Going Up—Theology and the Elevator Industry

If there is one biblical principle that nearly everyone in the United States can recognize, it is that racism goes against God’s will. (See Gen. 1:27 and Gal. 3:28 for a refresher.) So when a trade publication publishes a blog post about racism in their industry, voila, you have a faith and work article in the secular press.

That makes “Elevator World” the latest theological journal. Their January 19th post “Whites Only: Segregated Elevators During Jim Crow” by Hanno van der Bijl conducts an industrial self-assessment that brings a new meaning to the term “vertically challenged.” Says the author, “Elevators are simply machines. They lift people up and bring them down to a nice gentle stop, but only humans could use them as a tool to put another down.”

Think you’re not interested in the moral history of elevators? Think again–the post is fascinating. I dare you to try to stop reading in the middle. (Full disclosure–the author is a colleague of mine on the Theology of Work Project.)

Of course, publishing one blog post on the moral ups and downs of the elevator industry isn’t turning “Elevator World” into “The Journal of Moral Theology.” But how many trade magazines conduct moral self-assessments at all? And, as I said at the beginning, if there’s one overriding biblical/theological issue in the United States, it’s racism. Imagine if there were someone in every industry willing to bring a bit of theological perspective into an issue everyone in the trade could understand. Faith at work, anyone?