Evangelicals Are Workers Too

Evangelicals are workers too. They experience joy at work and find fulfillment through it. They get frustrated with it, feel despair at work, and ponder over the meaning of their efforts. They experience class and develop various forms of consciousness about class as a result of their labors. Evangelicals are often discussed in terms of politics and culture with an emphasis on the close relationship between evangelicalism and capitalism. Actual evangelicals in the workplace are neglected. Their labor and their class standing are overlooked. Work profoundly shapes the daily reality of evangelicals just as it does for everyone else. The neglect of evangelicals in the workplace bypasses their lived experience. Since they believe that the good news of the saving work of Jesus Christ encompasses every aspect of their lives including the workplace, their boss and the corporate hierarchy are also under the Lordship of Christ. An evangelical labor ethic arises from the workplace as workers address the contradictions between an unfettered work ethic and biblical teaching. While resisting authority in the workplace, they demonstrate new forms of faithful obedience. These labor evangelicals show they are not inextricably bound to servile obedience to authority in unjust and unsafe workplaces.