MAPPING THE SOCIAL LANDSCAPE 50 Civilize Them with a...
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MAPPING THE SOCIAL LANDSCAPE
50 – Civilize Them with a Stick (Mary Crow Dog, Richard Erdoes)
Mary crow Dog and Richard Erdoes reveal how the institution of education can be an
agent of social control whose purpose is to assimilate racial-ethnic populations, such as
Native Americans, into the dominant culture; Crow Dog is a Native American activist
and Erdoes is the ghostwriter of her autobiography
Even now, when the typical Indian boarding school are much improved, the shock to the
child upon arrival is still tremendous
In the old days, nature was our people‟s only school and they needed no other; life in the
tipi circle was harmonious – until the whiskey peddlers arrived with their wagons and
barrels of “Injun whiskey”
The schools were intended as an alternative to the outright extermination seriously
advocated by generals Sherman and Sheridan, as well as by most settlers and prospectors
overrunning our land; kids were taken away from their villages and pueblos, sometimes
for as long as ten years, and coming back, caricatures of white people; when they found
out that they were neither wanted by whites nor by Indians, they got good and drunk,
many of them staying drunk for the rest of their lives
The people who were stuck upon “solving the Indian Problem” by making us into whites
retreated from this position only step by step in the wake of Indian protests
The mission school at St. Francis was a curse for our family for generations; the school is
now run by the BIA – the Bureau of Indian Affairs; all I got out of school was being
taught how to pray; I did not escape my share of the leather strap
A strange young white girl named Wise was from New York and was the first real hippie
or Yippie we had come across; she told us of people called the Black Panthers, Young
Lords, and Weathermen; she said, “Black people are getting it on. Indians are getting it
on in St. Paul and California...Why don‟t you put out an underground paper, mimeograph
it”; we put together a newspaper which we called the Red Panther
Girls who were near-white, who came from what the nuns called “nice families,” got
preferential treatment; the school therefore fostered fights and antagonism between
whites and breeds, and between breeds and skins
52 – Bad Boys; Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity (Ann Arnett Ferguson)
Illustrates how schools socially produce and reproduce race and social class distinctions
in the U.S.; in so doing, schools are an important agent of social reproduction – they
socially reproduce social inequalities that maintain social stratification; schools also
produce and reproduce gender distinctions found in society
This selection examines the effects gender and racial stereotyping have on African
American school boys; Ferguson explores why African American boys are more labeled
as troublemakers than are other gender or racial-ethnic groups of children
What I observed at Rosa Parks during more than three years of fieldwork in the school,
heard from the boy Lamar himself, from his teachers, from his mother, made it clear that
just as children were tracked into futures as doctors, scientists, engineers, word
processors, and fast-food workers, there were also tracks for some children,
predominantly African American and male, that led to prison; this reading tells the story
of the making of these bad boys, not by members of the criminal justice system, on street
corners, or in shopping malls, or video arcades, but in and by school, through
punishment; it is an account of the power of institutions to create, shape, and regulate
social identities
In the course of my study it became clear that school labeling practices and the exercise
of rules operated as part of a hidden curriculum to marginalize and isolate black male
youth in disciplinary spaces and brand them as criminally inclined
Dreams
This reading began with an anecdote about the school‟s vice principal identifying a small
boy as someone who had a jail-cell with his name on it; I started with this story to
illustrate how school personnel made predictive decisions about a child‟s future based on
a whole ensemble of negative assumptions about African American males and their life-
chances; however, the boys themselves had a decidedly optimistic view about their future
As I scanned the written accounts of students‟ dreams, I became conscious of a striking
pattern; the overwhelming majority of the boys aspired to be professional athletes when
they grew up; the reasons they gave for this choice were remarkably similar: the sport
was something they were good at; it was work they would enjoy doing; and they would
make a lot of money
A survey by Northeastern University‟s Center for the Study of Sport in Society found that
two-thirds of African American males between the ages of thirteen and eighteen believe
they can earn a living playing professional sports; nor is this national pattern for black
youth really surprising; for African American males, disengagement from the school‟s
agenda for approval and success is a psychic survival mechanism; so imagining a future
occupation for which schooling seems irrelevant is eminently rational; a career as a
professional athlete represents the possibility of attaining success in terms of the
dominant society via a path that makes schooling seem immaterial, while at the same
time affirming central aspects of identification
For these youth efforts to attain high-status occupations through academic channels are
