{"id":47155,"date":"2024-05-13T05:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=47155"},"modified":"2024-05-13T04:52:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T10:52:39","slug":"christ-like-living-according-to-the-godfather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2024\/05\/christ-like-living-according-to-the-godfather\/","title":{"rendered":"Christ-Like Living According to “The Godfather”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the Godfather Part III (I know, I know), in response to his protege threatening to knock off a competitor, Mafia don Michael Corleone quips \u201cnever hate your enemies, it affects your judgment.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a common theme throughout the Godfather series, also embedded in the (in)famous \u201cit\u2019s not personal, strictly business\u201d line. The cold-hearted calculation for self-interest that requires people to put personal or petty grudges on the side. Incidentally, this is a theme in the book too. For example, the scene where the pedophile\/movie producer\u2013his pedophilia is hinted at in the movie but is much more explicit in the book\u2013loses his temper with Tom Hagan is accompanied by an internal monologue where Hagan is stunned that somebody so accomplished would let his emotional desire for vengeance drive his actions.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You see this in politics, diplomacy, business, and other high-stakes games where people who would otherwise hate each other are willing to turn and collaborate on a dime if it\u2019s in their own self-interest. On the opposite extreme, I\u2019ve seen people in the professional world burn all their bridges down because they could not get in control of their personal spite, and one\u2019s ability to be the former and not the latter is a sign of mature emotional regulation. You just don\u2019t pick fights or make enemies unless you have to, because antagonists can hurt you later down the road, sometimes in unpredictable ways. I remember seeing an interview with former President Bill Clinton when the interviewer brought up Newt Gingrich, his nemesis that tried to destroy him multiple times. While not pretending like everything was hunky dory you could tell Clinton was trying not to speak ill of him more than he had to and simply stated that he was able to get some things done with him once things had settled down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, the motives are not ideal. We should not act out of spite for the right, Christ-like reasons, but the Godfather theme communicates a truth I\u2019ve picked up in my own life: there are practical as well as spiritual benefits to not hating one’s enemies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Godfather Part III (I know, I know), in response to his protege threatening to knock off a competitor, Mafia don Michael Corleone quips \u201cnever hate your enemies, it affects your judgment.\u201d\u00a0 This is a common theme throughout the Godfather series, also embedded in the (in)famous \u201cit\u2019s not personal, strictly business\u201d line. The cold-hearted calculation for self-interest that requires people to put personal or petty grudges on the side. Incidentally, this is a theme in the book too. For example, the scene where the pedophile\/movie producer\u2013his pedophilia is hinted at in the movie but is much more explicit in the book\u2013loses his temper with Tom Hagan is accompanied by an internal monologue where Hagan is stunned that somebody so accomplished would let his emotional desire for vengeance drive his actions.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You see this in politics, diplomacy, business, and other high-stakes games where people who would otherwise hate each other are willing to turn and collaborate on a dime if it\u2019s in their own self-interest. On the opposite extreme, I\u2019ve seen people in the professional world burn all their bridges down because they could not get in control of their personal spite, and one\u2019s ability to be the former and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10403,"featured_media":47156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/c687e820-1c5e-4b3e-8388-2e8f7131e0c3_2828x1540-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10403"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47155"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47165,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47155\/revisions\/47165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}