To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise
By Bethany Moreton
(Harvard University Press, 2009)
People like us don’t do Wal-Mart. The very name conjures retrograde rednecks, and the company’s M.O.—its sexism, anti-unionism, low wages, insufficient health care, foreign product sourcing, adverse environmental practices, and toxic impact on local businesses—has made the moniker synonymous with free-market blight. But people like us sometimes miss the obvious, which is why we’ve been on the losing side of American politics for 40-plus years. Snookered by the Southern strategy, reamed by the Reagan revolution, cowed by the Christian Right and whacked by WMDs, we hope that Barack Obama is the change we can believe in. But we’re still missing an analysis we can understand. Sadly, without that piece, no change is secure since progressives need to understand what went wrong; as well as how and why we’ve been ignorant of and alienated from the main currents in American life.
Bethany Moreton’s pathbreaking study, To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise is an invaluable asset for apprehending how we got here. Her new book chronicles Wal-Mart’s role in mainstreaming evangelical and free market values even as it became the world’s largest public corporation and the nation’s biggest private employer. A critical appraisal of how religion, politics, and economics were interwoven in post-Vietnam American culture and society, To Serve God and Wal-Mart is also a bracing reminder that we, among the most materialistic people in the world, have turned a blind eye to the impact of material conditions on our actions, attitudes, and beliefs. Simply put, the 2008 election’s voting bloc du jour, “Wal-Mart Moms,” are more than a pundit’s wet dream or Rodeo Drive’s worst nightmare. They are a significant segment of the American public, a key constituency in shaping national values, and a harbinger of a global economic order organized around “Christian service” and “family values.”
Shop Local, Shop Wal-Mart?
But long before there were Wal-Mart moms, there was a confluence of people, place, and possibility that would become Wal-Mart Country. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, white Christian farmers in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Southwest Missouri mounted populist protests against the encroachment of industrial capitalism. Aligning with the Populist Party, many of these hardworking rural and small-town folks felt menaced by big East-coast banks and creeping national corporations. They weren’t opposed to money, business or success per se; rather, they wanted to ensure that some of it came their way. Accordingly, they supported federal legislation that protected the region and its farmers, setting a precedent for using government funds to aid a “favored segment” of the nation.
By the twentieth century, these yeomen-farmers had a new enemy: national chains. Viewed as foreign interlopers, the chains threatened to take local resources and local capital out of the Ozarks and put them into the pockets of Northern fat cats. In response, farmers and small businessmen began experimenting with new retail models: stores that were locally owned and financed, free of unions, and structured as cooperatives. It was in this hothouse of native chauvinism and economic localism that Wal-Mart was nurtured. Sam Walton, the company’s founder, was able to build on regional economic models, populist sensibilities, and social realities when, in 1962, he opened his first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Arkansas.
Walton was smart, but he also was lucky. He had a business plan that worked for its time and place. His stripped-down stores offered heavily discounted goods, but didn’t stint on hospitality and manners. In fact, Wal-Mart was the retail reflection of its consumer base: frugal, courteous, and reliable. The fact that clerks and customers were neighbors and family members only enhanced the down-home feel. Most of the clerks were local women, happy to augment the family income with a little extra pay. Bringing their Christian values into the workplace, they sought to serve others selflessly and cheerfully. Moreover, as many were already familiar with the religious concept of male headship, they had no problem taking orders from a male manager who might be new to the company or many years their junior. (Managers, for most of Wal-Mart’s history, were not just male, they were white males.)
Moreton argues that Wal-Mart’s female workers essentially re-envisioned the relationship between management and labor, substituting the competitive “male” model that predominated in Northern factories with a family-oriented female template that was less costly, more malleable, and ultimately able to safeguard the traditional gender relations (including male authority) so essential in a period of economic transition. Most important, says Moreton, it pioneered
“the patriarchal organization of work [that] ranks as a hallmark of the global economy, from the maquiladoras of young Honduran women embroidering swooshes on shoes to the immigrant-owned family motels and convenience stores that dot the United States.”
