Washington National Cathedral

The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith

The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host

David Miller, director of Princeton University’s Faith and Work Initiative and president of the Avodah Institute, talks with Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III about “The Economic Crisis: In God We Trust?”

Miller left a successful business career to enter seminary. Asking himself how he should live out his faith in the workplace, if God is indeed real, he gradually discerned a call to holy orders. When Miller announced his plans to colleagues during a business meeting, one of them asked if he had really had a call from God. Yes, Miller replied. The colleague asked, “Hasn’t God ever heard of call waiting?”

Although Miller sees many virtues in business today, he also points to obvious weaknesses that have led to worldwide problems in recent years. Many people in business now feel remorse for practices that, while legal, were clearly destructive. Now, Miller says, business has grown more cautious, and new questions are being asked in board rooms. People have lost an appetite for taking risks; they are thinking harder about regulators’ perceptions of their actions. This business climate has clear advantages and limitations.

To apply his experience as both a former executive and a Christian ethicist, Miller co-founded the Avodah Institute, which seeks to integrate the claims of faith with the demands of work and the marketplace. “I was stunned at the hunger, the vulnerability, the openness” of the CEOs who gathered together in the early days of Avodah, Miller says. Members of Avodah seek to live out their faith in their personal lives, in their business practices, and ultimately in the world. The CEO of Tyson Foods is trying to make chicken, pork, and beef more healthful for people and more humane for poultry and livestock. Another member, the former chairman of PepsiCo, faced a plethora of issues, from nutritional content to the use of sexy performers in advertising.

Industries are complex, and problems are not easy to solve, Miller emphasizes. To effect change, an executive cannot simply take a Bible into the board room and start preaching. Pressure to maximize earnings (especially in the short term) comes from all directions, including retired individuals and even churches that rely on business profits for pension funds.

Miller talks about a bank that has adopted a multi-year bonus system that actually “claws back” a prior year’s bonus if a product creates problems. He also talks about a new movement for corporations to be “faith friendly,” embracing a diversity of beliefs in the workplace. The inclusion of workers’ religious views—not just their secular ethical practices—can create a healthier workplace.

About David Miller

David Miller is director of Princeton University’s Faith & Work Initiative and president of the Avodah Institute, which helps business leaders and institutional executives integrate the claims of faith with the demands of the workplace. Prior to earning his Ph.D. in ethics from Princeton Seminary, Dr. Miller was an international business and banking executive in London, Germany, and the U.S. His most recent book is God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement (Oxford University Press), which challenges leaders to think differently about faith, ethics, and the demands of work.