June 13, 2012 | 12:01 am

Christian publishing CEO fires 25 in response to irritating email

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Here is some absolutely bizarre news about the CEO of a Christian publisher going absolutely bananas over an anonymous email that complained about work being outsourced and then firing 25 employees in an apparent bloodletting. Romenesko has the full details, including the offending email and the audio recording of Tate Publishing CEO Ryan Tate unloading. Here’s a snippet:

Tate, who was unaware that his talk was being recorded, told his employees that “I’ve probably failed you in that I’ve been a little too lenient and a little too on the side of mercy and grace and not enough justice.”

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He said that if the person who sent the email about the company outsourcing jobs “comes forward now, you will not save these 25 people” because “what’s done is done.” He added: “It’s over. You’ve missed your chances and I gave you multiple.”

He told the fired employees: “If I was you, I’d get on a mission to find who cost you your job. …There’s going to be a lot of innocent, good hard-working people pay a big price for this. I hate that. It tears me up, and I’ve shed a lot of tears over this. But I will not stand for it.”

A while back I wrote an article for Christianity Today about Christians in business. In short, Christians are called to a different standard at work. A higher standard to is based on biblical principles, not always business sense.

Even though Tate couches some of his comments in ministerial language, his reaction appears to have missed that mark by a mile; I don’t even think the apparently vindictive firings would be acceptable in a kiss-up-kick-down business setting. They seem mean, rash and not in the best interests of the business.

Then again, it’s his name on the building, so to speak, so I guess he gets to make the call.

June 12, 2012 | 9:47 pm

Tunisian Islamists riot over ‘insulting’ art show

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Thousands of Salafi Islamists rioted in Tunisia today over the Spring of Arts exhibition, which the rioters thought insulted God. This has become a someone stock story in the Arab World.

Reuters report:

The work that appears to have caused most fury spelt out the name of God using insects.

“These artists are attacking Islam and this is not new. Islam is targeted,” said a youth, who gave his name as Ali and had removed his shirt as he prepared to confront police in Ettadamen. “What added fuel to the flames is the government’s silence,” said Ali, who did not describe himself as a Salafi.

Officials of the Islamist-led government have condemned the art works that they say were intended to insult and provoke, but said there was no excuse for the outbreak of violence that appeared planned and coordinated and could undermine economic recovery as the tourism and harvest seasons get underway.

Read the rest here. If you weren’t keeping score at home last year, Tunisia was the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

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June 9, 2012 | 11:45 pm

DOMA dominos keep falling; another federal court rules law unconstitutional

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

A federal district court in New York struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional. That’s the same problem provision that two other district courts and one appellate court recently have deemed unconstitutional.

Jurist reports:

The ruling is the fourth federal decision finding that section 3, which denies federal marriage benefits to lawfully married same-sex couples, is an unconstitutional interference in a state’s right to define marriage. The case involved a woman whose same-sex marriage was recognized in New York, but not by the federal government under DOMA. When her spouse died, she was required to pay over $360,000 in federal estate taxes; married couples are exempt from this tax. In her decision, Judge Barbara Jones found that the provision did not pass the lowest level of scrutiny, rational basis review.

That’s surprising because laws rarely fail rational basis review, under which courts must uphold the validity of a law if it is rationally related to even a legitimate conceivable government purpose. By contrast, the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit invalidated DOMA after applying a heightened standard of review.

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June 8, 2012 | 8:04 pm

Lehrer: Religion helps with self-control

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Jonah Lehrer. Photo by Wikipedia/PopTech/Kris Krüg

Jonah Lehrer, who is joining the New Yorker as a staff writer, recently had an interesting op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he discussed two recent studies showing how religious conviction makes it much easier for people to do difficult things that they likely would never do without the religious impetus. Lehrer talks about how easy he found it as a child to keep kosher even though he “was terrible at holding back my childish desires in almost every other way.”

Lehrer writes:

The scientists describe thoughts of God as providing the mind with “important psychological nutrients” that “refuel” our inner resources, much like Gatorade replenishes the body after a long run.

