Higher Power Lunches
Inside the glass-paneled conference room of investment banking firm Sutro & Co. in Woodland Hills, a lunchtime discussion naturally has turned to things financial.
The “Lunch and Learn” Torah class, under the direction of a local cantor, is discussing asset management strategies found in Leviticus. The third book of the Bible instructs the faithful not to “reap to the very corners of your field . . . nor shall you gather every grape in your vineyard” so that something is left for the poor. It’s not the sort of yield maximization that would thrill Wall Street. But it’s a welcome change for participant Lawrence Solomon.
“I’m on the phone with Wall Street all day long,” said the senior vice president of investments at Sutro. “It’s nice to break away from that and reflect, if only for an hour.” Pressed for time and seeking answers deeper than those found in the employee handbook, Americans are forming religious classes in the workplace at what observers say is an unprecedented clip.
From Bible study inside the Magic Kingdom of Disneyland to Koran classes at defense giant Northrop Grumman Corp., God is back in the Day Runner for workers determined to squeeze some weekday spirituality into their hectic schedules.
The move also reflects a new willingness by bosses to accommodate the religious needs of their employees, who are searching for stability in an era of restructuring and downsizing, according to Don Kline, vice president of field services for the Fellowship of Companies for Christ International (FCCI), an Atlanta-based organization of Christian company owners and executives.
“People know their security no longer lies with the job or the corporation,” Kline said. “They are reexamining the whole division between what is secular and what is sacred and concluding that they can’t live two separate lives. . . . Taking a little time out from the work day to pray or study is a reflection of that. I’m seeing more of it wherever I go.”
Just how fast these groups are multiplying is anyone’s guess since no one keeps official tallies of these informal gatherings. Kline estimates that at least half of FCCI’s 1,500 member companies host Bible studies on their premises, representing just a fraction of the Christian workplace groups meeting regularly across the nation.
Dr. Musa Qutub, president of the Islamic Information Center of America in Des Plaines, Ill., guesses that “hundreds if not thousands” of Koran studies and prayer groups have emerged in the workplace in recent years as Islam continues its rapid growth in the United States.
For many people, the office or job site represents the antithesis of a spiritual haven. But for time-starved ‘90s employees, squeezing into an empty conference room at lunch hour to discuss the Word is about the only option available during the workweek.
Such pragmatism drove Jacob Goldfinger six months ago to organize a Jewish prayer circle at his Wilshire Center accounting office. He and other busy professionals now gather there regularly Monday through Thursday for a 10-minute afternoon prayer service known as the mincha, which requires a quorum or minyan of at least 10 Jewish men and must be performed before sundown.
Similar minyans can be found scattered across Los Angeles, from the downtown Jewelry District to the Westside.
“In the wintertime particularly, it just isn’t practical to leave the office by 4:30 to get to the synagogue,” Goldfinger said. “Our solution is to meet here at lunchtime. . . . It’s food for the soul.”
Brown bagging with the Lord has become a precision operation for engineer Jack Schat and other Christians who meet weekly at Boeing Co. in Long Beach. Lunch hour lasts just 42 minutes. So after a few hellos and an opening prayer, it’s down to business, reading and discussing the Bible.
It took Schat’s group a year and a half just to plow through the book of Mark. But the engineer isn’t discouraged by the time constraints.
“The Lord is extremely orderly, so that’s how we have to do things,” he said. “Besides, we want to be careful not to go over our time. If co-workers see us straggling out of a Bible study, it doesn’t set a very good example.”
The routine doesn’t work for everyone. Boeing employee Ted Horvath joined another noontime Bible study a few years back and found there wasn’t time to dig into the Good Book by the time everyone had burrowed into their lunch pails.
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Still, many participants say even a few minutes of reflection leaves them feeling more energized than any coffee break, according to Bill Hoganson, associate pastor of Calvary Chapel in Anaheim, who leads a weekly Bible study for Disneyland employees at the Anaheim park.
“I’d say the number one thing that draws them is the chance to be refreshed from the stress of the day,” said Hoganson, who worked at the park for 26 years before joining the church full time. “I try to give them an eternal perspective so they won’t be overwhelmed by the tyranny of the moment.”
The proliferation of religious study in the workplace has much to do with the attitudes of employers, many of whom are quite accommodating when it comes to letting such groups meet on company property.
Northrop Grumman allows employee religious groups to congregate on-site during lunchtime and after hours, just like members of the company athletic teams or the aviation buffs’ club. Three Bible studies and a Koran group currently are active at the company’s Hawthorne, El Segundo and Pico Rivera facilities, according to Northrop spokesman James Hart.
“In the eyes of the company, religious clubs are no different from the softball team,” Hart said. “It’s obviously good for morale.”
Although most major companies around the Southland have much the same policy as Northrop, legal experts are divided on whether employers are required to provide this kind of access.
While federal employment law says bosses must accommodate their workers’ religious practices within reason, Barry Lynn, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, doubts that means private employers are mandated to provide prayer venues.
“Workers probably don’t have a constitutional right to meet in their employer’s sub-basement for an hour a day at lunchtime,” he said.
However, if a local company opens its facilities to the chess club, it might have a tough time denying equal access for an employee prayer circle under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, according to Doug Mirell, a 1st Amendment attorney with Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles.
“If they provide space for the Republican club, they’d have to make room for the Democrats,” Mirell said. “A provision for one requires that a provision be made for all.”
Other potential conflicts could arise if members of an office religious group try to proselytize their co-workers, or if a boss attempts to coerce employees to attend on-site religious classes.
On the contrary, engineer Akhtar H. Emon says his Koran study group at Grumman has helped to defuse workplace tensions. Because the group has been around since 1984, Emon says non-Muslim co-workers have grown quite comfortable approaching members with questions about the faith.
Fellow employees have learned about Ramadan, offering Emon support and encouragement through Islam’s holy month when followers fast from sunrise to sunset. Some have grown so familiar with his routine on Friday, the Muslim day for communal worship, that they remind him to head to the nearby mosque for afternoon prayers if they notice he’s running late.
“The group has definitely had a positive impact on the work environment,” Emon said. “It has helped to build mutual trust and understanding.”
