In the 80s sexual harassment was beginning to be recognized by corporations and they established processes to facilitate reporting and subsequent investigations of situations. Our secretary did not appreciate the way her boss, my boss, was treating her and comments he was making to her. As the sage I was, and still am, she consulted with me on what she could do about it. As a manager I had been exposed to various HR presentations on politically correct behavior. My advice was she follow the process. She did. The process required her to report the situation to the HR manager in charge of harassment accusations (also female). The process was for HR to inform the manager of the department of the person making the accusation as well as the manager of the department of the person being accused. Who would have guessed that they would be the same person and the secretary's boss? He investigated; found no foundation for the accusation and the case was closed. She transferred to another area within the Mead Corporation at a slightly lower level but she was away from him. Don't we just love it when corporations function as designed?
The church in Corinth had a situation that was reported to Paul. "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?"
Today GSMCOC has a situation that until recently I would have said other churches would not tolerate but I would have been mistaken. Recently I was told that a former member of GSMCOC is living with her soon to be hubby, a Baptist preacher, in West Virginia. Who would have guessed a Baptist congregation accepting such behavior from their preacher? Surely GSMCOC would not accept such behavior by its preacher. Or would we?
In small organizations (Mead was not a small organization but the departments within the corporation were) it is impossible to report questionable behavior without causing a division unless the leaders lead. As with the situation with the secretary at Mead I am sure any investigation of questionable behavior would discover nothing untoward.
Paul told the folks in Thessalonica "Abstain from all appearance of evil." What constitutes appearance of evil?
We should not be so hard on those folks in Corinth. Would we have behaved any differently if the man who had has father's wife was a GSMCOC leader?
John Jenkins
865-803-8179 cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Blogs: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/
http://alumcave.blogspot.com/
''Being an executive requires a combination of charisma, a capacity to sustain boredom, and the ability to shallowly perform on harrying schedules.''
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