But how does religion do this? The scientists think that faith-based thoughts may increase “self-monitoring” by evoking the idea of an all-knowing, omnipresent God. Previous research, which showed that priming people to think of a vengeful, angry God reduces the likelihood of dishonesty, supports this view. If God is always watching, we better not misbehave—he knows about the pepperoni.

For Rabbi [David] Wolpe, these results are an important reminder that human nature is deeply shaped by external structures. “People need a system of rules to live by,” he says, adding: “People drive slower when they see a police car. God is a bit like that police car: Thinking about Him makes it easier to do the right thing.”

Read the rest here and check out the new home of Lehrer’s blog here.

Like Rabbi Wolpe, I’m not surprised by the findings. One of the crucial roles of religion has long been to unify communities around common beliefs and practices. The structure makes it easier. Just as Lehrer found when he was a kid and couldn’t eat pizza that wasn’t plain.

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June 8, 2012 | 6:53 pm

Catholic priest: homosexuality is socialism

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

In delivering the invocation at the Colorado Republican State Assembly and Convention in April, the Rev. Andrew Kemberling of Church of St. Thomas More in Centennial, Colo., associated homosexuality with socialist influences and said socialism is the real root of war on religion. Check it out.

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June 7, 2012 | 1:09 pm

Israeli emigration: good for the Jews—and Israel?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Israel flag. Photo by REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

There is an old debate within the Los Angeles Jewish community over just how many Israelis call L.A. home. The number matters for many reasons, not least of which to give the organized Jewish community a sense of needs among Israelis in L.A. It’s also something that folks back in Israel might be interested in.

Israeli officials have been fretting for decades over reverse-aliyah—losing Israelis to the diaspora. But Pini Herman, a demographer who writes the Demographic Duo blog, says that rumors of mass emigration are greatly exaggerated.

Further, he argues this week in The Forward that Israel needs to “stop worrying about the yordim”. Why?

The relatively small numbers of Israeli Jews living in the United States often give expression to their commitment to Israel through a high rate of participation in communal activities.

The Israeli brain drain is also circulatory. Israel hasn’t had the technological, academic and other infrastructural resources and depth to absorb its disproportionate percentage of highly trained and skilled populace, the highest in the world after the United States. “Surplus” Israelis, talented enough to surmount significant barriers to international migration, went abroad and sometimes later attracted or repatriated with them to Israel much-needed infrastructure, such as that provided by Intel, Google, Microsoft, Alcatel and 3Com, as earlier talented Israeli generations brought back with them IBM, Motorola and Israel Aircraft Industries. Rather than being a negative for Israel, the Israeli “brain drain” and the subsequent repatriation of talent and infrastructure have enabled more of Israel’s talent to remain and return to the Jewish State.

Rather than being a problem for Israel, the Israeli-born migratory pattern has been a political and economic boon, though it remains a problem for Zionist ideology; the ideology continues to describe it by using the negative expression yerida, which is the act of descending.

Read the rest here.

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June 7, 2012 | 10:41 am

When GOOD ‘gave a damn’ about good journalism

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The “staff massacre” at GOOD and the magazine’s change of direction from polished publication to “something more like Reddit” seemed to catch everyone by surprise.

It wasn’t long ago that GOOD was a darling of the magazine and charitable worlds. It was a magazine that produced strong editorial content with a focus on subjects that would resonate with readers and prompt them to care about the world around them.

GOOD had only been around since 2006, but quickly risen to prominence in an industry in which most players struggle to make a profit and newcomers rarely fare well. Now things are being torn down in and effort by the GOOD company to revamp its “fundamental strategy” and rebuild in a way that CEO Ben Goldhirsh discusses in this “hey guys” email sent companywide.

Five years ago, just before he made the Heeb 100, I spoke with Goldhirsh about being a 27-year-old millionaire and using that money to do something, well, good.

