“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16).
Normally we use Labor Day weekend to get together, barbeque, and transition into fall. We’ll still do that in some measure, given Covid-19 restrictions, but this weekend should be different. Yesterday the Department of Labor released its weekly unemployment report. All told, 29.2 million Americans are receiving unemployment assistance. Only 42% of jobs have been recovered since the pandemic began (AP, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 4; A14). Other years we’d flip a burger with little thought about jobs. This Labor Day weekend should be different.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” applies first to what you say in court, but we also use the Ten Commandments as file folders. We gather all that God teaches us about a given topic under the heading of a commandment. Let’s ask if we’re giving false witness about work. Michael Sandel: “From the end of World War II until the 1970s, it was possible for those without a college degree to find a good job that enabled them to support a family and lead a comfortable, middle-class life. That is more difficult today. Over the past four decades, the earnings difference between high-school and college graduates—what economists call the ‘college premium’ – has doubled.” Sandel writes this has changed how we think about work. “The valorization of those who score well on standardized tests and go on to college or university implicitly disparages those without such credentials. It tells them that the work they do, less valued by the market than the work of professionals, is a lesser contribution to the common good.”
You see how the Eighth Commandment applies? Jesus was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). Your neighbor is that person without a degree, that person in a pay range judged less important, but in fact a neighbor whose work may be doing more for our community than some college grad in a cubicle. No wonder many people are angry. Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild: “You do not recognize yourself in how others see you. It is a struggle to feel seen and honored” (Michael Sandel, The Atlantic online; September 2). Did Jesus say, “Whoever would be great among you must have a college degree and make lots of money?” No, Jesus’ great ones serve others (Mark 10:42-45).
The old wily foe uses our unexamined assumptions to undermine the ways of God. I’m thankful for my education but I’m no better than anyone else.
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