What about Extra Curricular activities?

Is this person unfit to be a teacher because of this photo (with a caption saying "drunken pirate")?

I have blogged before about the perils of the net when it comes to employment.  But decided to have another go after seeing this article in the Guardian about someone arrested for a tweet, and someone else refused a teaching degree, they claim on the basis of a My Space entry.  I haven't fully read the judgement in this case, although comments on one of the sites covering it suggests that the issues were other than the photo.

What interests me about this are the range of views that exist in this area, for example the comments on this version of the story, from what you do off the job is no one elses business through to everything you do is part of the job (perhaps only for certain jobs).  It also touches on Red's question on differences of opinion.  Are there jobs where your behaviour off the job disqualifies you from carrying out the job?  I think the answer has to be yes - although with qualifications.  Nobody is perfect (I know this will come as a shock to some of you out there ;)) so the question becomes what imperfections do we focus on?  Red asked whether we would make a priest having an affair a Bishop - slightly tongue in cheek I would ask whether we would make a priest lending money a Bishop - after all the Bible says more about usury.  The same goes for other public roles, doctors, politicians and of course teachers.

I guess where I fall on this is that there are behaviours which would disqualify people from certain jobs, but having your photo taken as above isn't one of them.

Obsession with money

In the past I have liked a lot of what David Taylor has written, and even attended one of his courses at my companies expense.  However just the title of this book makes me cringe.  His other books have been management books espousing openness and honesty in management.  I haven't read this one, but although the blurb says that it is still about being yourself the focus seems to have changed to be about making money rather than about being yourself/

Perhaps I have missed the point of the other books - after all if you become a successful manager then you usually make a lot of money - although this is not a necessary outcome.  The Bible says that "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil" and it seems to me that this book encourages that love of money (by its title even if the content doesn't).

I do not believe that money makes you happy - I have had lots and little and there was no correlation with my happiness.  There have also been studies suggesting that extra money over £10,000pa makes you no happier - at least at the national level.

I even remember a spoof article in the trade press explaining why promotion was not a good idea!  You would get more money, but you would have to spend it on better clothes and take more expensive holidays and live in a bigger house (and you would work longer hours reducing the pay/hour).  I was even surprised to discover that at work those with the biggest incomes also had the biggest debts!

Do not get me wrong - not having enough money s a problem - but our definition of enough is perhaps skewed.  Jesus had something to say about this:

24 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.*  25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,* or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?* 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God* and his* righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6.24-33