God and Game Theory (Part III)

An excerpt from The Godfather by Mario Puzo

Michael: They want to have a meeting with me, right? It will be me, McClusky and Sollozzo. Let's set the meeting. We get our informants to find out where it's going to be held. Now we insist that it be held in a public place, a bar or a restaurant where there'll be other people there so I'll feel safe. They're going to search me when I first meet them, right? So I can't have a weapon on me. But if Clemenza can figure a way to have a weapon planted for me, then I'll kill them both.
Sonny: [laughing] What are you gonna do? Nice college boy, didn't want to get mixed up in the family business. Now you want to gun down a police captain. Why? Because he slapped you in the face a little? What do you think this like the Army where you can shoot 'em from a mile away? No you gotta get up like this and, badda-bing, you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit. C'mere.
[Kisses Michael on the head]
Sonny: You're taking this very personal. Tom, this is business and this man is taking it very, very personal.
Michael Corleone: Where does it say that you can't kill a cop?
Tom Hagen: Come on, Mikey...
Michael Corleone: Tom, wait a minute. I'm talking about a cop that's mixed up in drugs. I'm talking about a - a - a dishonest cop - a crooked cop who got mixed up in the rackets and got what was coming to him. That's a terrific story. And we have newspaper people on the payroll, don't we, Tom?
[Tom nods]
Michael Corleone: And they might like a story like that.
Tom Hagen: They might, they just might.
Michael Corleone: [to Sonny] It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.


The Corleone family is in the middle of a crisis. Turk Sollozzo, a heroin dealer backed by the rival Tattaglia family, attempted to assassinate Don Vito Corleone. The Godfather, hit by five bullets, lies in a coma. If he dies the family looses his political and judicial contacts, effectively ending the stalemated gang war. Sollozzo must finish the botched murder attempt or he is a dead man. The Corleone family must kill Sollozzo before he completes his task, but he is guarded by a corrupt police captain and by the rules of the game he is untouchable. No member of the mafia has ever killed a police captain, but Michael has concluded, as an exercise in pure reason, it is time to break the rules.

It has been said that The Godfather is the best management text book ever written. Whenever one of the characters is about to unleash murder and mayhem on a foe, he is apt to observe, “It’s just business.” In a recent poll by the Barna group, 85% of un-churched members of the prime demographic described Christians as hypocrites. I don’t think this should surprise anyone, but in the same poll 47% of church attending members of the prime demographic described Christians as hypocrites. That surprised me. I expect a lot of this distain for the Church in America is the result of Christian business practices, both by ministries and for profit corporations, as well as a number of high profile sex scandals, the most recent involving the governor of South Carolina.

Tom Landry, the extraordinarily successful coach of the Dallas Cowboys, is still a rather controversial figure. As a result of his very public, very high visibility stand for Christianity he is called “God’s Coach” by both fans and detractors. A large number of former team members, admittedly, not the cream of the crop, question Landry’s Christianity. They believe he was a ruthless businessman, focused on the bottom line. They believed that Landry was far more interested in God than he was in people. It is reported he would tolerate and exploit players as long as it was profitable and then he would drop them without compassion or conscience. I remember reading an article, perhaps 25 years ago, where it was reported that whenever Landry was asked about a particularly cold blooded act, he would reply, “It’s just business.” When Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys, he fired Tom Landry. When interviewed about firing the beloved legend, it has been reported he replied, “It was just business.”

I don’t really know the condition of Tom Landry’s soul, that question is thankfully somewhat above my pay grade. I don’t know who is telling the truth in these reports, exposes, and biographies, but I do know that we Christians are guilty of compartmentalization. At different times and places we have all knowingly put aside what we knew was right and done that which was wrong. Some of us sin, but try and repent. Some of us harden our hearts, carefully walling off some part of our soul from the demands of God. Often, when money is involved, it is all too easy to sidestep the cries of the Holy Spirit and perform in the great game as “a rational player” or worse.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a story about two men who attended a revival service at the Big Swamp Baptist Church in a town located somewhere south of Washington, D.C. One of these men sat in the front row, as the choir sang, he thought, “I thank you Lord that I am not as other men. I am a Senior Deacon, I have taught Sunday School for over 20 years, every time the Church door opens I am here, I tithe, and I pray and read the Bible every day.”

In the back row a man confessed to God, “In my store I sell pornography, beer, lottery tickets, and cigarettes. I have cheated my customers and stole their money. I have even traded gasoline for sex. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.”

Who do you suppose left the service justified in the eyes of God?

I really didn’t know where this series would lead me when I started writing it. That is pretty unusual. Normally, by the time I begin one of these things, I have a pretty good idea what I want to say. Now I have reached the end. My conclusion, God is not particularly impressed with my business ethics, whatever they may be. He is, however, extremely interested in my direction of travel. If I am moving towards Him, He is pleased. If I am standing still or worse, moving away from Him, He is not pleased. And Oh by the way, just for the record, I think God takes everything we do, "very, very personal." After all He did send his Son to die, in part, because we excused our acts by saying, “It’s just business.”

Luke 18

[10] Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
[11] The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
[12] I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
[13] And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
[14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.