just as likely to fail, given the conditions of their schooling and the unequal distribution
of resources across school systems
Nightmares
School seems to feed into the prison system, but what exactly is the connection between
the two? There are serious, long-term effects of being labeled a Troublemaker that
substantially increase one‟s chances of ending up in jail
Time in the school dungeon means time lost from classroom learning; suspension, at
school or at home, has a direct and lasting negative effect on the continuing growth of a
child
There is a direct relationship between dropping out of school and doing time in jail: the
majority of black inmates in local, state, and federal penal systems are high school
dropouts; therefore, if we want to begin to break the ties between school and jail, we must
first create educational systems that foster kids‟ identification with school and encourage
them not to abandon it
One significant but relatively small step that could be taken to foster this attachment
would be to reduce the painful, inhospitable climate of school for African American
children through the validation and affirmation of Black English, the language form that
many of the children bring from home/neighbourhood; the legitimation of Black English
in the world of the school would not only enrich the curriculum but would undoubtedly
provide valuable lessons to all students about sociolinguistics and the contexts in which
standard and nonstandard forms are appropriate
There is also an immediate, ongoing connection between school and jail; schools mirror
and reinforce the practices and ideological systems of other institutions in the society; the
racial bias in the punishing systems of the school reflects the practices of the criminal
justice system
- A study done by Huizinga and Elliot demonstrates that the contrast in
incarceration statistics is the result of a different institutional response to the
race of the youth rather than the difference in actual behaviour; they compared
the delinquent acts individual youth admit to committing in annual self-report
interviews with actual police records of delinquency in the areas in which the
boys live; based on the self-reports, they conclude that there were few, if any,
differences in the number or type of delinquent acts perpetrated by the two
racial groups; what they did find, however, was that there was a substantially
and significantly higher risk that the minority youth would be apprehended and
charged for these acts by police than the whites who reported committing the
same kind of offenses
In both settings (the school and the prison), the images result in differential treatment
based on race; Jerome G. Miller, who has directed juvenile justice detention systems in
Massachusetts and Illinois, describes how this works:
- “For a white teenager to be labeled „dangerous,‟ he had to have done something
very serious indeed
Given the poisonous mix of stereotyping and profiling of black males, their chances of
ending up in the penal system as a juvenile is extremely high; the school experience of
African American boys is simultaneously replicated in the penal system through
processes of surveillance, policing, charges, and penalties
Open Endings
I stand convinced that a restructuring of the entire educational system is what is urgently
required if we are to produce the thoughtful, actively questioning citizens that Baldwin
describes in the epigraph to this chapter
19 – On Being Sane in Insane Places (David L. Rosehhan)
Deviance is the recognized violation of social norms; as norms cover a wide range of
human behaviour, deviant acts are plentiful in any given society; moreover, whether a
person is labeled deviant depends on how others perceive, define, and respond to that
person‟s behaviour
In this selection, David L. Rosenhan explores the social deviance of mental illness and
the consequences of labeling people “sane” or “insane”
Benedict suggested that normality and abnormality are not universal; what is viewed as
normal in one culture may be seen as quite aberrant in another; thus, notions of normality
and abnormality may not be quite as accurate as people believe they are
Murder is deviant; so, too, are hallucinations
The view has grown that psychological categorization of mental illness is useless at best
and downright harmful, misleading, and pejorative at worst; psychiatric diagnoses, in this
view, are in the minds of the observers and are not valid summaries of characteristics
displayed by the observed
Gains can be made in deciding which of these is more nearly accurate by getting normal
people (that is, people who do not have, and have never suffered, symptoms of serious
psychiatric disorders) admitted to psychiatric hospitals and then determining whether
they were discovered to be sane and, if so, how; if the sanity of such pseudopatients were
always detected, there would be prima facie evidence that a sane individual can be
distinguished from the insane context in which he is found; if, on the other hand, the
sanity of the pseudopatients were never discovered, such an unlikely outcome would
support the view that psychiatric diagnosis betrays little about the patient but much about
the environment in which an observer finds him
This article describes such an experiment; eight sane people gained secret admission to
twelve different hospitals
Pseudopatients and Their Settings
The eight pseudopatients were a varied group; three pseudopatients were women, five
were men
The pseudopatient arrived at the admissions office complaining that he had been hearing
