public morality monthly

Centre for Applied Christian Ethics Ridley College BriefCACE Number 22, June 2005

Hard Work

From July 1 significant changes will be brought in concerning the determination of the minimum wage, work tests for sole parents and the disabled, unlawful dismissal legislation, individual workplace agreements and many other aspects of work in Australia.

To examine some of these, CACE held a Round Table on June 4 at Ridley College to discuss these changes from different angles, particularly ethical implications. First contribution to the Round Table was from Alan Matheson, Churches of Christ minister recently retired from the ACTU human rights and refugee desks, but back there as a consultant. He gave an overview of the Australian workplace of nine million people, how two million of them are casuals, how work is central to our lives, how the balance between work and family is an increasing challenge. “Never has the church employed so many workers, yet been so silent on the issues of work.” A version of his presentation forms the bulk of this edition of BriefCACE.

Second contribution was from CACE director Alan Nichols-a wide-ranging theology and ethics of work. Alan quoted a Catholic document: “Work is for all something willed and blessed by God, who has endowed us with intelligence, imagination and sensitivity.” He outlined some biblical principles about equal pay for women, making permanent workers casual, getting the disabled back to work, work for the dole, and workplace safety. His full paper, published by Evangelical Alliance, is available on their website (http://www.ea.org.au).

Jane Hendtlass, barrister and coroner, addressed issues of power and trust in the workplace. She said: “Health, the church and the law are all in the business of delivering services to people. But they all want not to be nasty, so they have trouble (for example) telling people why they have lost their jobs. They are all bad at natural justice.” Trust in the workplace involves being “open and honest and direct-and we’re not good at it.” Andrew Goldsworthy, builders labourer, shared experience of workplace safety and lack of it on building sites. It was good, he said, that WorkCover had introduced safety requirements onto building sites. “Until then people just said, We’ve always done it this way.” He said he had had to unforgettable experience of seeing a man die at work.

John Brownbill, lay industrial chaplain at age 75, said people should have a choice of working on past retirement, but they should not be forced to. In music and the arts and in the health industry, people are encouraged to keep on exercising their gifts. Others “soldier on” because they are workaholics, or have a compulsion to amass wealth, or have no satisfactory social or home life, or had not made provision for an adequate pension. Ross Oldmeadow, lawyer who runs Open House ministry for disabled people at Ivanhoe, explored the link between people’s wellbeing and access to work. Open House clients live in an absence of work. How then will they develop a sense of self-worth? Open House has a men’s shed program, arts and craft groups, and other ways of building trusting relationships. This can also stimulate self-worth. “But current moves to limit taxi fares for the disabled, limit medication regimes, have serious implications for people struggling to stay well and belong to the community.” Volunteers also make a significant contribution here.

Jane Hendtlass agreed. Any theology or ethics of work should take into account the contribution made by volunteers in the community and by home carers. Ross added: “Our sense of identity is not based on what we do, but that we are loved by God.” Can we rediscover the link between work and calling? “When things get tough, people go back to their calling.” John Brownbill agreed that a sense of vocation has disappeared in the workforce.

Justin Denholm, clinician and researcher at a public hospital in Melbourne, identified four new factors in the medical workplace: a disappearance of a sense of vocation, partly caused by casualisation; increasing unionisation because of collective bargaining; the increasing number of roles a doctor has to perform- counsellor, researcher, manager, public health advocate; and widespread acceptance of principle-based ethics. On the last point, he asked whether Christian ethics has to adopt secular language. “Christian ethics deals with our relationship to God. Ethical regulation does not affect the heart.” An extract of his talk follows.

Rod Gorfine, human relations manager in the energy industry, spoke of “the moral muteness of managers”- the tendency to “dodge and weave” around ethical responsibility. He defined integrity as “ethical behaviour in all that we do.” For himself, he often pondered to God: “Why am I here?” This sent him into after-work training in becoming a business coach, and in order to be better organised to serve and support others in the workplace. Summing up, Alan Matheson said that there had been great value in the discussion because of the variety of contributions from different aspects of the workplace. We need to do more work on volunteerism as a meaningful work activity. We need to explore more access to work for the disabled and for non-English speaking people. We should explore more the connection between work and calling. The Church, he said, has to do a lot more work on Work.

The next issue of BriefCACE will have more contributions on Work, notably the presentations of Brownbill and Nichols.

CACE offers three regular publications. BriefCACE is sent monthly by e-mail to 1,000 readers. Our Newsletter goes several times each year to 450 people. Thought-provoking ‘Ethical Dilemmas’ go monthly by e-mail to all clergy in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne. Contact us to join any of the distribution lists.

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 · Ad hoc, informal involvement around such issues as the Corrigan lockout on Australian wharves, response to steel restructuring in Newcastle or the Howard/Kennett attack on workers’ rights.

