What Does "The Dignity of Work" Really Mean?
Hint: It's White Christian Nationalist dogma being used to bludgeon and enslave Americans on public assistance
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This week, Russ Vought (Director of the Office of Management and Budget; key author of Project 2025; radicalized Christian Nationalist extremist) went on Fox Business and pontificated about “restoring the dignity of work.”
The “Dignity of Work” was a BIG DEAL in Project 2025. And now, thanks to America’s refusal to read Project 2025 and take it seriously, we are going to be treated to a parade of Christo-fascist Republicans parroting the virtues of the “Dignity of Work” in response to the gutting of social safety nets and the rise of enslaved for-profit prison and concentration camp labor.
Last year, I tried to sound the alarm about how the “Dignity of Work,” Catholic extremist dogma that has seeped into Protestant Christian Nationalism, informed the entire Department of Labor section of Project 2025.
From that newsletter (but please go back and read the whole thing. I promise, it is even more relevant today, despite the dated news references:)
Project 2025, page 581
While it is primarily the culture’s responsibility to affirm the dignity of work, our federal labor and employment agencies have an important role to play by protecting workers, setting boundaries for the healthy functioning of labor markets, and ultimately encouraging wages and conditions for jobs that can support a family.
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The dignity of work is a teaching of the Catholic Church. It derives from the verses in Genesis 1 and 2. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops devotes an entire webpage to expound on what they believe is the Biblical basis for the dignity of work. I include an outtake below from John Paul II, who was pope during most of my years in Christian Nationalism.
"Work is, as has been said, an obligation, that is to say, a duty, on the part of man. . . Man must work, both because the Creator has commanded it and because of his own humanity, which requires work in order to be maintained and developed. Man must work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he belongs to, the country of which he is a child, and the whole human family of which he is a member, since he is the heir to the work of generations and at the same time a sharer in building the future of those who will come after him in the succession of history." (St. John Paul II, On Human Work [Laborem Exercens], no. 16)
Growing up in Protestant Christian Nationalism, I often heard the phrase an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
This paraphrases Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. (For numerous sources of this idea, GO HERE.)
Which paraphrases Proverbs 16:27. I reproduce the King James Version below (since Christian Nationalists love it so much.)
“An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.”
But Kenneth N. Taylor, who oversaw the production of The Living Bible in the early 1970s, translated Proverbs 16:27 this way:
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.
Whether Catholic or Protestant, the “Dignity of Work” is embedded in this verse from Proverbs. Christian Nationalists insist that people who aren’t “occupied with work” are “idle” and could therefore be “occupied with sin at all times.”
Christian Nationalists believe a nation’s collective sin causes God’s judgment. Meaning these millions of idle people who aren’t working are perpetually sinning and are causing God’s judgment to rain down on our country.
Christian Nationalists have anointed themselves gods in the flesh, God’s avenger on whoever they deem to be wrongdoers. They believe it is their responsibility to give these idle heathens something to do. Even if it means removing their safety nets and forcing them into a form of enslaved labor.
Think I’m exaggerating?
Here’s an article in The Hill from yesterday where Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggests that Medicaid recipients can replace deported farmworkers. Because according to this Christian Nationalist regime, they’ve been sinful, idle hands for too long and need to be reacquainted with the “Dignity of Work.” (GO HERE for link.)
Americans are going to hear the phrase "The Dignity of Work” vomited from every orifice of every Christian Nationalist Republican regime mouthpiece in the coming months. Here’s how Americans can push back against this extremist Christian Nationalist garbage.
Explain to me how you believe Proverbs 16:27 corresponds to this notion of “The Dignity of Work.” (Be prepared to tell them what Proverbs 16:27 says, because 9/10 of them won’t know.)
What do you think of the phrase “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”? (If they are Protestant) Do you realize this phrase is from a seminal piece of Catholic literature, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales? How do you feel about parroting a Catholic medieval writer who practiced a faith that tortured and murdered your Protestant forebears to the extent that they rejected it in the Reformation? (If they are Catholic) What do you know about Opus Dei? Are you a member?
How do you reconcile the idea of “The Dignity of Work” with Matthew 25:40? (Since you will most likely have to tell them what this verse says, here you go: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Christian Standard Bible) Do you believe Jesus was advocating for forcing disabled people, the elderly, and children to work in the fields for 20 hours a day in exchange for your definition of Biblical “dignity?” Or do you think he was challenging you to take care of the least of us, because we are all pieces of him?
While the above questions are somewhat technical, I hope they give readers more tools to confront Christian Nationalists with their own hypocrisy. Because “The Dignity of Work” is an apex example of their bastardization of the Christian faith. It is the opposite of what Jesus would do.
The republinazis just want to bring back slavery in whatever form they can, and forcing Medicaid recipients to work in the fields is only the beginning.
I work because I can't sit still and am self employed and enjoy what I do. However I would rather spend all my time sinning as it's a hell of a lot more fun!
Good information. Thank you. I am glad you brought up the Agricultural Secretary’s comments. When they are trying to force Americans in to the fields who are ill and elderly we will see the MAGA crowd rethink this.