Don Byrd, in his blog on religious liberty issues, entitled Blog from the Capital, has posted two articles on religious freedom at work in the past week. Byrd writes from a faith perspective that supports the separation of church and state.

His first article was on the introduction of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act last week.

As I posted last week, the Congress is also considering an important step in the Workplace Religious Freedom Act just introduced. That legislation is supported by a number of religious liberty advocacy groups including the Baptist Joint Committee.

The second article was a comment on a  Dallas Morning News  (17 Mar 2007, P. 56 ) story featuring David Miller's book "God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement". (See article below). Byrd asks the question: Is Workplace Religion the New Civil Right?

Over the weekend, the Dallas Morning-News ran a Religion News Service piece on the growing issue of religion in the workplace. The starting point is a recent book entitled God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement by David Miller, executive director of Yale University's Center for Faith and Culture.

This faith-at-work movement, Mr. Miller said, will ultimately shape business culture as profoundly as the push for civil rights and equal pay shaped the environment for minority workers and women.

A part of this change in culture is an awareness of the legal protections that already exist:

[E]mployers may be surprised to learn how much religious expression is legally protected in the workplace by the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating on religious grounds. The law also requires them to make "reasonable accommodations" for employees' "sincerely held beliefs."

Faith is latest type of diversity in workplace
Movement is varied, powerful, author says

Employers, take this quiz: Did you know that Hindu, Sikh and Jain workers may want a three-day weekend this November to celebrate Diwali? Or that one worker urging another to accept Christ as a personal savior is a legally protected act?

When it comes to recognizing diversity in the workplace, first there was race, then gender and ethnicity, then sexual orientation. Now religion is knocking at the door, and according to some experts and practitioners, it’s here to stay...

This faith-at-work movement, Mr. Miller said, will ultimately shape business culture as profoundly as the push for civil rights and equal pay shaped the environment for minority workers and women.

Outside of churches

Much of the faith-at-work movement has evolved outside the church, in part because churches in recent decades have been uninterested in — if not hostile toward — the business world, according to Mr. Miller.

“Although there are pockets of interest in some churches, it’s fair to say that churches, whether evangelical, mainline Protestant or Catholic, have abdicated their theological and pastoral interest in the workplace,” he said.

A thriving evangelical culture is reversing this trend, however. David Roth was a vice president at J.B. Hunt Transport when he attended a leadership conference at his Arkansas megachurch several years ago.

After the conference, Mr. Roth’s pastor announced that he was creating a ministry to bridge the gap between faith and work.

“That message penetrated me like a laser beam. I spent 25 years of my career as Christian on Sunday, but come Monday it was all about success and money,” Mr. Roth said. When the church ministry was spun off to form a separate, nonprofit organization called WorkMatters, Mr. Roth quit his job to become its first president.

Today WorkMatters helps companies integrate religion and spirituality into their corporate values and provides employees with a template for starting faith-based groups at work.

‘A part of everything’

Business is booming at Dallas-based Marketplace Chaplains USA, which provides chaplains to companies. When the nonprofit organization opened its doors in 1984, it got one new client every four months. These days, it takes only six days.

“Religion is very much a part of everything,” said Gil Stricklin, Marketplace’s founder and chief executive. “It’s going to continue to grow” in the workplace.

Marketplace’s chaplains don’t preach the Gospel. Instead, they help employees with everything from funerals and weddings to hospital visits. Every week, they make more than 1,400 visits to clients’ offices.

“We go to the workplace to take care of people,” Mr. Stricklin said. “Today, 70 percent of the workforce does not have a relationship with a clergy person.”

Marketplace chaplains can be found at offices and factories in 635 cities in 41 states. They serve companies in 45 industries.

Increasingly, larger businesses are signing up. Marketplace’s biggest client is Pittsburg-based Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., the nation’s largest chicken company.

Some companies worry that bringing religion into the workplace may open them up to litigation, said Georgette Bennett, president of the New York-based Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.

Legal concerns

But employers may be surprised to learn how much religious expression is legally protected in the workplace by the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating on religious grounds. The law also requires them to make “reasonable accommodations” for employees’ “sincerely held beliefs.”

According to an executive action paper from the Conference Board, a business research organization based in New York, employees can, within limits, wear religious medallions or clothing, argue with one another about religious beliefs and even hand out literature advising co-workers they will burn in hell unless they change their ways. An employer cannot force a Muslim woman to remove her head scarf on the presumption that it might make customers uncomfortable.

Another contentious issue is what Ms. Bennett calls “diversity backlash,” in the form of Christian employee groups opposing domestic partner benefits, refusing to sign diversity statements that include homosexuality or asking management not to recognize gay employee groups.

University of San Francisco sociologist Nicole Raeburn says many of these disputes have been successfully resolved, sometimes with the help of outside mediators.

