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Can you mix God and business?

Aug 1st, 2011 by

If business was only about maximizing profit one may get involved in human trafficking, which is relative low risk (few traffickers are caught and sentenced) and it has a relative high profit margin.

If job creation was the only purpose of business one could commend the Mafia for the jobs they create.

Businesses should serve various groups through its products, services, relationships and conduct: employees, owners, suppliers, customers, families, communities, and others.

Businesses should strive towards having a positive impact on individuals and societies, not only economically but also socially and environmentally.

Businesses should embrace a godly ethical framework to shape all aspects of the business. Good corporate values will also help building healthy societies.

Businesses need to make a profit to survive but they should also look beyond that. The Pope John Paul II wrote: “The purpose of a business firm is not simply to make a profit, but is to be found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways are endeavouring to satisfy their basic needs, and who form a particular group at the service of the whole of society.

This was even understood by a so called capitalist like David Rockefeller: “The old concept that the owner of a business had a right to use his property as he pleased to maximize profits has evolved into the belief that ownership carries certain binding social obligations. Today’s manager serves as trustee not only for the owners but for the workers and, indeed, for our entire society.”

John Paul II says that the church ”recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector”. However, he adds that there must be a strong juridical framework which at its core is ethical and religious.

But can ethically run businesses survive in a today’s tough global market? Can a business have Christian values and be profitable at the same time? Yes, here follows one example.

The R.W. Beckett Corporation (www.beckettcorp.com) was founded 1937 and is now a third generation family business which “endeavors to apply a biblically-based philosophy throughout every phase of its operations”. Its mission is: By God’s grace we will grow, relentlessly improve and passionately serve our customers and fellow employees.

Here are some of the values guiding the business:

  • Our intention is to be a Christ-centered company.
  • We will conduct ourselves with dignity, adhering to the highest ethical and moral standards.
  • We desire to be known as honorable, reliable and trustworthy, always willing to go the extra mile for something we believe in.
  • Profits are important and necessary, but never at the expense of good, long-term business judgment.
  • Recognizing there are business cycles, we have a high priority to provide employment stability.
  • We want to be good “corporate citizens” – active in serving others, helping meet human needs in the community and beyond.
  • We realize we are not an end in ourselves, but a part of God’s larger purposes. As such, we are called upon to work as “unto Him,” to view our business as a trust and to be wise and able stewards of the trust He has placed with us.

So can a business have Christian values and be profitable at the same time? Yes! Beckett has 74 years of experience.

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How to tackle organized crime

Jul 9th, 2011 by

One can make two observations about big organized crime: 1. It is big. 2. It is organized.

Human trafficking, modern day slavery, is the 2nd biggest organized crime in the world. It is about many billions of dollars and involves very sophisticated transnational operations.

Some estimates indicate that about 27 million people have been tricked, shipped, deployed to slave like work and who are held against their will. All over the world. It is big business. It is organized. The trafficking operations involve all kinds of professions and skills and they are connected. Think multi-national company with all levels, from janitors to high flying CEOs.

Anti-human-trafficking initiatives can be labeled as small and disorganized in comparison. Unfortunately. To adequately address and combat human trafficking we need to build critical mass (become big) and build strategic alliances (become organized).

I see two major challenges for anti-trafficking initiatives. One problem is that it is mainly two categories of people and groups who are involved: 1. Legislators, policy makers, and government agencies. 2. NGOs, non-profit and volunteer based organizations. These people and groups are good and needed. They are not the problem. The problem is the people and groups who are not involved or not even invited to combat this evil.

We know that unemployment makes people vulnerable to traffickers. It is also a fact that we can’t talk about restoration of victims of human trafficking unless we can offer them jobs with dignity. Thus adequate prevention and restoration must include job creation. This means that business people must be a part of anti-trafficking networks as we try to get big and organized.

The second problem is disconnectedness. Local and national disconnected anti-trafficking measures are not sufficient to tackle to big organized crime, to initiate preventative steps and rescue actions and to restore the victims of these criminal gangs.

In short: we need to get more kinds of professions and skills sets involved and we need to build international strategic alliances. Is that a pipe dream? No!

I am very encouraged by one promising initiative in Europe: The European Freedom Network, (EFN). It started about two years ago and now has approximately 100 partners across Europe working together to prevent human trafficking and provide restorative processes for its victims. EFN is not the silver bullet but is definitely an important step in the right direction of building critical mass and getting organized transnationally.

My dear wife Jennifer Roemhildt Tunehag is one of the founders and leaders, together with my good friend Julia Doxat-Purser.

If you want to connect and learn further please check my wife’s blog: http://preventrestore.wordpress.com (EFN is working on a website. Stay tuned!)

If you want to support this work financially, click here for more info.

If you want to read the EFN brochure, click EFN brochure – outside and EFN Brochure – inside.

