Christmas, Hannukkah and the Value of Stigma…

Save 40% when upgrading to Creative Cloud : For existing CS3 or later customers $49.99/month $29.99/month : 12-month contract required

Posted by Garrett O'Brien+ on 20-Dec-2011 in ethics, values | 0 comments

Send to Kindle

We do not water down any other religious or non-religious holiday, so why do so many like to water down Christmas?… There is a reason for the season and a reason for we call our holiday Christmas… Secularism and Political Correctness love to embrace feelings and will campaign the removal of any stigma that may cause anyone’s feelings to be hurt, for them at least. They mistakenly believe that isolating all this will stop anyone from feeling hurt. They attempt to ignore, devalue, and minimize those they believe are causing the hurt… In otherwords, someone is still going to get hurt! DOH! What good can become of that? If the Secularists and PC’s want a holiday that doesn’t offend anyone, then let them create their own holiday and let everyone else be — and they need to stop making their problem everyone else’s problem.

Stigma has a purpose, it marks our differnces and gives reason to celebrate our differences — not to minimize them! To minimize stigma so everyone can embrace the values of others only increases over-sensitivity, decreases our differences, increases discontent… And in every case where stigma has been reduced, you will find everyeone walking on eggshells least they hurt the feelings of any one person, except the person that doesn’t agree with them of course (then they prefer to take the gloves off)… There is definitely no joy to be found once everyone is on that band wagon.

Own what you are, who you are, least you lose all that you are…

Stigma has its purpose, differences should be embraced instead of minimized. To embrace the minimization of stigma means every difference needs to be minimized. This also means the one thing everyone wants from work, wants from their friends, wants from their family has to be minimiaed as well — who wants to be the first in line NOT to be recognized for their efforts? NOT to be recognized for making a difference? NOT to be given credit where credit is due?

Benjamin Franklin was questioned, in a letter, by Ezra Stiles of Yale, “Which religion should we honor?” Ezra Stiles was trying to bait Franklin as it was widely known that Benjamin was the least religious man of all our founding fathers. Ezra, hoping this would be a means to endorse his church over the 12 others in our colony nation, was hoping to entrap Franklin into endorsing Ezra’s own religion. Ezra, we hope, must have been pleasantly surprised when Franklin penned this response…

“I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable Service we can render to him, is doing Good to his other Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting its Conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental Principles of all sound Religion, and I regard them as you do, in whatever Sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity”

Instead of reducing the stigma, the differences of his beliefs and that of Stiles, Benjamin Franklin choose to define God… and he defined God with 5 certainties..

• God lives…

• We will see God when we die…

• God will judge us when He sees us…

• We are to serve God…

• Serving God is best done by serving our fellow-man…

   

You don’t have to believe any of this, but given the blessings and benefits from observing and honoring a God — and the ramifications if you don’t — wouldn’t it be wiser to error on the side of God instead of against Him? These are universal principles that apply to any believer and non-believer alike… Doubt is just as strong as faith.

A lesser known part of Franklin’s letter to Stiles follows (picking up with some of the previous quote font context)…

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity: tho’ it is a Question I do not dogmatise upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble. I see no harm however in its being believed, if that Belief has the good Consequence as probably it has, of making his Doctrines more respected and better observed, especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the Believers, in his Government of the World, with any particular Marks of his Displeasure. I shall only add respecting myself, that having experienced the Goodness of that Being, in conducting me prosperously thro’ a long Life, I have no doubt of its Continuance in the next, tho’ without the smallest Conceit of meriting such Goodness.

Most of us, including Benjamin, and the devil believe in God, but at least Benjamin embraced the stigma as opposed to minimizing it… Benjamin defined the root of our faith, celebrated our differences, and it worked in many of his means of unifying 13 states that had 13 different churches. Today, many are reversing this process and want us to to celebrate the root of our faith and define our differences — and it is dividing 50 states that have many churches…

Just some food for thought…

As for The HRIS World, we all wish everyone that are celebrating, a very Merry Christmas! And Happy Hannukah to our Jewish friends as well!

Garrett O’Brien

With 20+ years in roles as a client executive sponsor, project management, as well as functional / technical lead, Garrett is sought for his expertise in the USA, Europe, and Brazil.

He has an extensive background in implementing multi-product, multi-line HRIS environments that provides a smoother transition from legacy to new systems.

Garrett’s previous clients include ADP, Case New Holland, Cushman & Wakefield, Honeywell International, Lubrizol, MAHLE, Sodexho USA, and many others ranging from SMB’s to the Fortune 50.

Currently, Garrett works from his home office near São Paulo, Brazil as the publisher and editor for The HRIS World publications. Also, he contributes articles for their various blogs as well as provides guest posts to several IT, Cloud, and HRIS blogs.

Garrett’s current roles involve…

• Publisher, writer, and owner of 4 leading HRIS system and career blogs which are read in 50+ countries

• HR.com Advisory Board for the ERP/HRIS Community

• CEO for CGServices USA — focusing on multi-provider, multi-line system for HRIS systems

• Registered partner with Microsoft, providing the latest developments on the newest technologies from Microsoft

• Council and Education Member of Gerson Lehrman Group Council, which helps institutions of the world leaders meet, engage and manage experts across a wide range of sectors and disciplines.

---

In the news…

HR and the Cloud

Isabella Chan of HR Matters talks to Garrett O’Brien about the growth of cloud computing and building a technology strategy around HR.

---

Your Invite to Guest Post

 

If you’d like to guest post for The HRIS World, you can use our contact page or reach us through our social media for details…

        

More articles by Garrett O'Brien...

• Cloud is Dominating Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions - 22-May-2013
• Fearful Leadership Can Become Courageous Leadership - 22-May-2013
• Josh Bersin Speaks of “Glocalization” for HR: Fad or Direction? - 13-May-2013
• Why Multi-Tasking and Being Plugged-In All the Time Isn't - 9-May-2013
• Have You Adopted Your Job Search to the New Ways of Recruiting? - 6-May-2013
• Why the Impact of PPACA on Your Business Is So Huge - 4-May-2013
• Employee Satisfaction: The Key to Successful Business? - 23-April-2013
• Boston - 15-April-2013
• Mobile ESS? Mobile MSS? Why the Wait? - 12-April-2013
• Forrester Research : Are You Prepared for the Mobile Mind Shift? - 26-March-2013

Send to Kindle

Related Posts:

• A little bit of Christmas, every day…
• Why There is a 50% Chance Your Change Management Will Fail
• How to Kill 11 Million People…
• The Year Ahead…
• How to Keep Your 2013 New Year’s Resolutions NOW…
• What We Are Unwilling to Change? And Why?
• Business Etiquette in the Digital Age
• Will Tomorrow’s IT Leaders Listen? Reflect? Aspire? Lead?
• SAP Co-CEO Jim Hagemann-Snabe Reacts to the Passing of Steve Jobs
• Performance Reviews: Thoughts from Gen Y

comments

comments

Comments

To leave comments, you will need to sign in or register with facebook. To have your comments posted to your own facebook wall, be sure to click the 'Post to Profile' box. To minimize spam, all comments require admin approval before they will be displayed.

If you sign in or register with The HRIS World, please see our privacy policy to see how we maintain all your information in confidence.

Benefits for Registering with The HRIS World

Using our registration option will allow you to receive our latest articles via email (you can opt out at any time) -- either allposts or posts for specific blogs.

Click Here to register.

5 Common Hiring Mistakes Read more about these mistakes, and how to avoid them in this whitepaper. Click Here to sponsor our newsletter

Feeds

RSS feeds - by blog