voices; beyond alleging the symptoms and falsifying name, vocation, and employment,
no further alterations of person, history, or circumstances were made; the significant
events of the pseudopatient‟s life history were presented as they had actually occurred;
frustrations and upsets were described along with joys and satisfaction; these facts are
important to remember; if anything, they strongly biased the subsequent results in favour
of detecting sanity, since none of the pseudopatients‟ histories or current behaviours were
seriously pathological in any way
- Immediately upon admission to the psychiatric ward, the pseudopatient ceased
simulating any symptoms of abnormality; in some cases, there was a brief
period of mild nervousness and anxiety, since none of the pseudopatients really
believed that they would be admitted so easily
- Apart from that short-lived nervousness, the pseudopatient behaved on the ward
as he “normally” behaved
The pseudopatient, very much as a true psychiatric patient, entered a hospital with no
foreknowledge of when he would be discharged; each was told that he would have to get
out by his own devices, essentially by convincing the staff that he was sane; nursing
reports, which have been obtained on most of the patients indicate that all were
“friendly,” “cooperative,” and “exhibited no abnormal indications”
The Normal Are Not Detectably Sane
Despite their public “show” of sanity, the pseudopatients were never detected; admitted,
except in one case, with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, each was discharged with a
diagnosis of schizophrenia “in remission”; the evidence is strong that, once labeled
schizophrenic, the pseudopatient was stuck with that label; if the pseudopatient was to be
discharged, he must naturally be “in remission”; but he was not sane, nor, in the
institution‟s view, had he ever been sane
- It was quite common, however, for the patients to “detect” the pseudopatients‟
sainty; the fact that the patients often recognized normality when staff did not
raises important questions
Failure to detect sanity during the course of hospitalization may be due to the fact that
physicians operate with a strong bias toward what statisticians call the type 2 error; this is
to say that physicians are more inclined to call a healthy person sick (a false positive,
type 2) than a sick person healthy (a false negative, type 1); the reasons for this are not
hard to find: it is clearly more dangerous to misdiagnose illness than health
- But what holds for medicine does not hold equally well for psychiatry; medical
illnesses, while unfortunate, are not commonly pejorative; psychiatric
diagnoses, on the contrary, carry with them personal, legal, and social stigmas
The Stickiness of Psychodiagnostic Labels
Having once been labeled schizophrenic, there is nothing the pseudopatient can do to
overcome the tag; the tag profoundly colours others‟ perceptions of him and his
behaviour
Gestalt psychology made the point that elements are given by the context in which they
occur; Asch demonstrated that there are “central” personality traits (such as “warm”
versus “cold”) which are so powerful that they markedly colour the meanings of other
information in forming an impression of a given personality; “insane,” “schizophrenic,”
“manic-depressive,” and “crazy” are probably among the most powerful of such central
traits – once a person is designated abnormal, all of his other behaviours and
characteristics are coloured by that label
All pseudopatients took extensive notes publicly; if no questions were asked of the
pseudopatients of their constant note-taking, how was their writing interpreted? Nursing
records for three patients indicate that the writing was seen as an aspect of their
pathological behaviour; given that the patient is in the hospital, he must be
psychologically disturbed, and given that he‟s disturbed, continuous writing must be a
behavioural manifestation of that disturbance, perhaps a subset of the compulsive
behaviours that are sometimes correlated with schizophrenia
A psychiatric label has a life and an influence of its own; once the impression has been
formed that the patient is schizophrenic, the expectation is that he will continue to be
schizophrenic; when a sufficient amount of time has passed, during which the patient has
done nothing bizarre, he is considered to be in remission and available for discharge; but
the label endures beyond discharge, with the unconfirmed expectation that he will behave
as a schizophrenic again; such labels, conferred by mental health professionals, are as
influential on the patients as they are on his relatives and friends, and it should not
surprise anyone that the diagnosis acts on all of them as a self-fulfilling prophecy;
eventually, the patient himself accepts the diagnosis, with all of its surplus meanings and
expectations, and behaves accordingly
The Consequences of Labeling and Depersonalization
We have known for a long time that diagnoses are often not useful or reliable, but we
have nevertheless continued to use them; we now know that we cannot distinguish
insanity from sanity
Recall again that a “type 2 error” in psychiatric diagnosis does not have the same
consequences it does in medical diagnosis; a diagnosis of cancer that has been found to
be in error is cause for celebration; but psychiatric diagnoses are rarely found to be in
error; the label sticks, a mark of inadequacy forever
21 – Down on Main Street; Drugs and the Small-Town Vortex (Paul Draus; Robert G.
