Sunday, February 20, 2022
WSJ Op-Ed: Silicon Valley’s Secret Christians
Wall Avenue Journal op-ed: Silicon Valley’s Secret Christians, by Peter Rex (Founder/CEO, Rex)
HBO’s Silicon Valley received reward throughout its six-season run for precisely satirizing Northern California’s tech startup tradition. A traditional episode depicts a gathering wherein one of many principal characters by chance “outs” a colleague, leaving the gathered tech leaders uncomfortable. However they’re not upset that their potential companion is homosexual—fairly, they’re shocked to study that he goes to church. One other character later admits that Christianity “freaks folks out within the Valley.”
There’s reality within the present’s satire. Having held tech jobs in Silicon Valley and Seattle, I’ve skilled a mixture of hesitation and hostility towards my Catholic religion. Jap Orthodox, Mormon and Protestant colleagues at my firm have had comparable experiences, main them to fret about being open with their spiritual beliefs. The concern is legitimate. For all its speak of range, the tech trade has little room for religious believers. This discomfort with religion cuts off a lot of tech from the ethical basis it wants. …
The dearth of faith-driven tech staff and leaders leads many within the trade to view believers with suspicion. When Google staff found that a few of their Christian colleagues maintain a weekly prayer group, some responded by asking “we make use of individuals who pray?” and “is that basically applicable to do at work?” However folks of religion will be seen as a lot worse than oddballs. …
Tech wants an infusion of religion. It might make the trade extra humane and enlightened and morally grounded, serving to carry up these it at present pushes down. This transformation might already be below means, due to the swarm of tech firms transferring from the West Coast to Texas, Florida, Tennessee and different states the place spiritual perception nonetheless runs excessive. But with most of tech nonetheless centered in Silicon Valley and Seattle, this development must speed up. Tech isn’t a god, nor are tech leaders, however they do want God.
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2022/02/wsj-op-ed-silicon-valleys-secret-christians.html
