Scholar Defines Faith-At-Work as a Social Movement

by Andrea Useem, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 1/24/2007

Do you wish your work had greater meaning? Or that your company allowed you time off to celebrate a non-Christian holiday, or encouraged you to raise ethical issues? These questions and others are driving the move toward opening the workplace to expressions of faith. A blizzard of titles in the last several years—everything from God Is My CEO to the Maxwell Leadership Bible—have offered advice on how to bring your spiritual and religious life to work.

It's easy to find inspirational and how-to books on the subject, but finding a book that makes sense of this social phenomenon has been more difficult. David Miller's God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement (Oxford, Jan.) tries to fill this gap, offering an academic explanation of why people don't want to leave their faith in the parking lot. His argument? Faith-at-work is a genuine American social movement, more than a hundred years in the making.

The age-old urge to imbue daily toil with religious purpose took the form of a social movement in the United States as early as 1890, writes Miller, when business and religious leaders pointed to the Gospel as a basis of social reform.

The present-day faith-at-work movement, which he dates back to 1985, is driven in part by the fact that most churches failed to connect their Christian message to the business world. As a result, people started their own small groups and organizations to meet their faith needs in the workplace. Also contributing to the faith-at-work movement are a rise in non-Western immigration and increasing religiosity among baby boomers, who now dominate the ranks of management.

Miller encourages businesses to accept this renewed interest in religion and spirituality by making "faith-friendly" policies, whether that means creating a special space for prayer or meditation, allowing employees to swap holiday time, or hiring a corporate chaplain. To those business leaders who fear that acknowledging faith simply means opening the door to proselytization, Miller says evangelism is only one piece of a four-part puzzle. People who want to bring their faith to work also want to improve corporate and personal ethics, find meaning in their work and enrich themselves through scripture study or fellowship with coworkers.

Just as companies now welcome and accommodate women, racial and ethnic minorities, and gay and lesbian workers, so they are coming to appreciate employees' religious backgrounds, according to Miller. "Many companies say, 'We're all about diversity.' What about spirituality? You can't say you want diversity in skin color only," he said.

Businesses can make themselves more attractive to potential employees by welcoming faith in its many forms, said Miller. In that way, "the corporate world can be one of the greatest agents for social change."