Carlson)
One type of social deviance, according to sociologists, is crime; if deviance is the
violation of a social norm, then a crime is the violation of social norms that have been
made into laws
One type of crime that sociologists have long studied is illegal drug use; why do
segments of the population use and abuse illegal drugs? What social factors contribute to
certain groups using drugs? Most sociological research has focused on urban areas and
drug use
Draus and Carlson examine the social networks of drug use in small-town America; they
utilize qualitative interviews and focus groups to gain an understanding of the
relationship between illicit drug use, social networks, and geographical location in rural
Ohio; Draus‟ and Carlson‟s ethnographic account of life and social marginalization in
this small town reveals that many social factors lead people to deal and use illegal drugs
Introduction: Small-Town America, Social Networks, and Substance Abuse
As Parr and Philo have expressed it, cities are seen as places where people are physically
proximate but socially distant, while in rural areas the situation is reversed
Small towns are symbolically equated with the presence of high social capital, with
“imagined geographies” of reciprocal care and control; they are often the unstated norm
that the “deviant” inner city is defined against; for this very reason, perhaps, studies that
focus on the relationship between social networks and “deviant” health behaviours in
small towns are few – the moral geography of small towns is idealized, and “deviant”
behaviours such as illicit drug dealing and using are defined as essentially “out of place”;
however, the community‟s belief in its own imperviousness to problems can cause them
to overlook signs of trouble that seem obvious in retrospect
Content, Composition, and Context
Is exposure to illicit drugs and subsequent drug use in rural areas primarily a result of
neighbourhood or community-level factors (context), or is it largely a function of the
individual psychologies or personalities that happen to prevail in this population
(composition)?
Pescosolido and Levy have argued that there are three crucial dimensions of social
networks: that of network structure, that of network content, and that of network
function; in the case of drug-using networks, the surface function (that of illicit drug
using) may itself form the basis of social relationships (content) that constitute the
network (structure); if these drug-using networks overlap significantly with other
networks, especially those of work, neighbourhood, and family, we might predict that an
individual‟s access or exposure to non-drug users would be much more limited; in such
cases, the tight social networks of the small town might in fact amplify such behaviours,
rather than constrain them
Qualitative research on the relationship between social networks and substance use
behaviour has also shown distinct differences across contexts
In a sense, these abstracted concepts of social networks, social capital, and social support
might all be seen as elements or dimensions of a larger whole, that complex and concrete
set of lived relations and associations that constitute social space; from this perspective,
the attempt to analytically separate social networks from the physical locations where
they occur is somewhat beside the point, as these are all constitutive parts of a seamless
human and social geography; this paper employs an ethnographic approach to explore
this geography, based on the first-hand accounts of current and former drug users and
dealers in small-town Ohio; we take the position that understanding peoples‟ subjective
“sense of place” is essential to understanding so-called “place effects”
Method, Research Sites, and Sample Selection
This data in this paper are drawn from an ethno-epidemiological study designed to
examines substance abuse practices, health care needs, barriers to obtaining care, and
service utilization patterns over a 5-year period; respondent-driven sampling was used to
identify and recruit 249 active users of powder cocaine, crack cocaine, or
methamphetamine from three rural countries in west Ohio
Most of the participants were men and the majority of participants were unemployed,
while another 14% were only employed on a part-time basis
Though the specifics were different, each town had its own areas that were considered
“the wrong side of the tracks” and informally marked as such; local residents would often
point to these areas – and the bars or “watering holes” within or around them – as
epicentres of illicit drug activity
Describing Networks and Area Effects: The “Vortex,” the “Hole,” and the “Web”
Malik, when asked to describe the small-town social environment, he responded with a
metaphor drawn from physics: “I call these towns a vortex”
Chuch used a biology metaphor of the spider web; the spider web is an appropriate
analogy for the paradoxical nature of social networks and social capital within the small
town; the web can represent safety and support, surrounding and protecting person; it
can also refer to multiple networks that link one to different social circles; on the other
hand, it can also be a trap that entangles and suffocates
Social Networks and Social Capital: “There’s Two Sides to Every Town”
Drug using, in Eve‟s experience, was often deeply embedded in local ties, both familial
and social
The intermingling of “crack subculture” with the tight-knit social networks in these
marginalized areas had particular implications for the distribution of the drug
Boredom: “There Really Is Nothing To Do Here”
In the interviews, many participants expressed the belief that the problem of drug abuse
in the small town was in fact worse than it was in big cities
Drug Availability: “It’s Really Probably Going on More Down Here...”