 · A number of congregations are enthusiastically integrating the market economy with “prosperity theology”.7

 · As employers in their own right, both the UCA and the Catholic churches have developed theologically based documents and guidelines setting out their role and responsibilities as employers. ?

Spirituality Work-Meaning?

In the USA, unlike Australia, the spiritual dimension of work/business is booming. In 2002 some two dozen books a week were being published (God is My CEO is a top seller as is Jesus CEO); there are “high-tech prayer breakfasts”; “spiritreneurs”; Christian management associations; magazines; as well as specific worker-faith organisations. ?

There’s A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America. After IQ and EQ, now there’s an emphasis on SQ (spiritual quotient!).

It’s possible to pick up Moses on Management; run your business by the Bible; work for a “Bigger Boss”; join the “Professional Association for People Involved with Spirituality in the Workplace”; and obey the “Boss Almighty”. ?

Unscrambling just the language of the faith-spirituality- work business is a major challenge. ?

Paul Gibbons in explaining meanings of spirituality at work provides what he calls an abstract definition: “A journey towards integration of work and spirituality, for individuals and organisations, which provides direction, wholeness and connectedness with work”. ? He wonders whether, “spirituality and business are two belief systems with Ultimate goals: profit and God. Spirituality at work concerns itself with the coalescing of these belief systems”. And while he realizes that some “mutual accommodation” will need to be worked out, he concludes that “spirituality is doing most of the accommodating and in the process losing its distinctiveness”. ?

It is able to do this because much of the discourse is characterised by a conscious limited expression of spirituality concerned only with self esteem, work motivation or career success. Further it embraces “spirituality” but rejects “religion”, yet it is religion/theology/church which will reject “cheap grace” and “purveyors of a corporate Christ” and challenge the “forces of evil” in the corporate world. It’s just not possible to disconnect spirituality or faith from doctrine.

Not only does much of the faith-work movement reject the “R word” (religion), but it functions, organises, prays, and conferences as though the “U word” (union) does not exist. As Christians live out their faith in the koinonia (community), so workers can only organise and ensure their rights and justice in the solidarity of unions. Given that it is management which is driving much of the faith-work movement, it’s not surprising unions are ignored.  œ

SPIRITUALITY WORK

Alan Matheson

Churches of Christ minister;

former migrant worker rights and international officer of the ACTU Note: A more-detailed version is available from the CACE website. Paragraphs marked ? here indicate where additional print and online sources and resources will be found. The Australian Workplace A snapshot of the workplace will show: 2 Of 9,000,000 workers, 2,000,000 are part time or casual 2 50 die each week due to an industrial disease or accident 2 Hours of work increased in 28% of organisations in 2004; in 2005, 35% 2 60% work overtime without pay 2 30% of fathers spend 8 hours travelling each week; they average 3.5 with children 2 30% are stressed because of long work hours ?

The Importance of the Faith Dimension

Work is central to our lives. ?

 · Industries are becoming more competitive, there is a demand for increased productivity, people are working longer and stress more common. ?  · The issue of balancing work and family an increasing dilemma and challenge. ?  · Millions of workers are set to lose access to award conditions, protection from unfair dismissal and effective safety net of minimum wages. ?  · And never has the Church employed so many workers, yet been so silent on the issues of work. What’s Happening?! A map of the connecting points between faith and the workplace will include the following:  · Corporate chaplains: the oldest “industrial ministry” is the Interchurch Trade and Industrial Mission (ITIM). ?  · Management “ministries” to be found in organisations such as Christian Businessmen of Australia (obviously no women in business!) and Australian Marketplace Connections (http://www.marketplaceconnections.com).  · Ministries meeting the needs and rights of those injured or killed in workplaces: e.g. the UCA Creative Ministries Network Partnership in Grieving Program.6  · Professional organisations of Christian workers: e.g. Victorian Christian Legal Society (http://www.cls.org.au).  · Programs addressing the ethical responsibilities related to church finances and church workers superannuation funds: e.g. Christian Centre for Socially Responsible Investment (http://www.ccsri.org).  · Campaign coalitions which involve the extensive involvement of individuals and churches: e.g. Fairwear Campaign (http://www.fairwear.org.au).  · The only academic centre focusing on faith-work issues is the Macquarie Christian Studies Institute (http://www.mcsi.edu .au). The content of its courses include “business as a professional vocation”, codes of conduct, and executive salaries, but nothing obvious on unions.

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BriefCACE is sponsored by a grant from the Australian Research Theology Foundation, for which Ridley College is grateful, and is edited by the director of CACE, Rev Alan Nichols. All comments welcome. BriefCACE and CACE newsletters and other CACE event details are available at our website: <http://www.ridley.unimelb.edu.au/cace>

Corporate Values and Faith

Surveying the health industry, Alan Nichols concluded, “that just as ethics is becoming a national business and attracting front pages in newspapers, the Church unfortunately is lowering its profile and missing out contributing”. He noted that two of the significant health industry bodies were, “promoting ethical principles which are.entirely consistent with biblical principles”. ?

