"Christianity" in the Workplace

Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins, DISA Director

Yesterday the Army Times carried a story with this headline: 3-star ripped for presentation referencing God.  The 3-star in question is Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins, the recently appointed director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).  The references to God—which brought down the wrath of those who worship only at the altar of political correctness—were two slides in Hawkins’ presentation: one said, “Always put God first, and stay within His will”; the other said, “Always remember God is good — all the time!”  As new directors and commanders are wont to do, Hawkins’ presentation, which came at an “all hands” meeting—sort of like a town hall meeting within the organization—was about communicating his “command philosophy” to the DISA staff.  These kinds of presentations are meant to set the tone, establish the command climate, introduce the new director, establish communication, all those good things.

Some jerk in the audience took offense at the fact that the new director dared to mention God in the workplace and found a sympathetic ear in the media and complained.  Following that, some high up muckety-muck in an organization called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, opined that Hawkins should be court martialed.  Hence the story.

Of course, all this is part of the reason why, in the 21^st Century, we still don’t have an enterprise network that echelons below company level can access in tactical environments and that enables rapid information sharing between the Services and between the military and other government agencies.  If people focused as much attention to their jobs as they do to their rights and prejudices, we’d have those capabilities—in spades.

But that is not to excuse Lt. Gen. Hawkins.  What he did was inappropriate and he should know better.  That he apparently does not—and that he’s probably not the only one—should be a cause of concern among senior military and civilian leadership.

In his own defense, Hawkins said that nothing in his presentation, entitled “Ronnie’s Rules,” was directive in nature, that they only were intended to get across to the DISA rank and file how the new director governs himself.  Of course, the idiot that complained had it all twisted and spun it this way, saying in effect that here’s the new commander telling is that this is what I expect of all of you.

First, if these rules are rules for Ronnie Hawkins, they should be taped to Ronnie Hawkins’ desk or his bathroom mirror where he and only he is confronted by them.  Putting them in a commander’s call briefing sends a message, and not a very Christlike one at that.  It says, Hey, I think a lot of myself and the fact that I think I’m a pretty good Christian.  Truly spiritual men never behave that way.

Second, this is the kind of thing that nominal Christians all through the military workplace feel that it’s their Christian duty to do.  But they are mistaken.  If you are a Christian, your Christian duty is to do your job.  Your Christian duty is to give your employer an honest day’s labor for that day’s wages.  Time spent on the job touting your Christian virtues, reading your Bible, holding prayer meetings, etc., is time spent stealing from your employer and defrauding the government.

God did not call you to convert your colleagues at work.  At least not by ostentatious displays of religiosity when you’re being paid to do a job.  People like General Hawkins—and the military has tons of them—are too undiscerning to realize it, but they’re showy religious activities in the workplace actually work to convince others that Christianity is no different from any other religion.  They bring reproach upon the name of Christ and upon the word of God.  It’s a sad thing to see and an irritating thing to experience.