Bait and Switch

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream

I just read Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich. She is a journalist in search of a corporate job for her expose on white collar unemployment. She tries many networking events (among numerous other things) to land a job. She ends up at a couple of Christian networking events because she has told herself to try everything. What struck me about her observations was that she was viewing these events from a never-been-a-christian atheist point of view.

She attended these meetings with the hope of networking with business men and women, but instead was “treated” to mini-sermons and testimonies of how God was working in their lives.

As one particular man tells his story about the ups and downs of his career, mostly downs, Barbara concludes that “the Lord was not paying much attention.”

At another meeting a man tells how he came to the Lord because a friend of his introduced him to the Bible. He says, “I couldn’t argue with the Bible. It just makes sense - good common sense.” Barbara says she tries and fails to think of what parts of the Bible can be reasonable accused of making “good common sense.” Perhaps, she thinks, our speaker is referring to some alternative Bible that has been purged of miraculous content for easier consumption for the business community, because as far as she knows it is not the business of religion to “make sense.”

This is the part I loved:

In testimonies I have heard so far at Christian gatherings, God is always busy micromanaging every career and personal move: advising which jobs to pursue, even causing important e-mails to be sent. In one conversation, a job seeker implied to me that God had intervened to prevent him from selling his house; at least he took the house’s failure to sell as “a sign.” Thus everything happens “for a reason,” even if it is not immediately apparent, and presumably a benevolent one.
What ever happened to personal responsibility? “I worked hard and got promoted” or “I screwed up and failed?” or “I chose the wrong job and want to move on.” Why does everything have to be God-related? No personal responsibility. Who am I to argue if God told me this, gave me this job, presented me with this burden, etc.



Own up to reality: it is all about you and has nothing to do with God. When something “good” happens, take pride in that. When something “bad” happens, fix it.






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