“People have a right to their religious beliefs, but they can’t create a hostile work environment because of them,” she said. “When companies have been very clear about drawing that line, it seems to defuse the tension.”

I have written several articles on Religious Freedom at Work at the Faith at Work Blog.

• Contrasting Examples of How Companies Handle Religious Diversity in the Workforce
• Ireland Discovering Workplace Diversity Managed Well is Good For Business
• Theocracy Hysteria Must Not Stop Us Taking Faith to Work   
• Christian Rights in the Workplace

Tags: Faith At Work Movement, religion in the workplace, Workplace Religion, Faith At Work, civil rights, religious expression, Workplace Diversity, religious accomodation.

I just received an e mail from Margaret Mitchell. She is the founder of a new marketplace ministry website entitled God's Love at Work. The site is "designed to inspire and cultivate the heart of Jesus Christ in women, so they may in turn share His love in one of their greatest mission fields: the marketplace."

Some other Marketplace Ministries for Women are:

Ø     A Woman's Voice, International http://awomansvoice.org/
A Woman's Voice International is a nonprofit human rights organization committed to defending the dignity of women worldwide.

Ø     Christian Business & Professional Women's Ministries http://www.gospelcom.net/stonecroft/html/main.html Stonecroft Ministries is an interdenominational, evangelistic outreach for men and women that is carried forward to committed lay people, as well as full-time missionary staff.

Ø     Christian Business Women's Fellowship. http://www.cbmcint.org/about_cbmc/women
A global ministry encouraging business and professional women toward spiritual growth, personal integrity, principled leadership, and lifestyle evangelism in their personal and professional lives.

Ø     The Christian Working Woman. http://www.christianworkingwoman.org/
The purpose of The Christian Working Woman is to equip and encourage Christians in the workplace to love Christ more and to demonstrate this love by applying biblical principles to their lives and utilizing their gifts and abilities to build His kingdom.

Ø     The Godly Business Woman Magazine www.godlybusinesswoman.com
Our goal is to educate, inspire and encourage women to be all they can be through Jesus Christ. To be a resource on which women can depend and shed light on the responsibilities we have been given.

Ø     Women, Arise! www.womenarise.co.za
To call Women To Transformation in spirit, soul and body and empower them to arise and be everything they were created to be! Accessing men and women in the workplace & ministering in the Body of Christ, penetrating cultural and denominational limitations.

Ø     Women Today International http://www.womentoday.org
A ministry to and for women. Under her leadership, Women Today is responding to the needs of women to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ. Currently she can be heard on Christian radio stations throughout the country as she shares her heart and challenges women to take their next step of faith.

Ø     WorkPlace Influence Inc. www.workplaceinfluence.org
Serving Christian working women and church leaders to impact the workplace with the Good News.

Tags: Faith+At+Work, Christian, Business, Womens, Fellowship,  global, marketplace, ministry, encouraging, business, professional, women, spiritual, growth, personal, integrity, principled, leadership, lifestyle, evangelism, networking, outreach, spiritual, growth, opportunities

Finding God at Work in Times of Change

Conversations . . .

April 13-15, 2007, Cleveland, Ohio

15th annual Consultation of the Coalition for Ministry in Daily Life

hosted by the United Church of Christ

Co-sponsored by: Inside Out a UCC ministry advancing ethics &

spirituality in work, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, Laity Lodge®, Luther Seminary Centered Life Initiative, National Center for the Laity, United Church of Christ, The Work+Shop, Center for Faith in the WorkPlace

Take part in the CMDL Consultation and enjoy Conversations about

· the nature of ministry in daily life during times of change: in business and workplace settings; in the media arts; among young adults in business and the professions; in church congregations and judicatory bodies

· developments in the literature in the field of ministry in daily life

· the future direction of the Coalition for Ministry in Daily Life

And an evening with Christian singer/songwriter Bill McGarvey, performing and sharing his thoughts on the role of faith in his vocation.

Schedule Overview

5:30 Welcome reception

6:30 Dinner

7:30 Plenary – Three Founding Voices

8:30 Brief worship

Saturday, April 14

8:30 Optional morning prayer

9:00 Plenary – Finding God at Work in

Times of Change

10:30 Break

10:45 Breakout Options, Series A

12:15 Lunch

1:45 Breakout Options, Series B

3:00 Break

3:15 Breakout Options, Series C

5:30 Reception

6:30 Dinner

7:30 Plenary – Conversations with

Flannery O’Connor, Walker

Percy, Bob Dylan, and the

Beatles – singer/songwriter Bill

McGarvey on vocation and faith

Sunday, April 15

7:30 Breakfast and informal worship

9:00 Dismissal

Registration & Fees

Consultation

Earlybird (before March 26) $129

After March 26 $149

All registration will be via the United Church of Christ’s registration website: http://www.conference.com/eventmanager/OnlineRegistration.asp

Enter event code KJL for the CMDL

Consultation.

