Virtue:
Religion
Other names:
Definition:
To be constantly mindful of God and our duty to him
The world "religion" comes from to re-read ("relegit") -- to keep re-reading the word of God (cf. II-II q81 a1)
Advice:
Empirical Research:
Case examples:
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Further reading:
Vices opposed:
Superstition, including Idolatory, Divination (attempting to foretell the future), Magic (Occult practices), Undue worship (where the externals of worship are belied by one's intentions), Tempting God (when we ask something of God, or put ourselves in a difficult situation intentionally, just to see if God will help us), Perjury (calling God as a witness to something false), Sacriledge (violation of te respect due to sacred things), and Simony (buying and selling of spiritual things).
Case Study
ReplyDeleteAndreas Widmer, businessman, philanthropist and former Swiss Guard for John Paul II, explains the relevance of prayer in his book, The Pope and the CEO. “The more you pray, the more you learn to discern God’s voice. When multiple options are before you, whether it’s making a new hire, choosing a new business partner, or launching a new product, you usually consult someone—advisors, partners, or a spouse. You want someone’s input other than your own. Well, God also has input to give. Almost always, he has some wisdom or insight to impart that will help you in your decision. Taking that decision to prayer is how you get the input he offers.
"That input is as much about you as it is about the decision itself. You gain self-knowledge in prayer. You can learn why you’re leaning toward hiring a specific person or why you’re leery about making a certain deal. Once, in prayer, I realized that I was letting a past experience unfairly influence how I was interacting with someone. Another time, I came to understand that the reason I didn’t want to make a deal wasn’t because the deal was bad, but because I didn’t like the direction and values of the other company involved. Those are the sorts of guidance prayer can give.” (Widmer, The Pope & the CEO, ch. 2)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn his book, More Than a Hobby, David Green explains how he began his practice of emphasizing the religious significance of Christmas and Easter in company advertising. "I knew, of course, that some people would say a 'secular business' should not get involved in such a thing. But I’ve never been real fond of the word secular. I looked it up in one dictionary that defined it as, among other meanings, 'without God.' Was that what I wanted Hobby Lobby to be? Not at all.
"I began to talk with Barbara and the children about an advertising approach. 'I think we need to do something that’s more important than commerce,' I said. 'Nobody else is talking about the real meaning of the holidays that are so significant to us as merchants. We bring in a lot of money thanks to Christmas and Easter. Let’s be bold about what the days truly mean.'
"They agreed with me, and so we prepared a modest ad—only about six inches square—for the next Easter. The following Christmas we ran a half page. Ever since then, it’s been a full page in every city where Hobby Lobby operates. You can see the whole gallery of ads on our Web site at” https://www.hobbylobby.com/about-us/holiday-messages
"The text of the first Easter ad back in 1997 showed a crown of thorns and said:
"For God so loved the world he gave
"acceptance
"peace
"mercy
"confidence
"purpose
"forgiveness
"simplicity
"hope
"relief
"comfort
"equality
"life
"his Son.
"This Easter, we encourage you to believe in the love that sent Jesus Christ.
"Accept the hope. Accept the joy. Accept the LIFE!"
...
"A couple of years into the program, we began adding a toll-free number at the bottom: 1-888-NEED-HIM. This is the number for a twenty-four-hour counseling center in Dallas that helps callers with their spiritual questions. We don’t own this organization, and it charges us nothing for its services. But we contribute to its expenses because we believe in what it does."
David Green runs his company in a way that challenges the underlying cultural presupposition that business and religion should have nothing to do with one another. "This whole assumption on the part of many people that there should be a Jeffersonian 'wall of separation' between faith and business is a view I have never accepted. I am who I am, a merchant who believes and respects Jesus Christ. To say that I should walk out of church on Sunday at noon and then stuff every thing I’ve heard and practiced into a dark closet for the next six days is not realistic, or even desirable. In fact, customers had better hope that I treat them according to the moral teachings of my faith!" (David Green, More Than a Hobby, ch. 12)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteLegendary coach Don Shula explains how his belief in God helps him to place both success and failure into proper perspective in Everyone's a Coach. "Attending Mass and looking to God for guidance aren't just habits for me. They matter deeply to me when I'm out in my world of shrill whistles and clashing bodies. And when game day comes, they're ways for me to keep my perspective. It makes a real difference to me when I start off each day by giving thanks and asking for help from God.