Theo said that the small-town drug scene was “too open”; he described the local people
as “followers” who were “ten years back” in terms of trends, but who desperately wanted
to prove how “rough” they were
Jason claimed that crack dealers openly referred to it as “a million dollar town,” and
migrated there specifically to make money off the locals, who were willing and able to
pay more for a lower quality product
Discussion
The idea that small towns and rural areas are somehow “outside” the influence of
substance abuse has always been somewhat of an illusion
The assertion that drug use, in part, results from a lack of other meaningful activities,
coupled with the availability and opportunity provided by social networks consisting
largely of active drug users
Some have attempted to psychologise boredom, while for others boredom may represent
the alienation or anomie of an underemployed working class
It is clear that rural location itself proved to be no barrier to accessing illicit drugs for
these individuals, including those who rarely left the small towns where they lived
On the other hand, the lack of anonymity in small towns may pose a barrier to accessing
care for stigmatized conditions; embedded patterns of rural sociality may actively deter
people from seeking care for fear of detection or judgment
A “paradoxical social network” is one that provides a strong source of identity and yet
actively confines the individual; these rural drug users seem to occupy such a
“paradoxical place” of familiarity and estrangement, their association with other users
reinforced by a common marginality within the small town geography
Though the barriers between “urban” and “rural” areas are as porous and fluid as ever
they have been, these interviews reveal that many people within small towns still live
intensely local lives, and that place-bound associations actively shape their thoughts and
behaviours
44 – The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Max Weber)
The institution of religion is the topic of the following three selections; sociologists have
long studied how religion affects the social structure and the personal experience of
individuals in society; Max Weber, for example, often placed the institution of religion at
the center of his social analyses; Weber was particularly concerned with how changes in
the institution of religion influenced changes in other social institutions, especially the
economy
The selection excerpted here is from Weber‟s definitive and most famous study, The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; in his analysis of capitalism, Weber argues
that the early Protestant worldviews of Calvinism and Puritanism were the primary
factors in influencing the development of a capitalist economic system; without the
Protestant Reformation and a change in societal values toward rationality, capitalism
would not have evolved as we know it today
In modern times the Occident has developed, in addition to this, a very different form of
capitalism which has appeared nowhere else: the rational capitalistic organization of
(formally) free labour
Rational industrial organization, attuned to a regular market, and neither to political nor
irrationally speculative opportunities for profit, is not, however, the only peculiarity of
Western capitalism; the modern rational organization of the capitalistic enterprise would
not have been possible without two other important factors in its development: the
separation of business from the household, which completely dominates modern
economic life, and closely connected with it, rational bookkeeping...; it is rather the
origin of this sober bourgeois capitalism with its rational organization of free labour; or in
terms of cultural history, the problem which is certainly closely connected with that of
the origin of the capitalistic organization of labour, but is not quite the same thing
Now the peculiar modern Western form of capitalism has been, at first sight, strongly
influenced by the development of technical possibilities; the development of these
sciences and of the technique resting upon them now receives important stimulation from
these capitalistic interests in its practical economic application; however, calculation,
even with decimals, and algebra have been carried on in India, where the decimal system
was invented – but it was only made use of by developing capitalism in the West, while
in India it led to no modern arithmetic or book-keeping
Among those of undoubted importance are the rational structures of law and of
administration; for modern rational capitalism has need, not only of the technical means
of production, but of a calculable legal system and of administration in terms of formal
rules; however, why did not the capitalistic interests do the same in China or India? Why
did not the scientific, the artistic, the political, or the economic development there enter
upon that path of rationalization which is peculiar to the Occident?
