Education and Faith

Each year of education ups the odds by 15% that people will say there's "truth in more than one religion," says University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Philip Schwadel in an article for the Review of Religious Research. Schwadel, an associate professor of sociology, looked at 1,800 U.S. adults' reported religious beliefs and practices and their education.
People change their perspective because, as people move through high school and college, they acquire an ever-wider range of friendships, including people with different beliefs than their own, Schwadel says. "People don't want to say their friends are going to hell," he says.
For each additional year of education beyond seventh grade, Americans are:
•15% more likely to have attended religious services in the past week.
•14% more likely to say they believe in a "higher power" than in a personal God. "More than 90% believe in some sort of divinity," Schwadel says.
•13% more likely to switch to a mainline Protestant denomination that is "less strict, less likely to impose rules of behavior on your daily life" than their childhood religion.
•13% less likely to say the Bible is the "actual word of God." The educated, like most folks in general, tend to say the Bible is the "inspired word" of God, Schwadel says.

Debt, Taxes and Faith

All of the political wrangling over the debt ceiling is ultimately a conversation about values and our faith has a lot to say about such values.

First, the largest contributor to the increase in the debt in the last several years has been the Bush era tax cuts which largely favored wealthy people. The next largest contributor is the wars and military budget. Some politicians are now saying that the debt is a serious problem but are unwilling to restore taxes or heavily cut into the military budget. Instead they want to cut funds for programs for programs which protect the health and safety of citizens especially the poorest citizens.

It seems likely that the “crisis” of the debt limit will bring about reductions in vital programs. This hits at a time when cities counties and states are all reeling from the lingering recession. This is the worst possible time to cut funds for the poor. If anything, the federal government should be pouring money into building low-income housing, improving schools, hiring more teachers, supporting renewable energy, etc… All of these things would provide resources and jobs for the people who need them. Instead we will be lucky if these programs are not cut too severely.

The inexorable logic of greed is rapidly shifting resources into the hands of those who already have more than they need. This stands as the complete reversal of Jesus’ call to share resources with one another and especially with the poor. Jesus offers the logic of love which moves the world towards the peace that comes from justice. Jesus condemns the hording of wealth as an act in contradiction to will of God and calls on people to share what they have so that all may be fed.

This week we celebrate the feeding of the 5000. In that story, Jesus gets the disciples to share what little they have so that all may be fed. In the end, there is way more food than anyone needs. Sharing leads to abundance. This is the logic of love.

Unfortunately the voices calling for true faithfulness in terms of our national budget receive little attention in the corporate media. That means we are called to use our grassroots forms of communication. Talk it up wherever you can.

"The Corporation"

The Keystone Social Action Team will carry out a one-year project that focuses on limiting Corporate Personhood. This would be done in a step-wise process that involves education about the issues involved, writing up a resolution to submit to the Justice and Witness Ministries of the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Church of Christ, and if it sees its way through, to take the final proposal to the regional conference Annual Meeting in May 2012. We are joining others nationally who are working on an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Our Social Action Team is hoping that many more friends of Keystone will become educated on this issue and move forward with us.

Our team recently viewed the documentary, “The Corporation.” Many of our team expressed outrage at how large corps are behaving, and how the public is convinced by them that there is a need for whatever it is that they are selling. One of the interesting segments in the documentary compared characteristics of corporations to that of psychopaths. Here are the bullet points:
• Callous concern for the feelings of others
• Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
• Reckless disregard for the safety of others
• Deceitfulness (repeated lying and conning of others)
• Incapacity to experience guilt
• Failure to conform to social norms in respect to lawful behavior

Have you seen the documentary? What struck you? Please feel free to comment.

The Story of Stuff

This simple video lines out the failures of our economic system. A very good investment of 21 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM&feature=player_embedded#at=1250

Peg's Ordination

Peg Faulmann is being ordained at Keystone on Sunday June 26th at 5 pm. Come and share the joy.

People Notice

Kaaren(one of our members) works with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a long running, faith based, peace and justice organization. In talking with her on Sunday she related the story that at one meeting she mentioned Keystone and the people there broke out in applause. Coming from the good people of F.O.R. that is high praise indeed.

Peg Preaches/Rich Teaches on Sunday

Rich will be teaching the folks at Northshore United Church of Christ about homelessness and social justice on Sunday. So our newly elected Associate Pastor Peg Faulmann will be preaching and leading worship.