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Buy this book, read it, share it!

Mar 31st, 2011 by

Democracy, human rights and freedom are not destinations you arrive at. We mustn’t take these for granted – they can be lost.

President Ronald Reagan wrote: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

The book “Exiting a Dead End Road” deals with key issues for Europe, including the survival of true democracy and real adherence to human rights. You can read more about it here and also buy it as hard copy or e-book.

The book covers topics like:

  • Describing Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians –
  • Understanding Rights Talk
  • Dealing with Political Correctness
  • Comprehending Freedom and Tolerance
  • Responding to Anti-Discrimination Policy
  • Confronting Radical Secularism
  • Holding Universal Truths in a Pluralistic Society
  • Protecting Freedom of Speech

I was asked to write the chapter dealing with trends and concerns regarding freedom of speech in Europe and beyond. This chapter is found as a pdf file in Further Reading and here: Towards a Better Understanding of Freedom of Speech

The attacks on freedom of speech in Europe and beyond are worrying. We need to fight against hate speech laws, harassment, threats and self censorship.

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeev writes in the foreword to the book: “This book is a collection of publications on discrimination against Christians in Europe. This problem is deliberately hushed up in the ‘free continent’. … The book cites numerous concrete facts pointing to discrimination against Christians, violations of their rights to freedom of expression and conscience and ultimately to the free expression of their faith.”

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Posted in International Affairs, Religious Liberty | 1 Comment »

Holy Profit

Mar 31st, 2011 by

“The Church acknowledges the legitimate role of profit as an indication that a business is functioning well. When a firm makes a profit, this means that productive factors have been properly employed and corresponding human needs have been duly satisfied.

But profitability is not the only indicator of a firm’s condition. It is possible for the financial accounts to be in order, and yet for the people — who make up the firm’s most valuable asset — to be humiliated and their dignity offended. Besides being morally inadmissible, this will eventually have negative repercussions on the firm’s economic efficiency.

In fact, the purpose of a business firm is not simply to make a profit, but is to be found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways are endeavouring to satisfy their basic needs, and who form a particular group at the service of the whole of society.

Profit is a regulator of the life of a business, but it is not the only one; other human and moral factors must also be considered which, in the long term, are at least equally important for the life of a business.”

Pope John Paul II, Centesimus annus 1991

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Godly Wealth Creation

Mar 31st, 2011 by

The Old Testament lays down in Exodus the Ten Commandments as given to Moses, the injunction in Leviticus to love our neighbour as ourselves and generally the importance of observing a strict code of law. The New Testament is a record of the Incarnation, the teachings of Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Again we have the emphasis on loving our neighbour as ourselves and to “Do-as-you-would-be-done-by”.

I believe that by taking together these key elements from the Old and New Testaments, we gain: a view of the universe, a proper attitude to work, and principles to shape economic and social life.

We are told we must work and use our talents to create wealth. “If a man will not work he shall not eat” wrote St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Indeed, abundance rather than poverty has a legitimacy which derives from the very nature of Creation.

Nevertheless, the Tenth Commandment—Thou shalt not covet—recognises that making money and owning things could become selfish activities. But it is not the creation of wealth that is wrong but love of money for its own sake. The spiritual dimension comes in deciding what one does with the wealth. How could we respond to the many calls for help, or invest for the future, or support the wonderful artists and craftsmen whose work also glorifies God, unless we had first worked hard and used our talents to create the necessary wealth? And remember the woman with the alabaster jar of ointment.

None of this, of course, tells us exactly what kind of political and social institutions we should have. On this point, Christians will very often genuinely disagree, though it is a mark of Christian manners that they will do so with courtesy and mutual respect. What is certain, however, is that any set of social and economic arrangements which is not founded on the acceptance of individual responsibility will do nothing but harm.

We are all responsible for our own actions. We can’t blame society if we disobey the law. We simply can’t delegate the exercise of mercy and generosity to others. The politicians and other secular powers should strive by their measures to bring out the good in people and to fight down the bad: but they can’t create the one or abolish the other. They can only see that the laws encourage the best instincts and convictions of the people, instincts and convictions which I’m convinced are far more deeply rooted than is often supposed.

Nowhere is this more evident than the basic ties of the family which are at the heart of our society and are the very nursery of civic virtue. And it is on the family that we in government build our own policies for welfare, education and care.

You recall that Timothy was warned by St. Paul that anyone who neglects to provide for his own house (meaning his own family) has disowned the faith.

We must recognise that modern society is infinitely more complex than that of Biblical times and of course new occasions teach new duties. In our generation, the only way we can ensure that no-one is left without sustenance, help or opportunity, is to have laws to provide for health and education, pensions for the elderly, succour for the sick and disabled. But intervention by the State must never become so great that it effectively removes personal responsibility.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, 21 May 1988. Speech to General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

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