One of the oldest tricks in institutional leadership is borrowing God’s authority to protect human decisions. When a corporate executive treats employees poorly, they get sued. When a church official does it, they claim it is part of a “higher calling.” But God is not an insurance policy for institutional malpractice, and a collar does not give you permission to break the rules of basic human decency.
For centuries, many European monarchs ruled under versions of the Divine Right of Kings, while church leaders often exercised authority with little practical accountability. The assumption was that those who occupied sacred offices answered ultimately to God, making criticism or resistance seem like defiance of the divine order itself.
As an example, if a king seized your land or a bishop ruined your livelihood, it was framed as an act of divine providence that you were required to endure with holy humility. The Reformation shattered this illusion. Reformers asserted that structural accountability applies to everyone—from the plowman to the pope—and that no office gives a human being immunity from moral law.
During my time working for the Church, I watched leadership routinely weaponize this concept of divine right to justify terrible management. If employees raised concerns about uncompensated overtime, unsafe working conditions, or erratic leadership, the response was almost always wrapped in spiritual language: “We’re doing the Lord’s work. Ministry requires sacrifice.” The expectation was corporate-level commitment with below-market treatment, while appeals to faith became a substitute for accountability.
So many times, I was reminded of the same thing:
- “The Church isn’t a secular corporation. We operate on ecclesial stewardship.”
- “Overtime and workplace boundaries are a worldly way of thinking.”
- “If this bothers you so much, maybe your heart just isn’t in ministry anymore.”
Well, it turns out that my heart is fine. It’s the business model of the church that I have a problem with.
Why do we have to use God to justify a bad accounting department? Invoking God to justify exploitation risks reducing His name to a shield for human failures—a profound distortion of what it means to honor Him. God should never become the justification for treating people unjustly. Faith may call people to sacrifice but sacrifice freely embraced is very different from sacrifice demanded to excuse poor leadership or institutional dysfunction.
A healthy church should be measured not only by the sermons it preaches but by the dignity with which it treats the people who labor within it. If an organization cannot survive without underpaying, overworking, or spiritually guilting its employees, then the problem is not a lack of faith—it is a failure of stewardship.
“Not many of you should become teachers… because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1).
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