Do you have a concept of God that needs to be healed? In your childhood, perhaps from church, did you come to see God as a mostly serious old man who watched over everything you did (and thought) ready to judge you and punish you for bad behaviour or thoughts?
It’s the day after Labour Day. For most of Canada, this is back to school, back to the routine of work after a couple of months of summer. Today marks the beginning of the new year for many people and the way that our calendar works is more aligned to the new year of September, to the rhythms of the school schedule, than it is to any other calendar. This time of year can carry a sense of expectation or concern over how we will like or dislike the year ahead. One of the main factors in that like or dislike has to do with how we will be watched. Who are our employers, our bosses? Who are our instructors and evaluators? How much freedom will we have at work or school? Will we be able to structure our time, to make decisions. Will we be given guidance and direction without being constantly surveilled and judged?
Perhaps the most interesting and terrible article that I read this summer was about how many businesses are now closely monitoring the time and work of their employees. Eight out of ten of the largest employers in the United States are now using using surveillance software to track their employees “productivity metrics.” People are tracked for time spent actually using their keyboard. Their “idle” time is measured and they are given scores for activity. Thinking, pausing, speaking with co-workers are all things that are considered “idle” time. Complaints from workers speak of having no control, of feeling humiliated, and becoming demoralized. One troubling and interesting case in the article is of a health care corporation that has started to use monitoring software for its chaplains doing spiritual care. Each morning there is a meeting at which the chaplains are to plan their day according to points tracked and tabulated by a programme. A funeral, for example, counts as 1.75 points while a visit to a dying patient might only amount to a single productivity point. One chaplain described some of her work as “spiritual care drive-bys” directed more by concern for the monitoring system than for the need of the patients themselves. There are programmes that monitor drivers for courier companies. Some big rig trucks have cameras in them that track even the eyes of the drivers. Cameras are also used in the computers of some office workers to randomly take photos at various points of the day. If the person at the computer is not present (maybe they went to the bathroom) or if they are “idle” (not using their keyboard when the photo is taken) then their pay is reduced.
There are a thousand points of consideration for how this kind of monitoring effects work and people who are subject to the surveillance. It is also the case that this kind of constant readiness to judge and to punish mirrors an image of God that many people picked up in religious settings. God’s presence can become understood like that of a list-keeping Santa Claus, “You’d better watch out!” or like that of an angry parent “Don’t make me come down there!” or like that of an overbearing boss. Sometimes religious leaders themselves can promote such bad ideas because fear can be used to control people or to get things out of them. There are many stated reasons for the use of monitoring programmes in employment settings, one being to ensure that people who make a lot of money make as much money as possible off of the labour of their employees.
Two things at least that I hope for you today: One that you have a good start to this September new year. Two, that you can drop any concept of God as one who watches over you just ready to judge and punish. God is not impersonal, like a surveillance programme or a “productivity score.” In hopeful Christian understanding, we consider the nature of the presence of God by asking how Jesus was present with people. He was about the opposite of a surveillance programme. Jesus’ presence with people was never to measure their acceptability, never to dehumanize. Jesus never dehumanized anyone. Jesus never treated anyone like a commodity. The ways in which Jesus was present, caring for people, calling us not to judge one another, that shows how God is present with us.
Many people who were raised in evangelical church carry with them, often for their entire adulthood, the idea that God sees everything they do and everything they think and is always ready to dole out condemnation or praise (but mostly condemnation).
The Desert Fathers of Christian history often directed followers to try to be blind to the sin of other people. This was not a kind of irresponsibility unto abuse, but rather a reminder that so often we ourselves track and monitor and judge other people in a way that prevents us from being present with one another.
A young person came to Abba Poemen asking for advice,
“What am I to do?” asked the young man.
The old man said, “Despise no one: condemn no one: abuse no one, and God will give you quietness. You will become tranquil.”
In the article on employee surveillance there was a counter to the complaints about the monitoring. Some employees said that they liked it because it kept track of the people who were lazy (unlike them). These kinds of people exist in church settings too, always ready to be impressed with themselves by reflecting upon how terrible other people are. We can be motivated, in work or in morality and spirituality, not simply by a desire to do good, but by a kind of disdain for those who we feel are not measuring up. It can be tough to find freedom from such emotional and psychological constraint and bitterness.
If you carry a concept of God that includes moral and spiritual tracking, I offer you the beginnings of a prayer:
Dear God, how are you present in this world and in my life?
Where are the places in which I have come to see you as monitoring my every decision, just ready to judge and punish?
Where did I pick up such ideas and who passed them along to me?
What would it look like for me to desire to live a good life, but to be free from such damaging views of you?
And God I ask for your grace and presence for those who are constantly monitored. Today, as people go back to work and to school, I pray for grace and love and freedom. I pray that we would seek to grow and to help others, and to do good work not out of fear, but out of love.
Amen
Wow. What a way to demoralize people and treat your employees like things rather than people. And, yes, those of us raised by an angry God who just waits for the chance to punish us are especially vulnerable to this. Thanks for letting us know about it!