"Now, please don't get me wrong. I'm no priest, and I'm not saying you should believe the same way I do. But belief in something bigger than you is important. People close to me will tell you I'm not a real pleasant person after losing a football game, but I'd be a lot worse if I didn't realize that something far bigger than football exists. There's something good about kneeling down, asking for help, and listening for answers. My religious beliefs are very personal and private, so I'll conclude with this: If your highest authority is your boss or your organization or, worse, yourself or your last victory, you won't be a very effective coach." (Blanchard and Shula, Everyone’s a Coach, p. 36)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People, Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy explains why his company's restaurants remain closed on Sundays. "The answer lies in loyalty. For my family and me, when we speak of loyalty we first mean loyalty to God. Closing our business on Sunday, the Lord's Day, is our way of honoring God and showing our loyalty to Him. My brother Ben and I closed our first restaurant on the first Sunday after we opened in 1946, and my children have committed to closing our restaurants on Sundays long after I'm gone. I believe God honors our decision and sets before us unexpected opportunities to do greater work for Him because of our loyalty." (Cathy, Eat Mor Chikin, p. 100)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn his autobiography, Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People, Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy recalls a difficult period in the early 80s when a national slowdown in mall development threatened the survival of his business. This trial ultimately led him and his company towards a deeper commitment to God. During an Executive Committee meeting, Cathy's son, Dan, posed a profound question to his peers. "'Why are we in business? Why are we here? Why are we alive?'
"My first response was to put aside such questions and stick to the matter at hand - our difficulties in the business and our response to those difficulties. We had a business to run.
"But Dan was not being rhetorical. He really wanted us to consider the purpose of Chick-fil-A, and he believed the answers to his questions might lead us to solutions to our more immediate problems as well. So the eight of us began something of a brainstorming session, putting ideas on a blackboard as we went.
"The discussion quickly focused on our individual priorities. We were unanimous in our belief that each of us wanted to glorify God in all we say and do. It was only natural that we would also want to glorify God through our work.
"Discussing God's role in our lives was nothing new to this group. More than fifteen years earlier, at our original office near the Dwarf House, three or four of us had begun weekly devotional times on Monday mornings. The tradition continued and grew as the company expanded and moved into our new building, and our Executive Committee members attended regularly. But our devotional time focused on our personal relationship with God. We had not addressed the role of Chick-fil-A in those terms.
"My style has always been low-key with regard to my religious convictions. I hope that people see something attractive in the way I live that leads them to seek the One who leads me. In my own personal way I had committed the company to His purpose but had not done so publicly.
"It became obvious that the Committee was moving toward doing just that. By the end of the day we had developed two statements, which became Chick-fil-A's Corporate Purpose:
"To glorify God by being a faithful steward
"of all that is entrusted to us.
"To have a positive influence on all who
"come in contact with Chick-fil-A.
"We returned to the office, and the staff asked us what we had decided.
"'Well, we don't have a solution to the problem at hand,' I said, 'but we did establish this as our Corporate Purpose.'" (Cathy, Eat Mor Chikin, p. 124)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteThroughout his life, Heinz Ketchup founder H. J. Heinz remained an active Christian. This provided him with what biographer Quentin Skrebac describes as a much-needed sense of balance between his work commitments on the one hand and his dedication to a higher purpose on the other. "Heinz would remain active as a Sunday school superintendent till 1895, then he became a director of the Pennsylvania State Sabbath School Association. As a director, he would travel once a month, ten months a year, from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to the association meeting. He would, near the end of his life, summarize the importance of Sunday school: 'To my mind, the Sunday School is the world's greatest living force for character building and good citizenship. It has paid me the largest dividends of any investment I ever made. I bear testimony that in my own life that Sunday school has been an influence and an inspiration second only to that of a consecrated mother.' Later in life, Heinz was a member of the International Sunday School Association and the World's Sunday School Association. He was vice president and director of both organizations. He was considered the driving force in beginning Sunday schools in the Orient. In his will he left $100,000 ($1.8 million today) to the University of Pittsburgh for a chair of Sunday school teaching." (Skrebac, Jr., H. J. Heinz, pp. 82-83)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn his autobiography, Mover of Men and Mountains, industrialist and earth-moving machinery inventor R.G. LeTourneau describes a moment of deep prayer with his pastor, Reverend Devol. This moment proved to be an important turning point in his understanding of what service to God really meant. "To me service to the Lord, to which I had just dedicated my life, meant the ministry or missionary work. I couldn't see myself as a minister. I couldn't even speak correct English in private, let alone stand up before a congregation. But I had proved my ability to work for the Penial Mission [and organization with which LeTourneau had been previously involved], and I knew from my talks with Sarah and Marie [friends of LeTourneau's wife, Evelyn] that there was much-needed work I could do for their mission in China. But was that what He wanted me to do?"
LeTourneau took these doubts to Reverend Devol. "We both knelt, and each one of us asked God what He wanted me to do, and as we arose from our knees, God spoke to me through the words of my pastor. 'You know, Brother LeTourneau,' he said, 'God needs businessmen as well as preachers and missionaries.'
"Those were the words that have guided my life ever since. I repeat them in public at every opportunity because I have discovered that many men have the same mistaken idea I had of what it means to serve the Lord. My idea was that if a man was going all out for God, he would have to be a preacher, or an evangelist, or a missionary, or what we call a full-time Christian worker. I didn't realize that a layman could serve the Lord as well as a preacher.” (LeTourneau, Mover of Men and Mountains, pp. 109-10)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn his autobiography, Mover of Men and Mountains, industrialist and earth-moving machinery inventor R.G. LeTourneau explains how he hoped to instill a "Christian atmosphere" into his construction company. "I'll have to admit I was a pretty queer duck. I had an idea that if my men were inspired to go to church on Sunday, they wouldn't feel like blowing their salary on Saturday night. I had an idea that if my men saved a few hundred on the job, they would stick around and save a few hundred more. I had an idea that if I built my own machines for a job, I wouldn't have to fire my men when it was finished. I could put them to work building new machines and repairing the old ones to get set for the next job.
