final post

I feel that one story that should be told is of Pastor Achtemeier’s personal struggle to reach out and help those in the community. She wants to help the needy in the Washington neighborhood, and so often gives them food or diapers or drives down to the gas station to put gas in the car of someone who comes to her looking for help. Sometimes she even pays for this out of her own pocket. She has told us that when people come to her door, she has often seen it as an annoyance and an interruption from her work; but then she started thinking: maybe this is my work. It’s obvious that the most important goal in her life is to be a good Christian, and I feel that this is a story that is definitely worth telling, and that someone would benefit from hearing. I feel that most of us are driven primarily by our own ambitions, and we are always trying to work our way up the ladder and get ahead in life; there isn’t necessarily anything wrong about this in and of itself, but I think that everyone could learn something about life from seeing what Kat does, and how she devotes herself to others. Really, what we do in trying advance our own fortunes is we try to achieve happiness, but I feel that Kat, by putting her main focus on others as opposed to herself, finds a deeper happiness and fulfillment than what most can find by trying to achieve their own personal goals. I think that hearing Kat’s story really puts life into perspective, and would make someone think about what really is important.

I agree with Nussbaum’s assertion that fiction is important because it can bring a reader to a deeper understanding of a social situation or issue as opposed to just looking at historical facts. I think that this is true, and I liked how she differentiated ‘knowing’ and ‘understanding.’ However, I think that when we read fiction—or anything for that matter—we always have to take it with a grain of salt. We have to take into consideration that any author is going to portray his/her situation and how it is from his/her viewpoint, and that they will not accurately portray all sides of the story. If we are trying to attain an understanding of a given situation or issue, an author’s input is valuable, but should not be considered by itself; it should be considered, but at the same time questioned, and even criticized. While truth can be found in art, we should always keep in mind that any form of art is just a representation of the truth through one person’s lens. Ultimately, reading fiction—or non-fiction, or watching the news, etc.—is good to help bring us closer to an understanding of a situation, but in the end there is no substitute for experience.

For better or for worse, the Catholic Church is a rock, not a stone

It seems like the biggest obvious difference between the Catholic Church and all the other churches we've seen is the way the Church takes a definite stance on most issues, and expects all Catholics around the world to follow the official Church stance. When the Pope speaks ex cathedra, it is understood that what he says is infallable. This obviously differs from the protestant denominations that we've seen, where God alone is lord of the conscience. The word catholic literally means universal, and that is the best word to describe the Church. It is a highly institutionalized, universal Church.

Presbyterianism simliarly values institution, as we talked about in our presenation, but treats it more as a guide to the conscience, as opposed to the Catholic Church, which treats the insitutional stance as if it's law. There are positives and negatives to each system. It seems that the Presbyterians have a more direct relationship with God, and understand, for all that they value institution, that institutions are run by people, and people are fallable. The Presbyterian way allows people to be more free, and does not force them to take a stance that they do not truly believe in. On the other hand, the ambiguity of the Presbyterian Church on some hot button issues, and the way it ultimately lets the decision fall on the conscience of the individual, can make it seem wishy-washy. The fact that you know where the Catholic Church stands on an issue is, I feel, in and of itself something to be admired, especially as it takes a lot of heat for this. Regardless of the lack of popularity of many Catholic Church stances, the Church holds their ground. Personally, I am attracted to that characteristic of "sticking to your guns," regardless of what the current general concensus is, and I think it's a cop-out on the part of the Presbyterian Church that they wash their hands of some tough issues such as abortion. I think it can be seen as a positive that the Catholic Church does not change according to the constantly changing fads and opinions of the time--the Catholic Church is a rock, not a stone.
Don't get me wrong--the other side of that coin is that they are often overly stubborn, and change with the times much slower than they should. I don't agree with several of their stances; one that makes no sense to me is that they consider it a sin to practice homosexuality. It is a simple fact that a homosexual person does not choose to be so--s/he is born such that s/he will be attracted to people of the same gender. To say that a heterosexual person can act on their sexual orientation, but that a homosexual person cannot is just not fair, and I feel, a flaw on the part of the Church.
Another stance that I don't agree with is that men alone are given the privelidge to be priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and pope. The greatest extent of the woman's role in the Church is to be a nun. This again, is an instance where the Church should change with the times. Women are obviously equal to men, contrary to popular belief at the turn of the last century, and while I get the argument that women and men are different and therefore have different roles in the Church, those different roles are clearly not equal.
In sticking so fervently to tradition, the Catholic Church can at times seem to abandon common sense and simple logic. This is a weakness in comparison to the Presbyterian Church.

p.s. props to Liz for goin this one alone ;-)

UCC

I thought it was interesting that there are only 2 sacraments, and that communion is open to everyone, obviously two big differences from Catholicism. The fact that the Bible is inspired by God, but is open to individual interpretation with the help of a clergy member, is similar to Presbyterianism.
I also found it interesting, as Carla and Meghan pointed out in class, that there are some paradoxes in the stances of the United Church of Christ. For one, their main mantra seemed to be to not “play God,” and they say that any killing is wrong (which explains their opposition to the death penalty), but at the same time they have a pro-choice stance on abortion, even though they say that life begins at conception. Along with the “killing is wrong” stance, they are completely opposed to any war, but are ambiguous as to what should be done in cases in which genocide is occurring, such as with the holocaust.
The UCC reminded me of Presbyterianism in that they are interested in human dignity, in charity and justice; they are concerned with “the least of these,” and I would certainly say that Presbyterians are as well. They seem to match up in their stances on current social issues, such as pro-comprehensive reform in immigration and pro-choice on abortion.
I feel that the main difference between Presbyterianism and the UCC is that the Presbyterian Church puts more emphasis on institution and the universality of Church teaching and interpretation of that Bible, whereas the UCC puts more emphasis on the individual local congregations. In other words, the Presbyterian Church is closer to Catholicism than the UCC because of its universality.

