A fascinating document. "Does the Lord approve of unions?" I believe the proposed date--1944--is too early. In 1946 the CIO launched Opertation Dixie, a major campaign to unionize post-WWII Southern industry, especially the textile industry. They got huge pushback from Southern political, business, and church interests. Religion played a big part in the resistance. In "The Crisis of American Labor" (Temple University Press, 1988) Barbara Griffith wrote----"The ambiguity surrounding the churchgoing impulses of Southerners suggests that a certain degree of caution must accompany any characterization of the precise impact of religion on Operation Dixie. But however qualified the conclusion, there can be no doubt that there was some influence. Indeed, the heritage of Southern religion intruded time and again upon the organizing efforts of the CIO. The thrust of much anti-union propaganda emanating from religious sources can be summarized in a single phrase: belonging to a labor union was an un-Christian thing to do. As a mill village preacher in South Carolina phrased the options posed by Operation Dixie: “It’s either Christ or the CIO.”---This pamphlet is surely part of that CIO program. At any rate, Operation Dixie failed and the South remained anti-union. There's a Wikipedia entry on Operation Dixie for those interested. By the way, on page 2 the workers are building a 1942 DeSoto.
Edited to add: further research confirmed that this comic was indeed part of the CIO's Operation Dixie campaign. That makes the publication date 1946.
By MarkWarner
Thanks Crash I've altered it. And indeed what an interesting book
By n0t0fth1s34rth
The pamphlet overreaches in how it handles the Bible. It treats biblical themes and episodes as though they directly endorse the modern labor union as such. The Exodus is about God’s redemptive deliverance of an enslaved people, not a template for modern strike tactics. Acts 4-5 is about apostolic witness under persecution, not labor organizing. Ecclesiastes and Romans commend companionship and shared life, but they do not address a doctrine of industrial unionism. The pamphlet is doing 'rhetorical analogy', not careful Bible study. That makes it vivid and persuasive as propaganda, but flawed as biblical interpretation. It makes a credible Christian case that workers may organize (it’s not a sin) and that justice in any labor relations matter deeply to God. But it does not prove that the Bible teaches modern unionization, nor that every union program is therefore “Christian”. Christians may support, join, or form unions as a matter of justice and neighbor-love; but any particular union must still be judged by truth, justice, peace, honesty, and the common good.
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