Their World Looks to Them the Same Way We Would See Ours
For many shoppers, Wal-Mart also embodied the best aspects of church: a community of friendly, generous, caring men and women. Some customers, comparing the store to their congregation, even found the latter wanting. Wal-Mart epitomized Christian service and, thanks to its homely displays and low prices, did not hallow the kind of conspicuous consumption common to many malls, gallerias, and shopping districts across the country. If anything, Wal-Mart sanctified a sort of stylized frugality, bringing the religious values of thrift and neighborliness to the fore. In time, the religious model even caught male managers in its net. The church’s notion of servant-leadership—which preserved male authority even as wives took jobs outside the home—also aided Wal-Mart as managers learned to lead through their commitment to service.
Wal-Mart’s success—both in reframing traditional gender relationships for a new corporate environment and in sanctifying working-class consumer capitalism—help explain the connections between conservative politics, the market economy and family values. But Sam Walton also had a major role in spreading the gospel of Christian free enterprise, an amalgam that linked religious principles, government support, and entrepreneurship. Even as business was becoming the default major on campuses, Walton and his friends sought to bend the curricula; first toward vocational training, which became a source for unpaid interns, and then to entrepreneurship, which lionized the visionary leadership provided by individuals exercising their God-given autonomy.
The focus on the individual as entrepreneur echoed religious themes that valorized individuality; particularly the importance of each person’s unique access to God and responsibility for his own salvation. Not surprisingly, alongside the teaching of (Christian) service and free enterprise, college business programs also taught students to be wary of government encroachments in the form of taxes, regulations, or oversight. But these same programs gladly took government aid and encouraged students to use federal funds to further their own professional goals. Government was a one-way street: the expectation was that it should support entrepreneurship without expecting anything in return. It was the old Populist notions reinterpreted by Christian capitalists on steroids.
Walton’s collegiate programs eventually led to foreign exchanges that paved the way for setting up shop globally. Adding a new dimension to American evangelism, Christian universities would offer scholarships to co-religionists from developing nations to attend business programs steeped in the Wal-Mart philosophy. Graduates would return home to spread the religious and economic gospel, often rising to become indigenous leaders in their local Wal-Mart stores.
The program’s political aspects were woven into its religious tenets and economic policies, both of which supported Christian free enterprise, traditional values and a gendered workforce. Writes Moreton:
“They [Walton Scholars] perceived their own careers and free-market policies generally as a form of public service, on the pattern of the Christian business departments they attended. For its part, Wal-Mart and its suppliers reaped tangible rewards from this network of skilled graduates. In 2005, the Bentonville company entered the Central American market, drawing together existing chains in Costa Rica and Guatemala that had employed Walton graduates.”
What amazes me is that even as we dreamed of a progressive, cosmopolitan, egalitarian, and cooperative counterculture, the Waltons of the world created one that now spans the globe. Equally striking is that their world looks to them the same way we would see ours: grassroots, anti-establishment, humane, and compassionate. Moreton’s scholarship and accessible style make this revelation all the more chilling. Wal-Mart won the hearts and minds of a generation while we, focused on our own battles, missed the war. The religious right was a sideshow and the political right a diversion. Buying and selling was for them, as it has been for us, key to our hopes, desires, and animating values. That’s the secret of the Wal-Mart Moms—and perhaps the starting point of our own movement.
Tags: free market, wal-mart
I ordered a copy of the book this morning. Thank you for the review.
This is an interesting idea. I covered Wal Mart as a reporter in the 1970s and never heard this angle. But since chains like K Mart, Target and others have prospered in this field (even if K Mart eventually collapsed) I wonder how accurate the description of Wal Mart's success is. The story was always that Wal Mart focused very tightly on products that sold in its markets, developed a very efficient inventory and ordering system that kept is costs low and its profits high. Maybe this piece was there and traditional business reporters just missed it.
