Work Another Substitute for Religion?

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National Public Radio recently aired an interesting interview with Carolyn Chen, sociologist and professor of ethnic studies at University of California at Berkeley. She’s the author of “Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley.”

Studying the culture of Silicon Valley, she discovered that work there had become a religion for many employees.

For them, she writes, "the workplace was the last meaningful institution standing. It was an institution that offered the best means for meaning, identity, belonging and purpose."

 Her book appears to extend that observation to a broader workplace, according to the online summary on NPR, proclaiming that “subtlety but unmistakably, work is replacing religion.” It notes another, similar story in the New York Times with the title, "When Your Job Fills in for Your Faith, That's a Problem."

 A Bit Exaggerated 

 First off, the demise of religious faith may be a bit exaggerated. This from the Gallup Poll website: “According to an average of all 2021 Gallup polling, about three in four Americans said they identify with a specific religious faith. By far the largest proportion, 69%, identify with a Christian religion, including 35% who are Protestant, 22% Catholic and 12% who identify with another Christian religion or simply as a ‘"Christian.’"

 But according to the NPR summary of the Chen article, "Plenty of writers have argued in recent years that work has become a false idol, with the office, not church, the place where many Americans now seek out meaning and purpose."

 One of the Silicon Valley employees interviewed, who said she was “raised an atheist,” described how her work in the Everglades and in nanoplastics fulfills her.

“I am currently agnostic. And I find spirituality in the world around me, and understanding the world and feeling like I'm alive and I'm able to comprehend … about the environment around me. I think that, in and of itself, leaves me awestruck and that awe is really my sense of spirituality. Because I feel it in very specific moments, in a very intense way.”

In return for their workers’ devotion, according to the NPR broadcast, “companies take care of their every need.

"It's very easy to drink the Kool-Aid, as it were," says one observer. "It's very easy to be sucked into, ‘Oh, just do all of the things that have been planned out for you.’"

 And because of the relationship between traditional religious affiliations and participation in public institutions, the flip side of that corporate care is “public brokenness, where you have people withdrawing from the political system, disengagement from the public. That is a public problem," says Chen.

In my view, Silicon Valley is hardly a reflection of workplace culture in general, but it’s plausible that that experience may be reflected in work more broadly. Silicon Valley seems to be a special place, and I’m glad that workers there and elsewhere are finding fulfillment. Still, I can’t help but believe they are enamored of the sizzle instead of the steak.

Religion a Relationship with God

In my view, religion is a relationship with God and others and not a matter of “feelings” about work or other human activity. Yes, religion is about both emotions and rationality, but feelings alone are unreliable. They come and go, as with what happens when companies “downsize” and people lose their jobs.

As with the trendiness of “spiritual but not religious” declarations, I often wonder about the thoughtfulness of statements such as those that indicate substitutes for religion. It appears to be mostly a laissez faire thing, with more thought given to buying patio furniture than to questions about God’s existence or the possibility of a relationship to God or the basis for a fraternal relationship with others.

There may be good reasons for doubt about God and religion, but the rational approach to such doubt, seems to me, is study and prayer. Trendiness should have no more input than it would in considering who your spouse or best friend should be. And the wisdom and experience of billions of believers over thousands of years should have some influence.