Written by: Julie Dodge on February 21, 2014

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a child misbehaved. The exact misbehavior is long forgotten. But at bedtime, as his mother tucked him into bed, she told him to be careful. If he was not good tomorrow, the bogeyman might come and steal the child away. Perhaps in a sack. Perhaps on a horse. Perhaps he was a scary bogeyman, or perhaps he was a gnarled old woman. Perhaps that mother told her friends about this story when it worked, and other mothers began telling their children about the bogeyman.  Perhaps the child told his friends about the bogey man while they were playing in a field. When the children grew up, they told their children about the bogeyman, and their children after them. He was effective, this bogeyman. But he wasn’t real. The bogeyman came into existence through a story and children around the world learned that bad children were stolen away.

The exact origins of this story are unknown, but it is a story told around the world. The bogey man has different shapes, names, and practices, but his original purpose was to scare naughty children into good behavior. As adults we know that there is no such thing as a bogey man. (Or at least we are pretty sure that there isn’t.) But his memory stays with us. We don’t know why. But he is embedded in our subconscious as a story with a purpose. We might see him on screen as the star of a horror movie, and we might laugh at him even. But somewhere deep inside, though we don’t know where he came from, we still hope that he isn’t real. He’s just a story created to help bad children behave.

Such are many aspects of culture. They appear out of a story, a moral parable, a leaflet, or a sermon, and they are passed on person to person, family to family, generation to generation, until the origin has been forgotten, while the message remains embedded in our life and practices.

This week in class my students were learning about the meaning and management of time across various cultures. In many western cultures, we are task oriented and time centric. We measure success by the tasks we can accomplish in a given amount of time. As it has long been said, “Time is money.”  My students react strongly to this idea that time is money. They are future social workers. They value people and like the idea of helping others. That time is money seems to de-value this idea. People are what matter! Right?

I asked them if they knew who said that time is money. No one could say, but having freshly read Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism[i], I could for the first time offer an answer: Benjamin Franklin.[ii] They all nodded in recognition. He’s a safe character. Smart. Creative. An acceptable source. Apparently if we like the source, we are more accepting of the idea.

We did not explore the broader influences of this idea. We did not explore the influence of Protestantism and the Reformation, and the particular theology of the Puritans, Pietists, Methodists, Baptists or Lutherans. This gets challenging among social workers, as there is a swift tendency to blame and judge the Protestant work ethic for poverty, the abuse of others and ultimately oppression in many forms. My goal in class was not to tackle that topic, but to discuss aspects of culture. Max Weber did tackle these influences, suggesting that the spirit of capitalism is rooted in the Protestant Reformation.

It’s a tricky road. To over-generalize, the Reformation created a new individualism, removed from the broad control of the Catholic church. Under Calvinism, Christians accepted that their salvation was purely an act of God by His grace, and not works. But they lacked assurance of salvation, since only the elect were to be saved, and no one knew for certain who the elect were. So they focused on pious living: hard work, good character, and proper participation in the religious community. These became symbols of salvation, and though they believed in salvation apart from works, with a slight tweak of an idea, came to practice a form of salvation demonstrated by works. The purist would argue that the works were not causal, but this institutionalization brought them back to a form of legalism.

The various denominations manifested this idea in different forms. The Puritans in a sober, diligent, rational manner; the Pietists with greater emotionalism; the Methodists with some emotionalism and commitment to structure and orderliness; the Baptists with the quiet character of moderation. Each grabbed hold to an idea of calling, and that one’s calling – “a task set by God,”[iii] was the greatest way to demonstrate salvation. If you perform your calling, whether it be as laborer or master, you should do it for God’s glory. And in turn, God will bless you. Perhaps financially as He did Job. But that blessing should not be your goal, it is that God is glorified.

The origins. There are more subtle details to each idea about calling, about work, about God’s blessing. Over time the story seemed to blend together. The original story forgotten. One should work hard, because time is money. And if you are good and you keep going, you will be blessed. You will gain money, power, resources, esteem.  But it’s not about the stuff. It’s about the hard work. And though the origins seem long forgotten, the meaning, the story, is sustained through time. The story tells us that this ideal of hard work is the right way. The best way. And by the way (as the following commercial testifies), it is the American way. (I apologize to my non-American friends.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGJSI48gkFc

I am searching for an application. What do we do with these ideas? How do we call attention to not merely the origins, but strive to correct the subtle shifts of the story over time? How do we turn attention to God who indeed deserves all glory, and away from what we do? How do we remind our world that monetary riches are not the only demonstration of God’s blessing or source of our personal worth? Perhaps I will turn to my students as they shape the next generation of the story. Perhaps it is my role to equip them with critical thinking skills, compassion for others, and appreciation of a different idea of wealth. Perhaps they can start to tell a new story.

About the Author

Julie Dodge

Julie loves coffee and warm summer days. She is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Concordia University, Portland, a consultant for non-profit organizations, and a leader at The Trinity Project.