Here’s an excerpt from that profile:

Goldhirsh sees the GOOD brand, which also includes Reason Pictures, a film company he started in 2004, as much more than a media organization. It’s “a meta-company,” he said, “a lifestyle brand” that appeals to the “reason-based sensibilities” of people like him. People who know privilege and yet want to change the world in a big way.

“It is a revolution of self-interest,” said publisher Max Schorr, a prep school friend of Goldhirsh’s who skipped law school to help start the magazine. “In the past, if you pursued your self-interest, it was considered selfish. For us, the process of pursuing our self-interest leads to more than ourselves. If we just pursued ourselves all the time, it would lead to a lousy life.”

The timing for GOOD was not a month too soon. Not long before the first issue was published in September 2006, Al Gore (whose son, Albert Gore III, happens to be associate publisher) and “An Inconvenient Truth” made combating climate change fashionable; going green and being eco-friendly got downright trendy. Suddenly, it was cool to care not just about the environment but societal issues and the whole world around you.

“If doing good used to be a pejorative and kind of lame, or somehow was characterized that way by culture, which I don’t know how the hell that happened, then certainly being ignorant and living an irrelevant life is now that way,” Goldhirsh said. “An engaged life is where it is at, which is thrilling to me.”

Personally, Goldhirsh is “cause agnostic,” so he didn’t want to encourage some passions and stifle others; he simply wanted to celebrate a social awareness, which is why the magazine’s debut cover featured in white block lettering “_____ LIKE YOU GIVE A DAMN.”

“If this doesn’t become the dominant sensibility,” Goldhirsh said, “we are f—-ed.”

Read the rest here. Suffice to say, it seems like GOOD’s mission—not just its form—has changed.

As for the dearly departed GOOD staffers, they’ve vowed to start a new magazine called Tomorrow.

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June 6, 2012 | 11:07 am

NJ Muslims sue NYPD to stop spying *

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

New Jersey Muslims filed suit today against the New York Police Department, claiming that the NYPD’s surveillance efforts of Muslims post-2001 violate the U.S. Constitution.

AP reports:

It is the first lawsuit to directly challenge the NYPD’s surveillance programs, which were the subject of an investigative series by The Associated Press since last year. Based on internal NYPD reports and interviews with officials involved in the programs, the AP reported that the NYPD conducted wholesale surveillance of entire Muslim neighborhoods, chronicling daily life including where people ate, prayed and got their hair cut. Police infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds more.

Syed Farhaj Hassan, one of the plaintiffs, stopped attending one mosque as often after he learned it was one of four where he worships that were included in NYPD files. Those mosques were located along the East Coast from central Connecticut to the Philadelphia suburbs, but none was linked to terrorism, either publicly or in the confidential NYPD documents.

Hassan, an Army reservist from a small town outside of New Brunswick, N.J., said he was concerned that anything linking his life to potential terrorism would hurt his military security clearance.

“Guilt by association was forced on me,” Hassan said.

Read the rest here. I’m looking for the complaint ...

*UPDATED: Found it (PDF).

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June 6, 2012 | 10:36 am

Ray Bradbury, acclaimed author and ‘delicatessen religionist’, dead at 91

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Ray Bradbury has died. He was 91 and the author of one of my favorite books.

He was a “delicatessen religionist,” not a member of one faith but someone who drew from many, and credited God (not sure whether it was God or god) for being such an amazing and prolific writer. From a 2010 CNN story:

He describes himself as a “delicatessen religionist.” He’s inspired by Eastern and Western religions.

The center of his faith, though, is love. Everything—the reason he decided to write his first short story at 12; his 56-year marriage to his muse and late wife, Maggie; his friendships with everyone from Walt Disney to Alfred Hitchcock—is based on love.

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Bradbury’s favorite book in the Bible is the Gospel of John, which is filled with references to love.

“At the center of religion is love,” Bradbury says from his home, which is painted dandelion yellow in honor of his favorite book, “Dandelion Wine.”

“I love you and I forgive you. I am like you and you are like me. I love all people. I love the world. I love creating. ... Everything in our life should be based on love.”

Read the rest here.