ONLINE REGISTRATION CLOSES AT MIDNIGHT (EST), 3/27/07.

Questions? Contact Heather Iriye (216-736-

2105) or Denise Shimell (216-736-2133) for assistance.

If you are unable to access the web, or for information on scholarships or other Consultation details, contact John Lewis (210-599-4224)

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For the Faith At Work Blog's Reports from Previous Consultations please read.

Richard Mouw on our Calling to Holy Worldliness

Faith At Work Blog Miroslav Volf speaking on God at Work at the Yale Divinity School

On Sunday, I ran across this report: When Religious Needs Test Company Policy (New York Times) by Kelly Holland.

It is interesting that IBM was able to accommodate a Muslim need but British Airways was unable to manage a Christian need.

When it comes to specific questions about faith at work, though, managers often have to improvise. I.B.M. was faced with a tricky situation several years ago when a new hire, a veiled Muslim woman, showed up for her first day of work and was told she had to have her picture taken for her employee identification badge. The woman objected on religious grounds to showing her face.

So I.B.M. officials came up with a solution: she had her picture taken in a veil, and that was on the identification badge she used day to day. But a female photographer also took her picture without a veil for a second badge, which the employee carried in her purse, according to Laurie Friedman, a spokeswoman for the company. If the employee ever had to show that badge, she would be required to do so only to a female security officer.

I.B.M. managed to work through that particular challenge, but British Airways learned the hard way that a small incident involving religion can quickly become a really big deal. A uniformed employee of the airline came to work last year wearing a cross on a chain over her uniform. British Airways views its uniform as a symbol of the airline, and company policy dictated that employees who wore jewelry should wear it under the uniform whenever practical.

After the employee, Nadia Eweida, was told to put the cross under her uniform, she appealed the policy. She lost, appealed again — and then newspaper editorials began castigating the airline, and the Anglican church criticized the policy. Even Prime Minister Tony Blair delivered a gentle reprimand to British Airways.

Last month, the airline revised its policy to allow symbols of faith to be worn as lapel pins, or in some cases on chains around the neck, and Ms. Eweida, who was on unpaid leave, returned to work on Feb. 3.[1]

Tags: Faith At Work, religion in the workplace, religious expression, Workplace Diversity, Religious Needs Test, Company Policy, improvise, IBM, British Airways, veil, cross.

A recent letter writer to the Miami Herald questions the appropriateness of taking faith to work here. This letter was written in response to an article in the Herald, Faith At Work Movment going Mainstream  (for more articles like this one see Del.icio.us tag faith-at-work-movement). Here is an excerpt from the letter.

While I would agree that workers should feel that they are working in a congenial atmosphere, I'm concerned that terms such as being ''treated holistically,'' ''diversity,'' ''inclusion'' and ''looking for support,'' are replacing qualities such as common sense, courtesy, professionalism and appropriateness.

If this trend continues, we must recognize it as yet one more slippery slope to which we must pay attention. If we are to cater to workers ''who are feeling more comfortable about bringing their entire selves into the office,'' should we then not give equal attention and concern to matters other than faith? Should we not include those who consider personal philosophy, science and sports just as important as religious beliefs?

Before we summarily dismiss the idea of appropriateness, solely because we are dealing with religion and belief, we should reverse the situation.

If parishioners, while at their religious service, noticed that others starting taking out their laptop computers to work on spread sheets or started discussing sports or politics, would they show the same tolerance, understanding and respect that they were asking at work because these people were bringing their entire selves to religion?
It is more than appropriate to recognize that there is a time and place for everything. There any number of groups or friends that cover any number of interests, and those are the appropriate venues for seeking support.

We must recognize that an employer has a primary responsibility to business and the objectives of that business. While that employer should take a necessary interest in the welfare of his employees, he or she should not be obligated to foster the burden of their personal interests that are irrelevant or sometimes detrimental to the prime objective of running a business.

Read the article below about Rosa Parks. (Let Your Life Speak At Work). I am sure she had many white people tell her that ther actions were "inappropriate". But she would not deny her claim to be who she was where she was. It is the same in the workplace. While we need to keep in mind the primary goal of working well, we also need faith there so that we can work well.

Tags: Faith At Work Movement, religion in the workplace, Workplace Diversity, Religion, holistically, diversity, inclusion, common sense, courtesy, professionalism, appropriateness, slippery slope, entire selves, tolerance

This book excerpt illustrates what is driving the Faith at Work Movement. It is a quest for authentic self hood. More than experiential, ethical, or evangelical imperatives, the faith at work movement is driven by men and women of faith who desire to be fully themselves at work. They refuse to live a divided life that requires they check faith at the workplace door.They let their life and their faith speak at work, on the shop floor and in the office cubicle. For more information please visit Center for Courage & Renewal.

