Do I offend God by not going to a prayer meeting at my job?

[peterson28]

My employer is a Fundamentalist Christian. He and his wife run a small construction company (six people). On the first Friday of every month they hold what they call a prayer meeting. They read a quote from Scripture, talk about the workings of the business, and then pray around the table, each person tallking to God as they wish.

These meetings used to be optional when I started working there but recently I have been told that they are no longer optional. I feel like I am being pressured to go, and at the one that I did go to, I felt like I was being evangelized, if not proselytized.

Apart from possibly being unconstitutional and illegal, am I offending God by not wanting to go? I like my employer. He is a kind, decent, and generous man. I just want to go to work to meet my worldly financial obligations and not my obligation to God. I want to keep the two separate. Am I wrong? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

You are wrong only in your idea that God should be kept out of your work life. Our commitment to God cannot be compartmentalized from the rest of our life and the pandemic attempt in our society to do so is one of the major causes of the social ills our society now faces. I strongly recommend that you look to St. Thomas More, the protomartyr of the modern age, for an example of how one’s commitment to God should inform and shape one’s public life.

Since your employer is not running a religious organization, you are correct that he should not be forcing his employees to attend prayer meetings and should not be proselytizing them to his religious viewpoint. But I also hesitate to suggest that you draw a line in the sand over that principle and force him through the legal system to abandon his religious activity in his company. To do so would only clog the courts with yet another case that could be used to create precedent for the destruction of any form of public religious identity. For example, should you be successful in forcing this well-meaning Christian man to stop his prayer meetings in his company today, you may also be responsible some day for employees being disallowed any expression of religion on the job (e.g., wearing crucifixes, having paid time off for Christmas, privately reading a Bible or other religious book during lunch or breaks on company premises, etc.)

If you are unable to attend these prayer meetings in good conscience, possibly by deflecting all invitations to “contribute” (e.g., “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any ideas on that”; “Yes, I’m still thinking, but am not ready to share yet”; “I’ll have to think that over and get back to you when I have an answer”) and ignoring all attempts to proselytize you, then I recommend looking for a new job.

Recommended resource:

A Man for All Seasons (DVD)