TGIM: I didn’t have the luxury of being a moral creature

Thank God It’s Monday! I hope to blog more frequently on the spirituality of work under this heading. This comment came in a few weeks ago:

Brian, in this Sunday’s edition of the New York Times Magazine the lead article is about how hard food companies work to make us want to eat more of their products, regardless of the consequences to our health.
The author interviewed Howard Moskowitz, a noted food scientist who specializes in “optimizing” food so people will want to eat more of it. The bold italics are mine.
“I first met Moskowitz on a crisp day in the spring of 2010 at the Harvard Club in Midtown Manhattan. As we talked, he made clear that while he has worked on numerous projects aimed at creating more healthful foods and insists the industry could be doing far more to curb obesity, he had no qualms about his own pioneering work on discovering what industry insiders now regularly refer to as “the bliss point” or any of the other systems that helped food companies create the greatest amount of crave.‘There’s no moral issue for me,’ he said. ‘I did the best science I could. I was struggling to survive and didn’t have the luxury of being a moral creature. As a researcher, I was ahead of my time.’ ”
To me, this is the quintessential human dilemma in one sentence – I would love to hear your comments.

Well said. One of the most important features of the Christian church’s mission (and the same could be said for other religious communities) is to help people realize that “being a moral creature” is not a luxury. It’s a reality, a necessity, and human responsibility.
So I hope today all who read this will ponder their “Monday through Friday” work and open their hearts to receive it as a holy mission. Every person you meet, every decision you make, every word you speak … you are living out your faith, your purpose, and your vision as a moral human being. It all counts. It is all meaningful. It all matters. So thank God it’s Monday!