A central piece of Knapp\u2019s book is a survey his doctoral students at Columbia Seminary gave to 238 people from all walks of life. There were five questions:<\/p>\n
1. Can you describe at least one moral or ethical concern that has affected you personally in your career or work life?<\/p>\n
2. Was the church helpful to you in addressing the concerns(s)? If so how? If not, what might have been helpful?<\/p>\n
3. Can you recall specific sermons, classes, or other ways the church has offered practical guidance or help in your business or professional life? Please describe these.<\/p>\n
4. Have you ever sought advice or counsel from a pastor regarding business- or career-related concern? If so, was it helpful? If you have not done so, what consideration might help you determine whether to seek pastoral counsel about a work-related matter?<\/p>\n
5. On the whole, do you think the church does enough to help members integrate their faith with their lives at work? If so, how? If not, how might we do better? (166)<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite a widely shared belief that faith should inform ethical decisions at work, a mere 18 of 230 respondents had ever consulted a pastor for advice about a work-related matter. Of these, six were dissatisfied with the experience, including the entrepreneur who angrily moved his church membership when a pastor made light of his concern that his product might be bad for children; nine others had sought advice only when looking for a job. More revealing were the view of more than 200 people who had never looked to a pastor for counsel in business or career matter, a reluctance we will examine in the next chapter.\u201d (12)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The results of the survey are consistent with other research. There is widespread disappointment with the church among businesspeople. Why is there such a disconnection? Knapp identifies aspects of both the business world and the world of the church as contributors to the problem. Chapter 1 looks at the world of business and Chapter 2 (the next post) looks at the world of the church.<\/p>\n
Throughout human history, home life and work life were tightly woven together. Over the past two hundred years we have seen a steady separation of the two, with seemingly different sets of ethical standards emerging for each sphere. Adding to this separation has been the evolution of economics. What we typically think of as economics was studied within the context of philosophy and political economy prior to the Twentieth Century. The idea of economics as an empirically based study of human behavior free of value judgments emerged in the Twentieth Century. Along with it came the notion of homo economicus<\/em>, human beings reduced in essence to rational self-interested utility calculators. Ethical considerations were pushed to the margins.<\/p>\nKnapp points to a Harvard Business Review article written by Albert Carr in 1969, called \u201cIs Business Bluffing Ethical?\u201d as emblematic of the present mindset. Carr proposed that business be seen much like a poker game with its own set of rules that might run contrary to traditional values in other aspects of our lives but that are acceptable inside the game. University level business ethics have tended to reinforce this perspective and have tended more toward helping students avoid creating the next Enron versus really grappling with deep moral issues. And while we have seen a move in recent decades to make the workplace more diverse along a number of demographic lines, religion in the workplace is still seen as something that should stay at home. Knapp writes:<\/p>\n
\u201cOur point here is that the cultures of many workplaces effectively relegate faith to the private, off-hours sphere, contributing to the individual\u2019s inner difficulty in holding these two worlds together.\u201d (7)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Heightening the tension is a reversal in the trend of the past two centuries toward compartmentalization. Work and business lives are becoming more integrated and there is growing hunger to know how to integrate them. Based on what I\u2019ve observed, I suspect the younger you are the more acutely this is felt. Unfortunately, Knapp observes:<\/p>\n
\u201cPrinceton researcher Robert Wuthnow finds that individuals\u2019 faith actually \u2018plays a more important role in guiding work than has generally been acknowledged,\u2019 but he sees that this influence is diminishing as Christianity becomes less a guide for living than a \u2018way of making us feel better about ourselves.\u2019\u201d (16)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On the whole, I think Knapp has summarized the landscape well. There are nuances I would add at places but that would go beyond the scope of the book. The world of business and economics creates barriers to the integration of faith and work. And that sets the stage for the next chapter, \u201cThe World of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Questions<\/p>\n
What barriers do you see to living out your faith in the workplace? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nIs it unrealistic to expect that the church could aid businesspeople with the decisions they make?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This post is the first in a series by this blog\u2019s good friend, Michael Kruse, who has his own very active blog. Tina Turner once asked \u201cWhat\u2019s love got to do with it?\u201d Today, many businesspeople are asking \u201cWhat\u2019s God got to do with it?\u201d For some, the question is a facetious way of saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1321],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>This post is the first in a series by this blog\u2019s good friend, Michael Kruse<\/a><\/strong>, who has his own very active blog.<\/p>\n