"Idealistic? Of course, and my competitors got many a laugh out of me. Still, there's something in having the last laugh. I didn't then go out of my way to hire good Christian men for my jobs. I haven't since, and I never will. The fact is, if I ever thought my crew was composed of men wholly dedicated to Christ, I would deliberately hire some non-believers for my crew to work on.
"What did happen was that with a Christian atmosphere around my jobs, I did attract a good Christian element, and ever since the birth of our Savior, the time hasn't been when a good Christian can't work rings around the toughest roughneck you ever saw. Not only that, but in that kind of atmosphere your toughest roughneck is very apt to find Christ himself, and then you've got something." (LeTourneau, Mover of Men and Mountains, pp. 134-35)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn his autobiography, Mover of Men and Mountains, industrialist and earth-moving machinery inventor R.G. LeTourneau describes a moment of deep prayer with his pastor, Reverend Devol. This moment proved to be an important turning point in his understanding of what service to God really meant. "To me service to the Lord, to which I had just dedicated my life, meant the ministry or missionary work. I couldn't see myself as a minister. I couldn't even speak correct English in private, let alone stand up before a congregation. But I had proved my ability to work for the Penial Mission [and organization with which LeTourneau had been previously involved], and I knew from my talks with Sarah and Marie [LeTourneau’s sisters, both missionaries] that there was much-needed work I could do for their mission in China. But was that what He wanted me to do?"
LeTourneau took these doubts to Reverend Devol. "We both knelt, and each one of us asked God what He wanted me to do, and as we arose from our knees, God spoke to me through the words of my pastor. 'You know, Brother LeTourneau,' he said, 'God needs businessmen as well as preachers and missionaries.'
"Those were the words that have guided my life ever since. I repeat them in public at every opportunity because I have discovered that many men have the same mistaken idea I had of what it means to serve the Lord. My idea was that if a man was going all out for God, he would have to be a preacher, or an evangelist, or a missionary, or what we call a full-time Christian worker. I didn't realize that a layman could serve the Lord as well as a preacher.” (LeTourneau, Mover of Men and Mountains, pp. 109-10)
Religion
ReplyDeleteIn the midst of America's mobilization for World War II, industrialist and earth-moving machinery inventor R. G. LeTourneau took the extraordinary step of instituting a full-time chaplaincy for his employees. At first, he was met with some resistance, as he explains in his autobiography, Mover of Men and Mountains. "When I brought it up at a staff meeting, I was warned of the fate of other companies that had tried to extend their influence into the lives of their employees. Invariably the employees had resented what they considered an 'invasion of privacy,' and reacted by claiming that what a man does on his own time is his own business."
Initially, LeTourneau found these warnings convincing. "Not until 1941, with World War II upon us, and the armed services seeking chaplains for their men, did I realize how foolishly timid I had been. If men in the armed services needed spiritual advisors and showed no hesitancy about admitting it, why should the men in industry supporting the armed forces be denied the same aid? At once, I found chaplains for my plants in Peoria [IL] and Toccoa [GA], and I've been thanking God ever since. We call it 'Christianity with its sleeves rolled up,' and I am eager to testify that it is a very effective way of bringing peace among men because it begins with their daily work." (LeTourneau, Mover of Men and Mountains, pp. 210-11)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteJohn D. Rockefeller’s legacy is complex and controversial, as historian Ron Chernow demonstrates in his monumental biography, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller. One of Rockefeller’s clearest virtues, however, was the sense of religious piety that informed both his business and philanthropic enterprises. This virtue was cultivated in him by his devout Baptist mother Eliza, during his humble childhood in the backwoods of upstate New York, and served as a pole of stability amidst his dissolute father Bill’s many long, unaccounted for absences. “John D. Rockefeller was drawn to church, not as some nagging duty or obligation but as something deeply refreshing to the soul. The Baptist church of his boyhood provides many clues to the secrets of his character…John attended a Sunday school a short distance from [the family’s] hilltop house and remembered the teacher as a formerly profane man who had repented and become an earnest Christian. The boy saw religion less as a system of other-worldly rewards than as a means of moral reformation on earth. Since Bill was often away, Eliza coaxed a Presbyterian neighbor into dropping off her children at the Baptist church on Sunday mornings. As the family huddled together in the pew, Eliza encouraged the children to drop pennies into the collection plate; Rockefeller later cited his mother’s altruism as the genesis of his philanthropy. Early in life, he learned that God wanted his flock to earn money and then donate money in a never-ending process. ‘I was trained from the beginning to work and to save,’ Rockefeller explained. ‘I have always regarded it as a religious duty to get all I could honorably and give all I could. I was taught that way when I was a boy.’” (Chernow, Titan, pp. 18-19)