|
MAY 16, 2005
BUSINESS
Religion in the workplace: Asset or debit?
Debate over the
role of faith in the workplace is roiling and transforming American society
as much as any other "public square" religion issue today. Experts
say the phenomenon could have a greater long-term impact on the public role
of religion than high-profile controversies such as school prayer or displays
of the Ten Commandments.
A wide spectrum
of Americans sees a positive role for religion in the workplace at a time when
morals and ethics are viewed as declining. The Workplace Religious Freedom Act,
which offers increased protections for religious employees, was just reintroduced
in both houses of Congress with strong bipartisan support. Yet tricky tensions
arise over questions of "how far": How far must companies go to accommodate
religious employees' practices in an increasingly diverse country? How far can
workers go in expressing their faith without unlawfully imposing their beliefs
on others? And how far must employees go to prove discrimination based on religion
- their own or lack thereof, or others'?
Some companies
try to limit religious expression on company time and property. But a growing
number are fostering expressions of faith by providing time and space for employees
to gather or by explicitly making faith an integral part of their business philosophy.
At the same time, a growing number of Christian ministries are urging members
to live out their faith at work.
The resulting tensions
are seen in the growing number of workplace bias reports on religion filed with
the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The 2004
figures, posted in March 2005, show that complaints have increased 27 percent
across five years and 40 percent in the past decade.
Why it Matters
Whatever the story hook - conflict or consensus - the intersection of religion
and work is a critical element in the growing national conversation about faith,
for several reasons:
• Americans are working more and are increasingly assertive about their
right to express their faith in public. Experts say the office has become the
main "laboratory" for testing the boundaries of what is an acceptable
role for religion in social discourse.
• The water cooler has become the new public square, and thus one of the
main arenas for learning about other faiths in the United States' increasingly
pluralistic society.
• The recent spate of corporate scandals has prompted soul-searching by
Americans and by American businesses about ways to make the marketplace more
ethical. At the same time, the marketplace is more global, encompassing a growing
number of faiths.
Skip to background
|
Click
the map for interview sources
in your state and region
|
|
National sources
• David
W. Miller is executive director of the Yale
Center for Faith and Culture and an assistant professor of business ethics
at Yale Divinity School. He also leads the center's Ethics and Spirituality in
the Workplace program. He is an ordained Presbyterian minister with a degree from
Princeton Divinity School and is a prominent author and commentator of the growing
nexus between work and faith. Contact 203-432-8669, david.w.miller@yale.edu.
• Douglas A. Hicks is associate professor of leadership studies and religion
and director of the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement at the University of Richmond.
Hicks is an ordained Presbyterian minister and author of Religion and the Workplace:
Pluralism, Spirituality, Leadership (Cambridge University, 2003). He is a
leading commentator on issues of faith and work and can speak to the impact of
the growing presence of women in the marketplace. Contact 804-484-1601, dhicks@richmond.edu.
• Judi Neal heads the Association
for Spirit at Work, a professional association for people trying to live out
their faith in the workplace. Contact 203-467-9084, judi@spiritatwork.org.
• Nancy Smith of eastern Massachusetts runs WorkplaceSpirituality.info,
a web site devoted to ways to integrate the spirituality of people of all faiths
into the workplace. Her web site is a one-person ministry, an appointment by her
United Methodist bishop; read an explanation.
She is also the author of Workplace Spirituality: A Complete Guide for Business
Leaders (Axial Age Publishing, 2006).Contact 978-977-7785, smithnrs@comcast.net.
• Richard Barrett
is a North Carolina-based consultant who speaks to groups about how bringing spirituality
into the workplace can improve business achievement. Contact 828-452-5050, richard@corptools.com.
• Bruce N. Cameron is an attorney with the National
Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and specializes in religious liberty
cases involving employees who have religious objections to joining unions or to
financially supporting specific social policies of the unions. Contact 800-336-3600
or 703-321-8510, bnc@nrtw.org.
• The Becket Fund for
Religious Liberty is a public-interest law firm that protects the free expression
of all religious traditions. The Becket Fund is based in Washington, D.C. Contact
Kelly J. Torrance at 202-349-7202, ktorrance@becketfund.org.
• Mathew D. Staver is president and general counsel of Liberty
Counsel, a civil liberties education and legal defense organization specializing
in freedom of speech and religious freedom and based in Orlando, Fla. Contact
407-875-2100, liberty@lc.org.
