Living Your Faith Without Compromise in the Workplace
Living your faith without compromise - a theme of some recent posts here - includes doing so in the the workplace. Here's an example:
I didn't contribute to The United Way a few years back when I worked at a big company. I had contributed for a number of years through a company program. But at one point, I realized that The United Way contributed to organizations that offered services opposed to my Catholic faith. At the time, their contributions funded contraception and abortion, among other things. As soon as I realized this, I knew I had to do something. So I looked for a way to direct my money to good causes, and not have it used for evil purposes.
Why not just stop contributing? The basic reason was that my company sponsored the #1 corporate program in the country and took great "corporate pride" in that, so much so, that it was expected that every department achieve 100% participation. And our managers put pressure on all of us so they could achieve this goal.
Now I was happy to play the good corporate citizen, even if the whole corporate citizen thing always struck me as not having much substance except as a device for certain people to build their careers. But what the heck. And so I spoke with the United Way representative to see if I could direct my contribution to a worthy organization and, as it turns out, I could.
So I specified the organization - Calvary Hospital, a place that specializes in caring for dying cancer patients. But the next year I had to re-consider my decision.
I had done more reading about this whole area and came across a sensible argument that put into question the way I was dealing with the United Way issue. This argument, which is reflected in the letter I've re-published below, says that because money is "fungible," if you contribute to an organization that promotes or supports evil activity, your money, even if directed to a good cause, frees up other money that the company can then direct towards evil.
It was really, REALLY uncomfortable to tell my boss I was not going to contribute. But I did, submitting the following letter for his information, and for his records. Our group did not achieve 100% participation. My boss wasn't Catholic and he didn't like it, but I think he understood my decision was reached after much soul-searching and thought.
The same couldn't be said the next year, when our group had another boss. I explained my decision to him and provided the letter as well. He wasn't as understanding. Naturally, he was Catholic, but that didn't matter. He just wanted to be 100%. You would think that being Catholic, he would be even more understanding, wouldn't you?
In any case, here's the letter:
I didn't contribute to The United Way a few years back when I worked at a big company. I had contributed for a number of years through a company program. But at one point, I realized that The United Way contributed to organizations that offered services opposed to my Catholic faith. At the time, their contributions funded contraception and abortion, among other things. As soon as I realized this, I knew I had to do something. So I looked for a way to direct my money to good causes, and not have it used for evil purposes.
Why not just stop contributing? The basic reason was that my company sponsored the #1 corporate program in the country and took great "corporate pride" in that, so much so, that it was expected that every department achieve 100% participation. And our managers put pressure on all of us so they could achieve this goal.
Now I was happy to play the good corporate citizen, even if the whole corporate citizen thing always struck me as not having much substance except as a device for certain people to build their careers. But what the heck. And so I spoke with the United Way representative to see if I could direct my contribution to a worthy organization and, as it turns out, I could.
So I specified the organization - Calvary Hospital, a place that specializes in caring for dying cancer patients. But the next year I had to re-consider my decision.
I had done more reading about this whole area and came across a sensible argument that put into question the way I was dealing with the United Way issue. This argument, which is reflected in the letter I've re-published below, says that because money is "fungible," if you contribute to an organization that promotes or supports evil activity, your money, even if directed to a good cause, frees up other money that the company can then direct towards evil.
It was really, REALLY uncomfortable to tell my boss I was not going to contribute. But I did, submitting the following letter for his information, and for his records. Our group did not achieve 100% participation. My boss wasn't Catholic and he didn't like it, but I think he understood my decision was reached after much soul-searching and thought.
The same couldn't be said the next year, when our group had another boss. I explained my decision to him and provided the letter as well. He wasn't as understanding. Naturally, he was Catholic, but that didn't matter. He just wanted to be 100%. You would think that being Catholic, he would be even more understanding, wouldn't you?
In any case, here's the letter:
I have decided not to contribute to the United Way campaign. My decision is made even as I recognize that I have been a past contributor.
Given my objections to funding any pro-abortion programs, I cannot in good conscience support the United Way, an organization which does fund such programs. In the past I have availed myself of the option to direct my contribution to a specific program within the United Way “umbrella,” in order to overcome this objection. However, after much deliberation, I realize that any money given to any pro-abortion organization is fungible. That is, regardless of how fine a given program might be, and the United Way supports many fine programs, giving any money to a pro-abortion organization would free its other resources to be spent objectionably. In addition, giving money to an organization with such objectionable activities would appear to be giving implicit approval of all of the organization’s activities, not just the activity to which I have directed my contribution.
I'm telling you about this in light of my recent posts about living our faith without compromise. I'm not patting myself on the back, just providing an example of living our faith without compromise in the workplace.
SPECIAL NOTE:
Since the new Liturgical Year will begin Sunday, with the First Sunday of Advent, I'm going to re-publish the series on planning for Catholic men at work that I've created. If you've seen this before, and have completed your plan, great. If you haven't completed your plan, here's another chance to get your plan in place. If you haven't seen the series, you may find it helpful in getting your personal and business plan in place.
SPECIAL NOTE:
Since the new Liturgical Year will begin Sunday, with the First Sunday of Advent, I'm going to re-publish the series on planning for Catholic men at work that I've created. If you've seen this before, and have completed your plan, great. If you haven't completed your plan, here's another chance to get your plan in place. If you haven't seen the series, you may find it helpful in getting your personal and business plan in place.
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