Many times when we travel by air, a fellow passenger asks, “And what do you do?” Perhaps the question arises because we tend to define people by their job. But a person is more than what he or she does. And what we do is more than a job. In the Bible, we learn that people are gifted by God and called into many avenues of service—in the family, in the church and in the world (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12). This is the idea of vocation, that God calls us to serve our neighbors, and that God is at work in us, using us as his eyes, ears, hands, and feet to preserve this world.
Think a moment about what difference it may make if the work of an IT professional is a calling from God, and not merely a means to gain income and status.
Now consider the fact that all vocations are bound by God’s law. What ethical supports and boundaries should shape the work of an IT professional? Philosophers have considered a number of ethical theories, all of which are prevalent in our culture’s thinking, and which may or may not harmonize with the idea of vocation. Should we focus on the consequences of our action, as the utilitarian view recommends? Or is duty the proper motive? How about virtue?

This unit will introduce the doctrine of vocation and its ethical implications, and survey the philosophical fields of ethics in general and computer ethics in particular. You will learn the ideas of calling, office and station, and how all vocations are bound by God’s moral law and serve as masks of God’s providential care of all people. You will see that the power of computers intensifies and relocates existing moral problems, generating new challenges of service, security, privacy and stewardship. Although these challenges are new, they do not require new moral criteria, but the thoughtful and intentional application of existing criteria. The value and limitations of consequentialist, deontological, and virtue-based approaches to ethics will be discussed in dialog with a Christian moral perspective.

Week Objectives

As a result of completing this unit, you will:

• understand the concept of vocation and its ethical implications for the work of IT professionals
• can see the relevance of philosophical and theological insights in ethics to your own work in the MSIT program and to the kind of specific, real-life issues they will encounter in your professional career
• appreciate the intrinsic and extrinsic value of putting your neighbor first in IT
• desire to develop ethical products that serve the best interests of employers, clients, and society
• appreciate the inevitability of vocational failure and the free gift of forgiveness and restoration that can be found only in Jesus Christ

Required Content

The following content is required as a part of one or more specific activities or assignments for this week. Please read and view the content listed with the activities and assignments below.

• Read Veith’s God at Work (whole book)
• Read Pojman and Feiser’s Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong (6e), Chapters 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9
• Read Bynum and Rogerson’s Computer Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Part I.

Assignment & Activity Instructions

• Unit 1 Response Paper 1 - (on IT as a vocation)
  Write a 2-3 page essay on the following question, illustrating your arguments with real-world examples you have experienced and/or read about. Include at least one apt quotation.
  What is the vocation (calling) of an IT professional? Who are his neighbors (those his work serves, directly or indirectly)? How would pursuing IT as a vocation agree or disagree with standard, secular, business-related rationales for doing the work?