You might also recall that Wal-Mart started on the basis of selling American products, which they do very little of these days. The low cost high profit is earned on the backs of underpaid workers in foreign countries, and the tax breaks Wal-Mart gets through subsidies like having state agencies cover the cost of health care because Wal-Mart refuses to cover their own employees. But the like Wal-Mart, the church lives on tax payer dimes all the while preaching that their god will meet the parishoner needs, just keep planting those money seeds with us folks! In other words, it's hypocrisy at best and duplicity at worst.
until they are able to understand rural people, LOL. Even rural progressives are a bit more populist and less "cosmopolitan" than their urban brethren, hence making conversations even among progressives a bit more difficult. We may have more in common with our conservative neighbors than with urban progressives.
Sure, there are WalMarts in urban areas now, but they tend to be pretty upscale, with fancy delis and imported cheese, along with 300-TC Egyptian cotton sheets. Surprised? Haven't been to WalMart lately? (Interestingly, K-Mart's demise came shortly behind their attempt to be more "upscale", featuring Martha Stewart accessories.)
Nevertheless, to rural people, most of modest means, WalMart represented - still does - a convenience that no one had offered previously (no Targets or Costcos in the boonies). You could go to WalMart and buy everything from pantyhose to diapers to cleaning products to a new suit. You could buy tools, tires, batteries, and bug spray. They offered products that you just couldn't find locally before, and it was all under one roof, and at decent prices. Best of all, you didn't have to drive 75 or 100 miles to the city to shop.
Sam Walton had a philosophy that has largely been lost today, but in the early days, he stressed thrift, community, family, and BUY AMERICAN. He supported family businesses by buying products from cottage industries.
Sure, he got rich, but I don't think that Sam Walton ever intended for anyone to be mistreated. I never met him, but know a lot of people who did, and they universally will tell you that while he had a hot temper, he was unfailingly fair.
Yes, it's true WalMart had almost all white and male managers, and a white female workforce, but the communities they were in were almost all white, too. You can't have a diverse workforce in a homogenous community without importing "foreign" workers, and that doesn't fly so well in conservative communities. "What's the matter? We ain't good enough fer 'em?"
Women were available to work, while in rural communities, a lot of the men back then were still farming. And, yes, they were - and still are - friendly and likely to be your neighbor. Women could work part-time, which they wanted to do, and didn't view it as a form of discrimination. Rural women tend to be conservative, too, and as the article points out, follow the rules and embrace a sort of authoritarian worldview.
I've actually worked at WalMart a couple of times, for short periods. The culture is interesting, to say the least. My co-workers ran the gamut from a mildly autistic man who wouldn't speak to a raving lunatic neo-Pente woman who fulminated at every break, and screamed at the TV in the breakroom - tuned to Fox, of course. They were overwhelmingly CHRISTIAN, including the intellectually challenged cart-wrangler, and very conservative. (One thing WalMart DOES do is hire a lot of people who might not otherwise find work. So glad are they for a job at all, they will not complain about low wages.)
I didn't fit very well, and after a couple of months, it got to me. That and the hours generated by a computer at corporate that didn't care if you worked until midnight on Wednesday night - they need a body at 5 am on Thursday, and you are it.
I definitely will read this book, because I think there is more to WalMart than simply being a purveyor of merchandise. They have done a lot to shape culture, too. In our local WalMart, you will NEVER find a progressive book on the shelf, but there are dozens of Christian pop culture authors, as well as Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, and any other conservative pundit who writes a book. (You CAN order them, but you won't find them in the store.) In their own way, they do what they can to preserve the conservative status quo in places like this, down in the Bible Belt.
I appreciate the review, but all the WalMarts I go to around here don't really exemplify any of the values or standards I read about here. In general, they are messy, dirty, filled with cheap products and staffed by underpaid workers who could care less and provide terrible service. Targets are clean, neat, and have employees who are helpful. I thought all WalMarts were like the ones I had been to, but maybe not.
