It seems at every job I have held in my 29+ years on this planet I have been involved in quarrels with upper management over organization policy that has conflicted with my code of practice. At times that conflict reached the point I had to choose between the job or my conscious. When faced with choosing a path of action that I knew would clash with company guidelines – I would always remember advice I was given by a manager from my very first job after I graduated High School. The manager was being pressured by upper-management on decisions involving day-to-day operation of the branch he managed. During a discussion I was having with the man I asked if he was worried that upper-management might discharge him for his maverick approach to running the branch. His answer was simple – “I will operate it the way I see best and if they fire me for doing my job in that manner; that is their prerogative. But I was looking for a job when I found this one, and I will be looking for another when I leave here.” I found it good advice to live by. Which brings me to my current “Stupid is as Stupid Does” rant.
A couple in Mississippi planned a wedding at a church they were attending. The event was planned and scheduled with the Pastor of the church. However, some bigoted members of the church objected because the couple was black. The Pastor of the church, then decided to tiptoe around the controversy and conflict by moving the wedding to another church. Now if I were in the shoes of the couple seeking to be married, Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson, I would take heed in a biblical reference; and shake the dust off my feet, as I left the doors of that church and found another offering welcome arms. But I can find no justification for the Pastor allowing himself to be bullied, by a small group of bigoted church members, from performing the wedding in the church of which he presided over. It was his job and his duty. There was no mention of any reason that the marriage was not a blessing to Christs Church. The only reason for any objection offered was the couple was black. The Pastors bending to the will of a handful of bigots and not performing the wedding at the original location was not just a really “Stupid is as Stupid Does” moment it was like taking a piss on the shoes of Christians around the World. The Pastor would have done better if he had followed the wisdom of my old boss; he should have married the couple in his church. And if someone objected to the way he was performing his job and his duty as the Pastor of that church, find another church that would be interested in the manner in which he performed his job.
