Estey proposes a labor ethic that emphasizes the "protest" in Protestantism. The purpose of this ethic is to interrupt the drudgery of the Protestant work ethic, which Estey asserts is the dominant cultural ideal in the U.S. Protestantism must not be about capitulation to capitalism, and a Protestant ethic that works must be one that questions and confronts authority in order to undo the newest and oldest forms of dehumanization -- as they pertain to workers, labor issues, and conditions in the workplace.