WORKPLACE
MINISTRIES
• The International Coalition
of Workplace Ministries is a leading association for Christians who want
to bring their faith into the workplace. Contact Os Hillman at 678-455-6262,
os@icwm.net.
• The Dallas-based Marketplace
Ministries has provided businesses across the country with Christian chaplaincy
services since 1984. It employs more than a thousand chaplains around the country.
Contact Art Stricklin at 972-385-7657, art.stricklin@marketplaceministries.com.
CHRISTIAN
SOURCES
• The American Center for
Law and Justice in Washington, D.C., is a leading religious legal advocacy
group that frequently litigates on behalf of Christians who believe that they
have been discriminated against at work. Jay Sekulow heads the ACLJ. Contact
through Gene Kapp, 757-226-2489, kappcom@mindspring.com.
• Gregory S. Baylor directs the Christian
Legal Society's Center
for Law and Religious Freedom and serves as chief litigation counsel for
Religious Liberty Advocates. Contact 703-642-1070, gbaylor@clsnet.org.
• Alan E. Sears is president of and legal counsel for the Alliance
Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization that defends religious freedom.
ADF is based in Scottsdale, Ariz. Contact 1-800-835-5233, asears@alliancedefensefund.org
or info@telladf.org.
• James Standish is director of legislative affairs for the Public
Affairs and Religious Liberty Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
He is an expert in church-state issues, including workplace bias concerns, and
he is based in Silver Spring, Md. Contact 301-680-6683, standishj@gc.adventist.org.
JEWISH
SOURCES
• The Anti-Defamation
League, based in New York, tracks discrimination based on religion. It has
a list of regional
offices.
• Mark Stern co-directs the Commission on Law and Social Action of the
American Jewish Congress
in Washington, D.C., and headed the committee that drafted Guidelines on
Religious Exercise and Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace. Contact
212-879-4500 ext. 445, mstern@ajcongress.org.
MUSLIM
SOURCES
• The Council on American-Islamic
Relations is a leading anti-discrimination group. It is based in Washington,
D.C., and releases an annual survey on bias incidents. The latest survey shows
that workplace incidents remain the second most frequent types of complaints
CAIR receives. Contact Rabiah Ahmed at 202-488-8787 ext. 3243, rahmed@cair-net.org.
Also see a list
of state and regional chapters.
• The Muslim Public Affairs
Council is a leading Islamic advocacy group with offices in New York and
Los Angeles. Contact communications director Edina Lekovic at 202-547-7701,
communications@mpac.org.
• The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee works to stop discrimination against Muslims. Contact communications
director Laila Al-Qatami at 202-244-2990, lalqatami@adc.org.
SIKH
SOURCES
• The Sikh American Legal
Defense and Education Fund (formerly Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force,
or SMART) is a leading Sikh civil rights and advocacy group. Contact national
director Preetmohan
Singh, 202-393-2700, info@saldef.org.
• The Sikh
Coalition is a New York-based advocacy group that organized in the wake
of 9/11 and the bias incidents against Sikhs that followed the attacks. Contact
legal director Amardeep Singh, 917-628-0091, amardeep.singh@sikhcoalition.org.
PAGAN,
ATHEIST SOURCES
• Ellen Johnson is president of American
Atheists, based in New Jersey. Contact 973-334-5110, info@atheists.org,
or call national spokesman Ron Barrier, 718-967-6453. For other sources in the
secularist community, see a Nov. 18, 2002, edition of ReligionLink, "Getting
out from 'Under God': Atheists' impact on religion."
• The Pagan Pride Project
in Indianapolis posts information about pagans
in the workplace. Contact Cecylyna Dewr at 317-916-9115, dagonet@paganpride.org.
Also, Anne Newkirk Niven
is editor of several neo-pagan magazines and is based in Point Arena, Calif.
She can discuss issues of workplace bias. Contact 707-882-2052, info@sagewoman.com.
An Oct. 11, 2004, ReligionLink edition, "Wicca
moves into the mainstream," also has resources.
Background
THE
LAW AND CURRENT LEGISLATION
• Check the status of the Workplace
Religious Freedom Act of 2005 and read its wording. Search by bill number
for the House version, HR 1445, and the Senate version, S 677.
• Title VII
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires businesses to "reasonably
accommodate" the religious practices of their employees. There are certain
exemptions, such as if the requirements would impose an "undue hardship"
on the company. This is often a judgment call that frequently results in complaints
to the EEOC or in civil litigation.
• The federal Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission is charged with enforcing laws related to workplace
discrimination, including those
related to religion. Contact 202-663-4900.
