The Contributions of Labor Evangelicals

Labor evangelicals have the potential to upend accepted practices in evangelical institutions and labor organizations. The first challenge labor evangelicals could offer is a remedy to American evangelical worship of capitalism and idolatry to the Republican Party. Led by the example of labor evangelicals, evangelicals might grasp an alternative to blind acquiescence to unjust workplace demands. Evangelicals could model collective responses to unfavorable workplace situations as a supplement to the individualized faith practices usually urged upon evangelical workers. The second challenge labor evangelicals could offer is a new way of thinking about faithfulness. Rather than viewing the locus of faith solely within the confines of the church or evangelical institutions, labor evangelicals expand the practice of faithfulness to obedience to other God-given authorities such as labor unions and labor contracts. The third challenge labor evangelicals could offer is to the labor movement itself. While possessing grave misgivings about the larger social and political projects in which their unions also participate, labor evangelicals might still find common ground with non-evangelicals. This could occur while organizing for contract demands such as those found in Bargaining for the Common Good. Labor evangelicals could find common ground to agitate for the good of all.