The Multiple Intersections of
Religion, Labour, and Class This is the second of a two-part series by Dr Joerg Riger, Vanderbilt University. Part One can be found in our October issue. Used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers, www.wipfandstock.com. Dr Joerg Rieger is Distinguished Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University and holds the Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Studies. He is Founding Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice. He is also Affiliated Faculty of Turner Family Centre for Social Ventures, Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. He is author and editor of 24 books and more than 170 academic articles.
Religion, and the Abrahamic traditions in particular, can provide a broader perspective for labour and the labour movement. Note that refusing to address religion does not mean it will stop interfering with labour and wither away; it means that religion will be used in service to the dominant powers and the corporations, as it often is.17
connections of this struggle to the struggle of working people today. Exploitation and oppression are still real-life experiences, as are stories of liberation.
These connections are made explicit today especially in the so-called “Labour Seders” organised by the Jewish Labour Committee, which serve as reminders In many of the Abrahamic religious traditions, the that the struggle for liberation is ongoing. The view from the perspective of working people is not following parallels between ancient times and today only enlightening, but indispensable. For example, are highlighted: persecution, oppressive taskmasters, the legacy of Moses, shared in different ways by impossible work demands, work quotas, and a Judaism, Christianity, and Islam cannot be conceived struggle for freedom.18 without his solidarity with the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. The liberation from Egypt is deeply anchored In Christian traditions, Christmas is a holiday deeply in all three Abrahamic traditions. The legacy of Jesus connected with work and labour. In the birth of cannot be conceived without his solidarity with Christ, God chose to become a day labourer in working people of his own time and which drew the construction who would have known the realities of ire of status quo religion. The legacy of Muhammad labour first- hand. This arrangement was certainly is likewise tied to a concern for the wellbeing of the not the most advantageous for the spread of any working people of his time, many of whom were dominant religious message, and so it appears to be being defrauded in the transition from a tribal to a more than a historical accident. Why make a mercantile society where traders gathered spectacular announcement of this birth to lower substantial fortunes at the expense of the masses. working-class shepherds—sending the heavenly choir of angels no less—rather than to the upper Core religious holidays of the Abrahamic religions crust of the country, including the high priests and may demonstrate what is at stake. Judaism’s the vassal kings (Luke 2:7–10)? The symbols of celebration of the Passover, for instance, is an annual Christmas, including shepherds and sheep, are not reminder of the liberation from slavery in Egypt. Few romantic adornments of a mystical event. They serve other religious rituals are as strongly grounded in an as reminders of God’s unflinching solidarity with act of liberation. This liberation is not merely a working people. And so it appears that even the spiritual matter but affects everything, including angels join in solidarity with working people. In this economics, politics, community, and personal spirit, the common critiques of consumerism leveled relationships. The Passover begins with the Seder, a around Christmastime need to be redirected: rather ritual meal during which the story of the exodus from than blaming consumers, what about challenging Egypt is retold. If religion is understood in terms of those who fuel consumerism? people’s daily lives, it is not hard to see the many
42 INSiGHT DECEMBER 2021
Egypt and Nubia, Volume I: Abyssinian Slaves Resting at Korti-Nubia. Photo via https://clevelandart.org/art/2012.215.
