Webster’s honesty, but …
COMMENTARY 763.3: Willful Blindness: Ignoring the Moral Issues Before Us
On a bitter cold night, a Russian countess was taken to a play in a horse-drawn carriage. The driver asked the Lady whether they could take shelter in a nearby inn until the play was over as he was not feeling well. The Countess thought the question impertinent and directed the two men to wait outside with the carriage in …
QUOTES: All About Courage — 64 Great Quotes on the Nature of Courage
The Josephson institute is a nonprofit organization that depends on contributions from people like you. Please help us make a more ethical society or simply show your gratitude for whatever value you find in our work by making a tax-deductible donation at http://goo.gl/uUAix See Images of and Words of Courage here. QUOTES ON COURAGE Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human …
OBSERVATION: Courage and Integrity in Politics — Understanding that “politics is the art of the possible” is not an invitation to subordinate principles to expediency, but a reflection of the moral wisdom that the highest principle in government is to make things better.” -Michael Josephson
President Kennedy, in Profiles in Courage, said, “A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality.” For a leader, doing what must be done is more than risking or sacrificing one’s life. The harder and rarer form of courage is …