For in all the above cases it is a question of the specific and peculiar rationalism of
Western culture
To approach the side of the problem which is generally most difficult to grasp is: the
influence of certain religious ideas on the development of an economic spirit, or the ethos
of an economic system; in this case we are dealing with the connection of the spirit of
modern economic life with the rational ethics of ascetic Protestantism
- That side of English Puritanism which was derived from Calvinism gives the
most consistent religious basis for the idea of the calling; not leisure and
enjoyment, but only activity serves to increase the glory of God according to he
definite manifestations of His will
But the most important thing was that even beyond that labour came to be considered in
itself the end of life, ordained as such by God; St. Paul‟s “He who will not work shall not
eat” hold unconditionally for everyone; unwillingness to work is symptomatic of the lack
of grace
For everyone without exception God‟s Providence has prepared a calling, which he
should profess and in which he should labour; and this calling is not, as it was for the
Lutheran, a fate to which he must submit and which he must make the best of, but God‟s
commandment to the individual to work for the divine glory
It is true that the usefulness of a calling, and thus its favour in the sight of God, is
measured primarily in moral terms, but a further criterion is found in private
profitableness; the superior indulgence of the seigneur and the parvenu ostentation of the
nouveau riche are equally detestable to asceticism; but it has the highest ethical
appreciation of the sober, middle-class, self-made man
This worldly Protestant asceticism, as we may recapitulate up to this point, acted
powerfully against the spontaneous enjoyment of possessions; it restricted consumption,
especially of luxuries
As far as the influence of the Puritan outlook extended, under all circumstances it
favoured the development of a rational bourgeois economic life; it was the most
important, and above all the only consistent influence in the development of that life
John Wesley said, “I fear, wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has
decreased in the same proportion. Therefore I do not see how it is possible, in the nature
of things, for any revival of true religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily
produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches...We ought not
to prevent people from being diligent and frugal; we must exhort all Christians to gain all
they can, and to save all they can; that is, in effect, to grow rich
The full economic effect of those great religious movements, whose significance for
economic development lay above all in their ascetic educative influence, generally came
only after the peak of the purely religious enthusiasm was past; then the intensity of the
search for the Kingdom of God commenced gradually to pass over into sober economic
virtue; the religious roots died out slowly, giving way to utilitarian worldliness
One of the fundamental elements of the spirit of modern capitalism, and not only of that
but of all modern culture: Rational conduct on the basis of the idea of the calling, was
born from the spirit of Christian asceticism; one has only to reread the passage from
Franklin “time is money” in order to see that the essential elements of the attitude which
was there called the spirit of capitalism are the same as what we have just shown to be the
content of the Puritan worldly asceticism
Since asceticism undertook to remodel the world and to work out its ideals in the world,
material goods have gained an increasing and finally an inexorable power over the lives
of men as at no previous period in history; today the spirit of religious asceticism has
escaped from the cage
46 – Faith at Work (Russell Shorto)
In the tradition of Max Weber, who examined how the institution of religion influenced
changes in the economy, this excerpt by Russell Shorto similarly investigates this
relationship; in the U.S., a growing number of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians
are starting businesses they designate to be “Christian” workplaces; many of these people
identify themselves as marketplace Christians who operate their business as they think
the Bible would tell them to; Shorto interviews the people involved in running a Christian
book
The Riverview Community Bank opened as a “Christian financial institution,” with a
Bible buried in the foundation and the worlds “In God We Trust” engraved in the
cornerstone; if you ask Chuch Ripka who works there, they explain the bank‟s success by
saying that Jesus Christ has blessed them because they are obedient to his will; Jesus told
them to take his word out of the church and bring it to where people interact: the
marketplace
Thousands of businesses and other entities, from one-man operations to global
corporations to divisions of the federal government, have made room for Christianity on
the job, and in some cases have oriented themselves completely around Christian
precepts
To listen to marketplace pastors (like Chuch Ripka), you would think churches were
almost passé; for them work is the place, and Jesus is the antidote to both cubicle
boredom and Enron-style malfeasance; they integrate faith and work
With traditional institutions fragmenting and many people both hungry for spiritual
guidance and spending more time at work than ever, it was perhaps inevitable that the job
site would become a kind of new church
The idea of corporations dominated by a particular religious faith has a hint of
oppressiveness, a “Taliban Inc.” Aspect; some friction may come from the insistence of
marketplace Christians on seeing offices and factories as arenas for evangelism;
converting others, after all, is what being an evangelical Christian is all about; one tenet
listed in the Riverview Community Bank‟s first annual report is to “use the bank‟s
Christian principles to expand Christianity”
The first thing to know about Chuck Ripka is that he says Jesus talks to him – actually
speaks to him, calling him “Chuck”; many Christian business owners and residents say
they consider him to be not only a community leader and an expert in small-business
loans but also a conduit of the divine, a genuine holy man
However, while quite a few people look to him as a spiritual leader, his own faith is
based not on a denomination‟s core doctrine so much as on inner voices and convictions
Thanks to the value American law places on religious expression, proselytizing on the job
is perfectly legal, even in a government workplace, even when it‟s the boss who is doing
the pushing
A major response in this country (U.S.) to Islamic terrorism has been a rippling of
Christian muscle; the workplace-ministry phenomenon, too, seems to have gained
momentum since 9/11