For starters, the historical background between the First Presbyterian Church and the Lutheran Church in America is similar in that both are of German origin. The idea of the different Lutheran denominations as “open systems” is certainly comparable from what I’ve seen at First Presbyterian, as they both try as much as possible to interact with their surrounding environments. In fact, Pastor Achtemeier at First Presbyterian chose to keep the church located where it is rather than move to a new location, even though most people that attend the church are not part of the surrounding community; she did this to continue to try to make connections with the community. Also, (obviously) the ordination of women is practiced at First Presbyterian, as it is in certain Lutheran denominations. In general, the Lutheran propensity for doing service parallels the efforts that I’ve seen from First Presbyterian.
One difference between the two is the emphasis that some Lutheran denominations put on the "terrors of the Law." I’ve seen that Pastor Achtemeier is certainly much more concerned with mercy than with justice. For example, she gives people money for food or gas when they come to her door asking for help, and she expressed discontent when a DJ at one of the Church events played “Beer for my horses,” a song emphasizing justice and punishment.

Service site aims

The primary focus of Joe and I remains to help the Church make connections with the neighborhood, and right now we’re trying to do that by attempting to reestablish the Downtown Dubuque Christian Outreach, or else start a new association that can get our parishes working together. We feel that with each parish trying to reach out and build a community with the citizens of the Washington neighborhood, it would help if there were a sense of community among the parishes themselves. Working together and coordinating their efforts, they would be much better able to reach out to the members of the community.
When the Downtown Dubuque Christian Outreach was dissolved, there was about $1,200 in the treasury, and now Pastor Achtemeier is sitting on that money and wants to get rid of it. This of course is a good problem to have, and it would be a nice resource to be able to use once we resurrect the old alliance between the parishes. On October 19, Joe and I plan to go to the mission/stewardship community meeting to talk more about this with Pastor Achtemeier and others.
When I met last week with Pastor Achtemeier and she was talking about different ideas for connecting with the community, something she mentioned in passing, but that I thought was a very good idea, was setting up some kind of tutoring program. At Salsas the other night we talked about this, and about how Dana Livingston is involved in the Dubuque Multicultural Center, which has a tutoring program. I plan to meet with him in the next couple days to talk about how we could get 1st Presbyterian and some other parishes involved in this tutoring as well.
The main reason that I like the idea of tutoring so much is because we would be able to reach out to kids born into an environment that isn’t conducive to success—starting with success in school—and help them to do better in school, ultimately (hopefully) improving their chances of pulling themselves out of the low-class or impoverished situation into which they’ve been born. This to me is even better and more productive than soup kitchens because it does something to help bring about the end of a person’s poverty, rather than treat the symptoms of poverty. It goes back to the old saying: give someone a fish, they’ll eat for a day; teach someone to fish, they’ll eat for a lifetime.

Catholic social teaching and community

If I were giving a brief talk on Catholic social teaching to my service site, I would emphasize the importance of community. The main goal of social work is attaining the common good, and working together as a community for the good of the community. As Himes points out, God in and of himself is a community of three persons, according to the Christian understanding. Himes says that we as humans are made in the image of this Trinitarian God, and thus are naturally social beings. We are created to join in the experience of loving communion, and he alludes that community is natural and necessary if persons are to achieve their full stature.

I would present this understanding of the importance of community to my parish in trying to convince them to form a community with other parishes in order to better carry out God's work and benefit the neighborhood as a whole.

A passage I might read to go along with my message:
"Individuals, though centers of freedom and individual responsibility, are not solitary beings. In their inmost nature human beings are social and can neither live nor attain their fulll potential buy themselves. Thus the interdependence characteristic of our modern age is rooted in and finds fulfillment in the very nature of the person." (Gaudium et Spes)

I think that this is a very good passage because it emphasizes how essential sociality is to humanity, how it is in the very essence of a human. It confirms that working together is the right way not only to attain one's full individual potential, but also the universal common good.

Christian social action: then and now

After reading the chapters by Thusen and especially Fisher, it would seem that Christian social action isn't as mainstream today as it was back in the early twentieth century. I'm not sure if I can think of any characters today who would parallel the highly political Father Coghlin or Father Duffy, or Al Smith, who ran against Herbert Hoover for office and whose Catholic religion was very controversial. It seems that today, government social programs have overshadowed the Christian social movement, and perhaps taken the wind out of it's sails, as they've decreased the necessity of such a movement. But I thought it was interesting when Dorothy Day stated her disapproval of government social programs, saying that they enslaved the poor in a dependant relationship with the federal government. This stood out to me, as most workers fighting for the poor and suffering support federal social programs. Along with this, it seemed that while Catholics in the early twentieth century spanned the political spectrum, more were aligned with a liberal viewpoint. Today, on the other hand, Catholics still span the political spectrum, but I would estimate that more align themselves with a more conservative way of thinking. This change also interested me.

But politics and social programs aside, Catholics and other Christians today are certainly still concerned with the welfare of the poor. This is exemplified in our own Loras college, with the many social trips that students have taken around the world. And even around the Dubuque community, Loras students participate in service for the poor. The Christian churches around the community still do a small part in social service, but I feel that it just isn't as strong as it was back in the early twentieth century, as described by Thusen and Fisher. You certainly don't see anything like what Dorothy Day started today. But at the same time, we aren't in the throes of a Great Depression like in the '30s (at least, not yet).