The Pew Research Center estimates there are 2.35 million Muslims in the US, and 224 million Christians. However a cautious approach is always best.
By Suzanne Evans
Perhaps it was the work of German economist and sociologist Max Weber that started it. His groundbreaking 1904 book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism suggested that particular forms of faith, far from rejecting worldly wealth and possessions on the grounds that ‘money is the root of all evil,’ could instead make significant contributions to the pursuit of economic gain and the development of free enterprise. Since then, the money-making potential of religion has been explored and exploited by sole traders and international corporations alike.
I’m not just talking here about shady characters such as Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard and US Televangelist Jimmy Swaggert, who made millions preaching their own particular brand of ‘faith’ and sweet-talking those who could ill afford it into handing over their hard earned cash. I’m talking about the growing number of quasi-spiritual organizations claiming to be able to transform your organizations’ bottom line by channeling a little spirituality into the workplace. For them, it’s boom-time.
Arguably, Werner Erhard was the father of this new religion-based business model. A used-car and encyclopedia salesman born in 1971, Erhard experienced ‘enlightenment’ sitting in his car by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and before long he was telling organizations such as NASA, Cunard and Procter and Gamble how to run their organizations.
The next step
Then his protégée, Robert d’Aubigny, founded Programmes Ltd in 1981, a telesales company linked intrinsically to Erhard’s philosophy that an individual is directly responsible for everything that happens to them.
A former tutor of mine, who studied Programmes Ltd., tells the terrifying story of how, at the end of each working day, staff would walk straight out of the building and into the busy traffic on the main road outside without looking, so completely did they come to believe in their own personal magical powers and invincibility.
Yet it worked. Well, for a while, at least. The utter dedication of the Programmes team delivered great results for the companies they worked for and the organizations’ ethos was developed into management training programs for companies such as British Telecom and the Clydesdale Bank.
Since then, countless organizations have introduced ‘organizational transformation’ programs to their workforce and many of them are undoubtedly spiritual in nature. Type ‘spirituality + business’ into Google you get over seven and a half million hits. And, unless you’ve been living in the jungle for the last two decades, you will know the new buzz-words are ‘spiritual’ intelligence’ and the ‘corporate soul’…
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