You are quite right to point out the danger of angling to correct societal flaws via a “replace the ?wrong? people with the ?right? people” approach. Since I’m an analyst in the power industry and have priced a lot of deals with Enron, I couldn’t help myself from pulling out the old Novak quote! This was done as part of a broader theme within the article to intentionally point out the sheer fallen humanity in all of us, thus the playful tugging at poor Jack, myself, corporate leaders and students.
Your note rings true ddroog – the intersection between Christian worldview and social/business travails is very very important, but fraught with difficulty and quick fix solutions. Christian employers and employees often make very poor representations of their faith by applying it in preverse ways.
E.g:
Firing people because they are not Xn
Hiring people solely because they are Xn
Disregarding employment standards because all the employees are from the same local church congregation
Xn employers telling Xn employees not to rock the boat when workplace grief occurs because it wouldn’t reflect well on the church
Xn businesses that make profitable, but poorly rendered products and services
Xn business owners who evangelize/hound their non-Xn employees to the point of quitting
Xn organizations that do not have adequate independent internal evaluations of senior leadership – b/c "we all Xns here and therefore bad stuff won’t happen in our organization’’.
The primary point of my brief article was to underscore the need for Christians to think very deeply about the role of faith in business. Nowhere else in society is the true character of our faith more evident on an hourly, day-by-day basis, than with our colleagues in the workplace. Whether Chrisitans realize it or not, their approach to life, norms and values are on public display 24×7. Therefore what a great opportunity to contribute to a better world and simultaneously maginify Christ’s love by the direction we target our work enterprises and the manner in which we employ those around us! But all this requires a deep well-thought vision of the purpose of Business in the context of God’s coming Kingdom.
Heh Kirstin – check this out ! My first post and I’ve left enough openings to get trampled repeatedly (and lovingly!) – by cino-folks everywhere!!
mmloenen
Mar 05 2003
04:21 pm
Heh there dddroog!
You are quite right to point out the danger of angling to correct societal flaws via a “replace the ?wrong? people with the ?right? people” approach. Since I’m an analyst in the power industry and have priced a lot of deals with Enron, I couldn’t help myself from pulling out the old Novak quote! This was done as part of a broader theme within the article to intentionally point out the sheer fallen humanity in all of us, thus the playful tugging at poor Jack, myself, corporate leaders and students.
Your note rings true ddroog – the intersection between Christian worldview and social/business travails is very very important, but fraught with difficulty and quick fix solutions. Christian employers and employees often make very poor representations of their faith by applying it in preverse ways.
E.g:
Firing people because they are not Xn
Hiring people solely because they are Xn
Disregarding employment standards because all the employees are from the same local church congregation
Xn employers telling Xn employees not to rock the boat when workplace grief occurs because it wouldn’t reflect well on the church
Xn businesses that make profitable, but poorly rendered products and services
Xn business owners who evangelize/hound their non-Xn employees to the point of quitting
Xn organizations that do not have adequate independent internal evaluations of senior leadership – b/c "we all Xns here and therefore bad stuff won’t happen in our organization’’.
The primary point of my brief article was to underscore the need for Christians to think very deeply about the role of faith in business. Nowhere else in society is the true character of our faith more evident on an hourly, day-by-day basis, than with our colleagues in the workplace. Whether Chrisitans realize it or not, their approach to life, norms and values are on public display 24×7. Therefore what a great opportunity to contribute to a better world and simultaneously maginify Christ’s love by the direction we target our work enterprises and the manner in which we employ those around us! But all this requires a deep well-thought vision of the purpose of Business in the context of God’s coming Kingdom.
Heh Kirstin – check this out ! My first post and I’ve left enough openings to get trampled repeatedly (and lovingly!) – by cino-folks everywhere!!