I have never seen a pleasant Wal-Mart. They might exist but I have yet to see one. Of course, I avoid them. I used to go to one with a friend--that friend is an anti-Semite, a racist, and a gun nut. I no longer am in contact with him and no longer have any reason to go to Sam's or Wal-Mart.
My experience is that all non-union retail shops lack something important--repect for their workers.
My copy is on bach order from Barnes & Noble. Did this article push sells?
Bach order is a new category for religious books.
After all, their employees generally come from the neighborhood in which the store is located. In urban areas, I would expect the caliber of employees to be somewhat lower than those of rural areas in terms of work ethic. (This has nothing to do with race, so please keep reading.)
Urban areas tend to offer a wide range of job opportunities compared to rural areas. In urban areas, the people who end up in "dead end" service jobs are usually those lacking education or skills needed for a more desirable job. In rural areas, there are few jobs available, and ANY job is seen as desirable - and WalMart is a lot nicer than working in the chicken processing plant. Now the chicken plant has shut down, but our two main remaining employers are the hospital and WalMart, which pay similar wages to non-professional employees.
I have to say that our WalMart Super Center is well stocked (most of the time), clean, and has courteous employees - er, associates.
I'm not defending WalMart, because, quite frankly, they do a lot of indefensible things. But your comments tend to make me think that you are urban rather than rural, and that was my whole point. Rural people see things differently - even liberal rural people.
People here, for example, are not interested in a union, because WalMart already pays the prevailing local wages, and there are more important things to worry about than unions. Should the workers make more? No doubt, but if they are happy, especially at quarterly bonus time, should a union be forced on them?
Should an international retailer basically go with community standards, which WalMart actually does, or should they be held to some externally imposed standards? If so, whose? What if my rural community doesn't like the urban standards, or vice versa?
Interesting conversation, here.
I applied for several months to work at Wal-Mart but never got an interview. I am retired and need a part-time job. I have recent experience working in retail and old experience working in the trade. I was a member of the old Retail Clerks Union in my youth and I am pro-union. I think that keeps me out of consideration to work for Wal-Mart.
As someone that has lived in a rural area my entire life, this article left me feeling sad, confused, and a bit angry. Oh, us poor narrow-minded, stupid, submissive, misled uneducated rural folk. Yes, you will find dirty Walmarts, male chauvinist managers, cheap merchandise, and all the other terrible things. But, I believe you will find the same things in many stores in the urban core as well (yes, I got out of town once). You will also find Walmarts that are clean with friendly clerks who just may be your neighbors. Our local Walmart gives much to the local schools and supports many other local causes. When I shop in my tiny town, I do try to support locally owned stores; however, there are just some things that I can't get locally. I won't drive 60 miles for a spool of thread and I certainly can't ride my bike. Although there is definitely some truth in the article, I feel that the examination of the Walmart chain was also a case of looking for what the author wanted to find. And I couldn't help but detect a tone of condescension.
And, in regard to some of the comments made, I like to think of myself as progressive; however according to some that have made comments, maybe that's impossible given where I live.
I have traveled considerably, love the city (visit NYC at least once a year & I'm not close), love movies, good books and all the other aspects of "fine culture" but I still believe that life is pretty good where I live. I don't think urbanites have the market on the "good life" and I certainly don't think that rural folk are being quite as influenced by Walmarts as the article led one to believe.
Right on!
Wal-Mart is on both sides of me--one on the east and one on the west. Both are clean and well-stocked. Yes, we are a very rural county and probably very conservative given the attitude of our government towards certain needs in our community. The employees--good and bad--are human beings like anyone else. So far, I have encountered two employees whose values were questionable. And if you knew who they were, you would know that race and gender don't matter--and there are white males who are low on the totem pole (some with attitude probems). In any case, there is a lot of good in Wal-Mart as well. Just like any other store. Thanks.
This is a terrific study. I just finished reading it this evening. I will post more later. Don’t miss reading it.
This is a subtle, careful, even deeply reflective study. The author looks at Wal-Mart and the cultures from which it comes and which it creates in ways that defy a simple précis,
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