Volume 28, No. 20
June 8, 2003
Nasty Business
Family business is often nasty business. You may know these names, but not
the stories behind them.
When John Harvey Kellogg became head of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in 1876,
he hired his younger brother, William, to help run the Michigan facility. To
make vegetarianism easier to swallow, the brothers invented several foods,
including Corn Flakes. But by 1900, John was a world-famous doctor who insisted
all his cereals be “health foods”, free of white sugar. William just wanted
something that would sell, so he added the demon sugar to the famous Kellogg's
flakes while his brother was out of the country.
When John found out, he grew furious and broke up the partnership, forcing
Will to start a rival company. The brothers spent years suing each other until
the courts decided only Will could market cereal under the Kellogg name. When
John died in 1942, the two hadn’t spoken to each other in 33 years.
Not even terrible adversity is enough to keep some families together.
Ernest, Julio and Joseph Gallo inherited a California vineyard in 1933 when
their father killed their mother, then committed suicide. Twenty-four-year-old
Ernest and twenty-three-year-old Julio pooled their money and started the Gallo
Winery while raising their teenage brother, Joseph, who eventually bought a
nearby ranch.
But things turned sour for the winemakers when Joseph began making Gallo
cheese in 1983. They sued him for infringing on their trademark, which led to a
countersuit. During the legal battles, the older brothers accused Joseph of
“running a rat-infested cheese plant.” He shot back with accusations that his
brothers specialized in cheap wine for drunks. Ernest and Julio won their
cases, but thefamily remained fractured.
It was a similar story in 1932 when the cosmetics giant Revlon was founded by
Charles Revson, with help from his brothers, Joseph and Martin, and friend
Charles Lachman. When disagreements prompted Martin to leave the company in
1955, he sold his stock for $2.5 million. If he’d waited four more years, it
would’ve been worth $35 million. Trying to put the best possible face on the
situation, Martin sued unsuccessfully and the brothers didn’t speak for 13
years. “What brother?” Charles once said. “I don’t have a brother.”
Many Christians take a similar view when differences arise in matters of
either doctrine or direction, or preferences and practise. In the end, the
family feud distracts and detracts from our Father’s business. Everyone loses,
except enemies who rejoice in the sibling rivalries for reasons of their own.
Those who watch from the outside shake their heads and walk away in disgust or
discouragement.
Even when we don’t see eye-to-eye, we needn’t stand toe-to-toe. We can all
be committed to the love and protection of even those who disagree vehemently
with us, not by pretending differences don’t exist, or insisting on conformity
or uniformity, but by practicing some basic Christian principles. We can “hold
to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is
the head of his body, the church” (Eph. 4:15). Truth without love is as deadly
as love without truth, which is precisely why who we are is much more important
that what we do.
Instead of imposing our personal preferences and standards on one another,
let’s give each other enough space and freedom in Christ to ensure “the whole
body is fitted together perfectly.” In other words, we must mind our own
business if we’re serious about minding our Father’s. Listen. “As each part
does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so the whole body is
healthy, growing and full of love.”
Those last three characteristics are annoyingly clear. To achieve true unity
and maturity, we must refuse to cater to dysfunctional behaviour. We must
exercise patience, but always and only with the clear and firm expectation that
every Christian will grow. And, above all, we must value the power of love over
the love of power. If we must engage in combat, let’s at least make it
heart-to-heart, not hand-to-hand.
By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the
Followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Reprint at will
in not-for-profit publications. To subscribe, contact
sgamble@bfree.on.ca