The U.K.’s Independent has an interesting article on how a form of charismatic evangelical Christianity is taking a hold of London’s financial district. However, despite the rise in the number of believers, many are afraid to come out of the Christian closet. Here, for example, is what one 29-year-old mergers and acquisitions executive has to say:
“I did a course called Christianity Explored in 2006. It’s basically Alpha without the [speaking in] tongues. One of the guys on my desk asked me to go along to a service at St Helen’s Bishopsgate on a Tuesday lunchtime. I did and now I’m a regular. We get hundreds of people most weeks. Huge crowds on Sunday nights.”
“Do your colleagues know you’re a Christian?”
“Are you joking? Of course not. It’d make things very difficult. The City isn’t immoral any more, it’s amoral. But if my boss thought I was relying on prayer to get me through the day, he’d look down on me. It would make me seem irrational. I tell him I’m going to physio when I go to church.”
“Is it tough to be a Christian and not tell anyone?”
“It’s sometimes very tough. When you have to entertain clients and they want to go to strip clubs or whatever, it can be awkward. That’s why Christianity Explored is so great, because you go there and there are others facing the same dilemmas. You can support each other through it.”
While I can understand the pressure the young believers in London’s financial district must face, I can’t say that I’m all that sympathetic to those who are ashamed of the Gospel. But it appears to be a common problem in London’s equivalent of Wall Street:
Eve Poole is a theologian who teaches business ethics on the MBA programme at Ashridge Business School. Describing herself as a “totally paid-up God squadder”, Poole worked at Deloitte Consulting before completing her doctorate on capitalism and Christianity at Cambridge last year. She is full of strong faith, yet with none of the smugness that sometimes seeps from believers. I tell her about my interviews with City Christians, how the younger among them find it difficult to combine their faith with their jobs.
“It’s often harder for young people to come out as Christians than it would be for them to come out as gay,” she says. “Because of the vocal atheists – Dawkins and so on – people think your judgement is impaired if you say you’re Christian at work. The problem of serving two masters is at the heart of it. There’s a worry that Christians are up to something, that they’re loyal to something other than the firm.”
The choice is clear, and there is no exemption for investment bankers: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
(Via: Challies.com)
May 19th, 2011 | 10:25 am
[...] From God and Mammon in London » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog: [...]
May 19th, 2011 | 10:32 am
[...] Here’s a thought worth pondering: “It’s often harder for young people to come out as Christians than it would be for them to come out as gay,” she says. “Because of the vocal atheists – Dawkins and so on – people think your judgement is impaired if you say you’re Christian at work. The problem of serving two masters is at the heart of it. There’s a worry that Christians are up to something, that they’re loyal to something other than the firm.” [...]
May 19th, 2011 | 10:37 am
Very interesting and helpful. Nor do I understand why they are reluctant to admit they are Christians. They don’t need to impose their beliefs, calmly explaining and admitting should be enough. Also I would think that a strip club is exactly the place a Christian should go. A Christian could use this as an opportunity to very discreetly get the girls out of that life. I’m told that most want to leave!
May 19th, 2011 | 12:48 pm
I wonder how the Christians who were part of the Ceasar’s household handled this kind of pressure? did they tell everyone, or only those who seemed open?
My point is that as persecution and oppression increase, believers have always used discretion in how they talk about their beliefs. It isn’t always a matter of being ashamed, sometimes the principle at work is not casting pearls before swine.
Here, it is still relatively easy to be open about your faith at work. Telling your boss you pray everyday is less likely to lead to have financial consequences. There, it might.
Bold evangelism is great and even as Paul testified to King Agrippa and appealed to Caesar, there were converts around him who likely did their work quietly and peaceably. If challenged, they did not deny Christ, but they weren’t exactly organizing a daily Bible study at work. There is a place for ambassadors who are quiet and a place for ambassadors to speak unreservedly. May these brothers and sisters know the power of the Spirit to do the later when they are called to and may their quiet witness be used by Him even now.
May 19th, 2011 | 2:16 pm
There are many places in the world where proclaiming one’s Christianity is problematic. Would we be surprised if this story was set in Iran or China. Sure, it seems a bit out of place in London but it probably shouldn’t. Religion is pretty much a forbidden subject across much of Europe.
May 19th, 2011 | 3:39 pm
Joe, no offense, but you work for a catholic periodical where this doesn’t matter. No one is going to look down on you for preaching the gospel in your workplace, because everyone is (or should be) converted.
It’s very easy to say “You can’t serve two masters” when you wont be the one sacrificing for it. You aren’t the one fired for losing the deal when the big account you are trying to win notices a Bible in your drawer.
It’s not an easy choice by any means, and some reflection on that balances it. I sympathize with them, because some day they will need to make that choice regardless.
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