I ran across this article from the Irish Times discussing workplace diversity at a company called O Ireland. It is good to see that our European cousins are empracing workplace diversity. Also, there is a good video clip at You Tube on Workplace Diverity. Follow this link

Workplace equality makes good business sense
Caroline Madden
Friday - Business
16 Feb 2007, Page 12

Managing diversity in the workplace involves more than complying with legislation, preventing employee allegations or simply being politically correct. There are real business benefits to be gained from taking a strategic approach to integrating people into an organisation.

“Diversity is a source of creativity if effectively managed,” says Crowley. “People coming from different experiences . . . can bring new perspectives to addressing challenges in the workplace.”

Considering the labour shortages in many sectors of the economy, reaching out to the full diversity of the market is an important source of staff.

Research carried out by the Equality Authority has found a strong link between companies with an equality policy in place and high levels of job satisfaction and commitment to the organisation.

Tony Donohue of employers’ group Ibec says that while many companies have an equal opportunities policy in place, very few have gone that extra step and “embedded strategic diversity management” into their business.

“We see a lot of business benefits to this approach,” he says. “It’s positive for staff morale, it’s positive for recruitment and retention of staff . . . Also, it enhances public image.”

While it can be challenging to put a diversity management programme in place, companies such as O have proved that it makes good business sense.

O Ireland has implemented a wide range of initiatives to integrate foreign nationals and people with disabilities.

Foreign nationals make up about 6.5 per cent of O Ireland’s workforce, and a target has been set to increase this to 10 per cent.

“Ten per cent of the population in Ireland are non-Irish nationals, so we want to try and mirror what’s happening in the entire marketplace,” says Theresa Murray, human resources director at O Ireland.

“Our people are proud that we’re taking a stand on this and that we’re proactively going out and stating that we want to be a diverse workforce,” says Murray. “Also, it helps us because a lot of our customers are diverse.”

With this strategy in mind, is it a coincidence that O Ireland was named “best company to work for in Ireland” last year by the Great Place to Work Institute?

Tags: workplace diversity

Recently received news from the team at His Church At Work

Dear Friends, We are just back from training Hill Country Bible Church in Austin, TX.   We met with every pastor (Sr., Men’s, Women’s, Children’s, Small Group, Student, Missions and Community Outreach) and presented the vision of shepherding WorkLife to the entire staff.  Hill Country is engaging a very comprehensive WorkLife Ministry integration.  For example small group leaders will be trained to shepherd the work lives of those in their care in the coming months along with the many WorkLife ministry plans that will be executed in the various areas like children (k-6), students (7-12) as well as college and all adults.  Affinity groups are being formed and teaching opportunities are being scheduled. They have already seen fruit even though they haven’t gone public to the entire congregation yet. 

A young Dell Executive who cashed out early so that he could pursue full-time ministry was counseled by the Hill Country’s WorkLife Pastor, Paul Carlson and now he realizes his greatest ministry opportunities are in the workplace; so he is now looking for a job to get back in the action. 

The WorkLife Ministry team got a taste of getting out into the field last week and experience what believers are doing to live out and share their faith in their work environments. We went to the Capital Fellowship, which is a group of believers working in various government agencies in the capital complex who have organized to reach out to work associates.  They sought the help of the Hill Country WorkLife team to support them with prayer, ideas, and guidance.  Hill Country’s team was coming as a kingdom resource to support the front line troops.  During the session we cast a vision for a holistic perspective on our work life and Paul and team will be assessing how to help them be more effective and inspired to keep pressing on. 

So on behalf of Doug and our entire team, we want to say thank you for your investment in our ministry efforts at His Church at Work.  Your support is producing much fruit.

Canadian Coalition of Workplace Ministries has put together a spectacular line up of speakers for their inaugural conference. I encourage all my faith at work friends to attend. 

Something undeniable is taking place today. God is at work – literally. Christians are increasingly impacting their workplaces spiritually. Even the mainstream media has noticed, with articles appearing in the Globe & Mail, New York Times, LA Times and many other media outlets.

God has ‘inspired’ in the hearts of many Canadian business leaders, ministry organizations and pastors, the vision of transformation in the workplace.

This first ever national Canadian conference is designed for men and women in the marketplace who have a desire to better understand and fulfill their great purpose in the workplace.

This is a do not miss event for leaders looking to have an impact for the Kingdom of God in their business community and to lead as God would have them lead. Find out how God is already using such leaders to spiritually transform entire cities and how godly leadership is also good business leadership!

Discover practical ways to impact our cities through your workplace calling! Seating is limited to the first 500 registrants – avoid disappointment and register today.