A similar situation exists in the broader corporate world, and corporate chaplains, management “ministries”, and much of the faith-work movement appears to make little connection between faith and corporate ethics, transparency, industrial homicide, good governance, executive salaries or social responsibility.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) “is taken to mean a balanced approach for organisations to address economic, social and environmental issues in a way that aims to benefit people, communities and society”.17 In all of the documents consulted for this paper only Nichols and the Macquarie Centre recognise the codes of corporate behaviour which provide the basis of CSR.

The community, media, unions and governments campaign against the obscene salaries of executives (the Macquarie Bank CEO takes home more than the average annual earnings every day of the year!!); the corporate scandals such as HIH (“What would Jesus say about Enron”?); the criminality of the Bonds and the Adlers; and the appalling suffering and death unnecessarily caused by the management policies of James Hardie.

Except for isolated cases the churches have been silent, ITIM has disappeared and the management “ministries’ obviously preoccupied with other priorities.

Apart from the debate concerning action coming out of faith-work relations, another reason for the silence is that there is little understanding of the structures, processes and measures, which are demanding greater corporate accountability. Some of these measures and processes are driven by government legislation and regulation, some from within companies themselves, and others arising out of international pressures. ?

One of the measures being promoted among companies in Australia is the UN’s Global Compact. ? The GC invites companies to agree to take action in implementing the following principles”:

#1 The protection of human rights #2 Ensure no complicity in human rights abuses #3 Uphold freedom of association and right to collective bargaining #4 The elimination of all forms of forced labour #5 The abolition of child labour (around 3,000 in Australia!)

#6 The elimination of discrimination with respect of employment #7 Support for the protection of the environment #8 Promote environmental responsibility #9 Encourage development of environmentally friendly technologies #10 Work against all forms of corruption In addition to these codes and guidelines there are a range of other measures. ?

One of the challenges for those concerned with faith and work issues is the relationship between these various codes and guidelines measuring accountability, transparency and governance, and biblical principles and faith.

Continuing Issues

This overview hardly does justice to the complexity and challenges of the faith-work relationship or the Sunday- Monday connection. (Such a phrase, by the way, is redundant in the current reality of the world of work-part time and casual work is what many now do, 7/24 rolling shifts, 9-day fortnights, month on/month off, etc.)

Some questions and issues needing further reflection will include:

1. Does the faith/spirituality and work movement, “fuel the instrumentalist orientation toward faith.. by encouraging employees to measure the value of spirituality by what it does for them in terms of happiness, self esteem, work motivation or career success?” ? 2. Is the current faith-work discussion/movement/organisational expression enhancing the prophetic in, for example, demonstrating solidarity with those who are the poor, the marginalised in workplaces (Fairwear Campaign), or encouraging membership in unions? 3. If “spirituality and business are two belief systems with different Ultimate goals: profit and God” where does faith/ spirituality fit? 4. How does faith-work relate to the Church itself as an employer, whether in the employment of its own staff, teachers and cleaners in schools or community organisations? Is there a theological basis underpinning how it relates and treats its workers? How does the Church’s understanding of the koinonia/community relate to the “solidarity” of the union movement? 5. Where does the issue of ethical investment, as it relates to individual/congregation/church/theological college, community/ school finances, fit in the faith-work context? 6. Has the faith-work relationship anything to do with the way churches and para-church organisations manage their taxation arrangements, either in the way they organise their activities or pay their ministers? ? 7. Has faith anything to say about how church buildings are planned, built and developed? 8. Paul Gibbons wonders whether or not faith-work ideas, are “significantly robust in the face of the challenges from the techno-economic and cultural context.. Can Spirituality at Work co exist with the capitalist technoeconomic context? . Is Spirituality at Work.rhetoric used to conceal issues of exploitation and make the intolerable, tolerable? . Is Spirituality at Work an extension of corporate culturalism or the control systems of modernity?” ? 9. What steps can be taken to strengthen a justice ministry with workers? ? 10. Where will the faith-work movement (ITIM chaplains, management “ministries”, marketplace ministries, churches such as Hillsong or the UCA or the ACCER (Australian Catholic Commission for Employment Relations), and theological colleges) stand on the issue of “industrial reform”?