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June 5, 2012 | 9:15 am

Brad Greenberg to coach Maccabi Haifa basketball club

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It’s my dream to play professional basketball. Pipe dream, really. But they say that those who can’t play, coach. And, so, yeah I’d be honored to Israel’s Maccabi Haifa, even if they did finish last this past season in the Israel Basketball League.

What’s that? The offer wasn’t for this Brad Greenberg?

Indeed, Google Alerts often confuses me with two other Brad Greenbergs: a state judge in Ohio and the former GM of the Philadelphia 76ers (who happens to be the brother of NCAA coach Seth Greenberg). And it looks like the Maccabi Haifa job went to the one with a little more basketball coaching and front-office experience.

JTA reports:

Greenberg, 58, becomes the first head coach in Israel to have served as an NBA assistant coach, NBA general manager and NCAA Division I head coach, according to the team. His contract starts on Aug.1, and the team opens its regular season on Oct. 8.

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“It has been a dream of mine to coach professionally in Israel,” Greenberg said in a statement on the team’s website.

Greenberg served as head coach this past season for Venezuela’s Bucaneros De La Guaira, leading the team to a playoff appearance. He will return as assistant coach of the Venezuelan National Team competing this summer for a chance to participate at the 2012 London Olympics.

Unlike the NBA, Israel is actually one place where you will find Jewish hoopers in the starting five. But being Jewish is by no means a requirement for playing in the league.

And the Jerusalem Post is calling the hiring of that Brad Greenberg “questionable.” Hmmm, maybe he would be interested in my highlight reel (above) ...

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June 4, 2012 | 8:39 pm

Obama losing support among American Jews

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Barack Obama in Washington Jun 3. Photo by REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Surprising results from a poll by a liberal fraternal organization with strong Yiddish roots, The Workmen’s Circle. The very not liberal Commentary explains why the poll spells trouble for President Obama’s reelection efforts among American Jews:

despite the effort of the poll’s left-wing sponsor to treat this as a victory for the incumbent, it actually confirms the fact that the president is bleeding Jewish support this year and appears to be falling far short of the share of the community’s vote that he won in 2008. With the poll showing him getting only 59 percent of the Jewish vote as opposed to the 78 percent he received four years ago, there is no disguising a drastic decline in support for the Democrat.

There are still a lot of undecided American Jewish voters, and I’d expect Obama to pick up many of them. But if his numbers didn’t improve, Obama in 2012 would be the lowest performing Democratic presidential candidate aside from Jimmy Carter. And we all know how American Jews feel about Carter.

The question is: Why?

Commentary has some ideas: “picking fights with Israel” and “the president’s handling of the economy.”

I tend to think that Obama gets an unfair shake on both issues. We’ll see if voters agree in the fall.

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June 3, 2012 | 8:52 pm

350 Mormons march in Utah gay pride parade

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Practicing Mormons march in a gay pride parade in Salt Lake City, Ut, Jun 3. Photo by REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

Remember all the negative attention that Mormons got for donating to California’s Prop. 8? For the first time Sunday, some members of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints joined in the Utah Pride Parade, with about 350 Mormons marching alongside Utah’s LGBT community.

The Deseret News reports:

Kim Turner said she was a little nervous about what kind of reaction the group would get in the parade because the LDS Church supports traditional marriage between a man and a woman, and the church encouraged members to support Proposition 8 in California defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

“We thought there might be some animosity toward us, but it was the opposite,” she said. “It was so touching. It was very emotional. We saw many people crying along the (parade) route.”
 
She, too, was in tears for most of the parade.

“It was so touching walking along and having people tell us ‘thank you’ when it was our pleasure,” she said. “This was a labor of love, nothing more than that. It wasn’t about politics. It was about love.”

Put in perspective, 350 is a relatively small number. And there is no indication that Mormonism is poised to undergo the same softening on homosexuality that evangelicalism has experienced. But that any Mormons joined in the parade is certainly newsworthy.

The Deseret News does a nice job putting this in context of church doctrine. Read the rest here.

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