• Read an Anti-Defamation
League article about religious accommodation in the workplace.
• Read an Employer's
Guide to Religious Accommodation in the Workplace published by the Sikh American
Legal Defense and Education Fund.
• Read ReligiousTolerance.org's
timeline of workplace religious discrimination legislative and court activity
since 1977.
SOCIOLOGICAL
FACTORS
Experts tend to focus on three major developments:
• Immigration reform of the 1960s opened the doors to millions of people
of religious backgrounds that are much different from what most Americans were
accustomed to. Today, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists and a host of other religionists
populate the workplace and are bringing their respective religious garbs, diets
and other practices with them. An adjunct to this trend is the fallout from
the Sept. 11 attacks and the Bush administration's military campaign against
violent Islamists. Muslims in America say they often feel targeted by prejudice
as a result of these developments, and the workplace is a significant arena
where these tensions play out.
• The growing popularity of new forms of religious observance, and the
confusion about how and whether to accommodate them in the workplace. Wiccans,
religious reconstructionists, neo-pagans and all manner of new "boutique"
religions are unknown to the vast majority of Americans, as well as their supervisors
at work. It also appears that limits are emerging on recognizing some religions.
In one of the more curious cases, the recently-minted Church
of Body Modification claims that its members should have religious protection
to wear tattoos and piercings on the job. So far, the courts have not agreed,
though new cases are always cropping up.
• The emergence of evangelical Christians into mainstream American culture.
While the focus is often on the role of Christian conservatives in politics,
evangelicals are also increasingly engaged in the culture as a whole, and the
evangelical priority on witnessing to one's faith can be a flashpoint in the
office. Experts note that it is not just evangelicals who speak openly about
their faith, however. Americans as a whole have grown much more accustomed than
they ever used to be about speaking openly with others on matters of faith and
spirituality - whatever their tradition may be.
ARTICLES
• Read a March
18, 2005, New York Sun article about the reintroduction in Congress
of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act.
• Read a March
12, 2005, Washington Post story about 30 Dell employees who walked
off their jobs after being told they couldn't pray according to Muslim practice.
• Read a Feb.
1, 2005, Boston Globe story about conflicts over religion in the
workplace.
• Read a Jan. 28, 2005, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly cover story,
"Faith
in the Workplace." At the bottom of the report are a number of useful
links for further research.
• Read a Jan.
31, 2005, U.S. News & World Report story on the growth of workplace
chaplains.
• Read a Jan.
9, 2005, Charlotte Observer story about religion in the workplace.
It's posted by the Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy.
• Read a Feb.
18, 2005, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette feature on the role of faith
at Tyson Foods Inc., the largest meat company in the world.
• An Oct.
31, 2004, New York Times magazine article (payment required to view)
by Russell Shorto, "Faith at Work," examines the growth of Christian-oriented
businesses.
• Read an October 2004 article in the New Hampshire Business Review,
"Tattoos
& Body Piercing: Avoiding Employment Discrimination Claims," that
summarizes the latest state of case law on claims such as those of the Church
of Body Modification.
• Read a Dec.
7, 2004, CharismaNOW wire service story about Chick-fil-A President Dan
Cathy, who tries to incorporate Christian teachings into the work ethic of his
huge and popular business, including closing his fast-food outlets on Sundays.
• Read a May
6, 2003, Religion News Service story about the Workplace Religious Freedom
Act. It's posted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
SURVEYS
AND RESEARCH
• Read a 2001
study by the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding and the Society
for Human Resource Management on growing religious diversity in the workplace.
This study is the most comprehensive examination of the topic available.
• Read an Aug. 27, 2002, Gallup survey, "Religion
for Corporate America" (subscriber only), which shows that almost two-thirds
of people in the work force think expressions of religion would be either tolerated
or encouraged at their place of work. The remaining third (34 percent) say such
expressions would be discouraged. Eight in 10 say they personally believe that
open expressions of religion should be tolerated or encouraged. One in five
(21 percent) say such expressions should be discouraged.
• Read a list of "factoids"
posted by the International Coalition of Workplace Ministries detailing trends,
statistics and emerging issues on faith in the workplace.
• The American
Religious Identification Survey, conducted under the auspices of The Graduate
Center of the City University of New York, tracks shifts in proportions of the
U.S. religious makeup. Key
findings include that the proportion of the population that can be classified
as Christian has declined from 86 percent in 1990 to 77 percent in 2001.
|