MEDICAL ETHICS

in a changing workplace

Justin Denholm

medical clinician and researcher

Thinking about what it means to be a Christian in the workplace has been a challenge for me. In some ways, it has been tempting to feel that my work as a doctor is quite different from many of my non-medical friends, because of a number of experiences I have that are outside the norm. However, I think this is a largely unhelpful approach, and when I think about the hospital setting I prefer to concentrate on the similarities that it has with most workplaces rather than the differences. Recently I was speaking with my hairdresser about the ways in which our workplaces presented challenges for evangelism; both of us work in service industries, we deal with people but do not always have time for in-depth conversation, and we feel a tension between responsibilities to our work and to share the gospel. Our similarities as Christian workers are significant. With this in mind, however, the purpose of this article is to highlight some of the areas where I think medicine presents special challenges to ethical action. In particular, it will focus on three current cultural changes in medicine that I believe are impacting the way Christians need to approach ethics in the hospital. Some of these may be specific to medicine, but I think most reflect broader social moves of recent years.

The first major change I see in the medical workplace today is the decline of a vocational approach to work. Doctors used to be identified with clergy with respect to their ‘calling’. Today, instead of considering medicine as an all-consuming life-work, we are starting to be faced with the opposite problem of doctors viewing their work as ‘parttime’; something that might only be done Monday through Wednesday. Medicine is claiming a smaller part of people’s lives; being a ‘doctor’ might be less important than ‘soccer coach’ or ‘movie lover’ in defining who a person is. Along with this decreasing belief in the medical vocation, we are seeing increasing unionisation and workplace bargaining in hospitals, something unheard of ten years ago. These are by no means completely bad things, but there is a danger here. In concentrating on medicine as a job, as a task, we run the risk of losing sight of our holistic sense of responsibility to patients. When this is combined with a medical education system that teaches students to see the doctor’s role as one of facilitator and educator rather than encouraging them to make decisions in a patient’s best interests, it becomes clear that there are a variety of pressures on doctors to be less involved and committed to patients and to the medical system in general.

In many ways, this shift away from the vocation of medicine can be a helpful one for Christian ethics. One of the main failings of medical ethics in general has been its implicit belief that morality for doctors was different from other people; a belief expressed in professional codes from the time of Hippocrates and in whole modern fields like bioethics. The truth is, though, that morally speaking a doctor stands on the same ground as everyone else, even if we happen to be put in unique situations; we are in fact sheep in wolves’ clothing. A shift in thinking from considering medicine as an all-consuming vocation should help us to approach our work as a more natural part of our whole lives. I should remind us that how we approach ethics should be the same inside and outside of work, wherever we are or whatever we do.

The second issue that must be addressed is the increasing variety of roles that doctors in the public health system play. In most weeks, I find myself acting as a researcher, student, teacher, counsellor, health care advisor and public health advocate. Each of these roles has its own viewpoint, biases and responsibilities, and sometimes it becomes confusing which one I am currently occupying, or what must take priority. As an example, when I see a person with tuberculosis, as their doctor I have some responsibility to keep their personal information private. However, as a public health worker, I am required to report it to the Health Department. As a manager, I owe a duty to the nursing staff to tell them so that they can take appropriate precautions against becoming infected themselves. I am also a teacher who wants to pass this information on to students so that they can learn to manage infectious conditions properly. In short, I have a variety of often conflicting roles that need to be balanced in order to act ethically. Each case is a little different, and rigid approaches to ethical decision-making rarely leave me feeling like I have done the right thing. Christians need to be thoughtful and prayerful about balancing conflicting interests and roles at work in a way that honours Jesus.

The final issue that has changed the landscape for Christian ethics in the public hospital is the widespread acceptance of principle-based approaches to medical ethics. As Christians working in this culture, we are faced with a choice between presenting ethical viewpoints in a principlebased language and using an exclusively Christian approach. Although a number of Christian ethicists have advocated using secular ethical language as a more effective means of engaging in discussion with and convincing non-Christians of the right course of action, I am not convinced that this is how we should operate. Even though we might potentially convince more non-Christians not to perform abortions or euthanasia by arguing from a principle-based approach, I do not believe that simply making non-Christians act like Christians is in itself a particularly useful goal. Our call is also to ‘shine like stars in the universe’, to be distinct from those around us. Although God’s order is right and good and proper for everyone, and we have additional responsibilities to defend those who cannot defend themselves, a world where non-Christians are ‘tricked’ into performing all the actions that God wants without having a relationship with him does not fit the biblical model for ethics. We need to be honest about our beliefs and be prepared to explain why, because our mission should be to bring those around us into a proper relationship with God. Ultimately, it is only from this relationship that ethical understanding and actions can come, even though regulation might at times be necessary on this side of heaven.

To sum up, I think that Christian doctors in today’s workplace have a number of critical challenges, none of which are unique to the medical profession. We need to understand that our relationship with God impacts on our whole lives, and our ethics are done both inside and outside of work. It is critical to be honest in our approach to ethics in the workplace; we need to acknowledge both our foundation for ethics and the variety of roles that we express them in. I think that doctors can stand beside every Christian in every workplace and say that we need to be committed to demonstrating Christ faithfully to those around us, and to be humble as we try to follow Jesus in this world.