IDENTITY AS PROFESSION:

AMERICAN IDEALS OF WORK

Second Draft Outine of Final Paper

I. INTRO: I am a member of Westside Christian Fellowship, a church in Santa Monica, California. WCF prides itself on being “relational” and for engaging in life together “as a result of the trust we place in Jesus Christ” (http://westsidechristian.com/about.php, accessed March 10, 2008). However, to be truly relational and to engage in a community-oriented life together, the congregants of WCF would have to find a new way of speaking about themselves for the congregants’ identity is a “discursive construction” which is “temporarily stabilized by social practice and regular, predictable behaviour” (Barker 2003: 228). Currently, the members of WCF have been acculturated through various systems of educational power, UCLA in particular, which have instructed them to construct their identities first and foremost in terms of the activities in which they engage for employment. Therefore, if WCF is to truly become a community centered on Jesus Christ, then the members of the church and the church leadership must learn a new language of identity focused on the credo “We are a community of brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.” For this new language to be stabilized and to become lived, then the church must fully engage this language in social practice.

II. Aspect of Culture and How it Plays Out

A) Identity as a Socially Constructed Discourse

ex. I am a Janitor (that which I do 8am-5pm)

B) Identity as a Result of Acculturating Systems of Power

C) West Los Angeles Culture and Evangelicalism

(A system of Christian Professionals supported by Patrons of ministry)

III. The Religious Dimension of Work (Cobb)

A) The American Dream as Ultimate Concern

B) To Be Human is to Work: You are the Tasks of Your Vocation

C) Jesus' Teaching: (positive on culture) Vocation as Calling

D) Jesus' Teaching: (negative on culture) We are How we Relate

IV. Addressing the Issue

A) Do what it is that we Market

B) Live Close and Be Together

C) Start the "Workday" Together as Family