The Bible and the Headlines: News You Can Use

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By David Bachelor, PhD

It is not often that the descendants of Henry Ford face the same dilemma as the descendants of the Prophet Muhammed. According to last week’s headlines the Ford Motor Company (still controlled by the Ford family) and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have a quality control problem. Their products do not stand the test of time.

Last Saturday the Wall Street Journal revealed, “At Ford, Quality Is Now Problem 1.” The article delineated Ford’s attempts to improve the reliability of their vehicles. According to the piece, “In the first seven months of the year, Ford had 46 separate safety recalls on 6.8 million vehicles, more than any other U.S. auto maker.” The corollary to these glitches is that “Ford allocated $1,041 per vehicle for covering warranty claims compared with $713 per vehicle for larger rival General Motors Co.” Ford has appointed a new executive director of quality to root out why their products are so unreliable. Until this deficiency is dealt with, the company is hamstrung as it transitions into the electric vehicle market.

The Kingdom of Jordan is ruled by the Hashemites, descendants of the Prophet Muhammed. On August 1 the Jordan Times had the headline, “Merger of Ministries Futile sans Improving Quality of Services — Economists.” The article cites experts who pan the Jordanian government’s plan to cut costs by merging several governmental departments and public institutions. One critic remarked, “There must be evaluation processes for employees, and depending on that, employees should be laid off, and some should retire.” In the opinion of a Jordanian economist, “We need to restructure and train employees on how to deal with citizens in a better way, as well as addressing administrative development.” Without improvements to the quality of services rendered, “the merging of ministries will be in vain as long as the mechanisms by which the government and ministries operate do not change.”

The Bible has many verses on “quality.” The verses in 1 Corinthians 3 provide a very simple way to establish a culture of quality: Take what God has already done, and then add your best to it. Using the metaphor of building construction, believers are told, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Whether a person builds on this foundation with gold, silver, and jewels, or chooses instead to use wood, hay or straw, the quality will be revealed in broad daylight when their work is tested by fire” (1 Cor 3:11-13). Quality work will be rewarded by God (1 Cor 3:14).

Maybe the reason the Bible has so much to say about establishing a culture of quality is because the products the Church is meant to produce must last even longer than the automobiles made by Ford, or the amenities provided by the Hashemites. With God’s help, we are preparing people for an eternity spent worshipping around God’s throne.