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Religion and the Labor movement – not living up to the standard

Two cases, highlighted below, where individuals, institutions, and a whole diocese have fallen short of the Church’s teaching on Labor.

From IWJ: Healthcare workers in Michigan–and across the country–need our support!

In his recent Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI repeatedly speaks of the “grave dangers for the rights of workers” that today imperil so many of our friends and neighbors who struggle daily to provide security for their families. It is imperative that people of faith stand with those workers hoping to secure wages and benefits consistent with their dignity as children of God.

Ascension Health is the nation’s largest Catholic and non-profit health system, comprised of 37 health systems or centers in 20 states, totaling over 570 hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, labs, and other facilities. The employees of Genesys Health System, a member of Ascension Health, provide health care services in the Flint, Michigan area.

The management of Genesys is proposing severe wage, benefit, and pension cuts for several hundred of its employees. These healthcare workers are men and women committed to serving the health and welfare of the members of their communities.

On Friday, March 12, Genesys workers and their supporters traveled to the Ascension headquarters in St. Louis, Mo. to protest these wage and benefit cuts. Workers also gathered at Ascension centers in seven cities across the country – Washington, D.C., Buffalo, N.Y., Tucson, Ariz, Detroit, Flint, Mich. and Kansas City, Mo. – and held vigils before the management of Ascension and its subsidiary, Genesys Health System.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reminds us that “among the elements of a just and fair workplace [in medical and health care centers] are: fair wages, adequate benefits, safe and decent working conditions…” (See A Fair and Just Workplace: Principles and Practices for Catholic Health Care.) These things are indispensible if we hope to assure quality care for patients and dignity for working people.

As has been seen in several Labor issues over the past few years, the message often does not translate into action. While the R.C. Church is not unique in pushing out Unions, or resisting employee efforts to unionize, it should hold itself to a higher standard, especially in light of Encyclicals exhorting fair treatment of workers going back to Leo XIII.

From the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit via BNA: Ninth Circuit Nixes Seminarian’s Wage Claim, Says Exception Applies to Priest-in-Training

The First Amendment’s “ministerial exception” barred a Catholic seminarian from bringing his claim for unpaid overtime compensation against the Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle under the Washington Minimum Wage Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled March 16 (Rosas v. Corp. of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle, 9th Cir., No. 09-35003, 3/16/10 [pdf]).

Judge Robert R. Beezer wrote for the unanimous panel that the “ministerial exception helps to preserve the wall between church and state from even the mundane government intrusion presented here.” “The district court correctly determined that the ministerial exception bars [Cesar] Rosas’s claim and dismissed the case on the pleadings,” Beezer wrote.

In affirming the lower court, Beezer found that the interplay between the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses carves out an exception to otherwise applicable statutes if enforcing them would interfere with religious organizations’ employment decisions about their ministers.

Seminarian in Ministry Training Program

Rosas was a Mexican seminarian who was required to participate in a ministry training program at St. Mary Catholic Church in Marysville, Wash., located in Snohomish County, as part of the ordination process for the Catholic priesthood.

Rosas and another Mexican seminarian, Jesus Alcazar, worked under the supervision of St. Mary’s parish priest, Horatio Yanez, performing some pastoral duties and doing maintenance work for the church in 2002.

In February 2006 both Rosas and Alcazar filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese alleging Yanez had sexually harassed Alcazar and that the Archdiocese fired them in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for complaining and reporting the conduct. The two men also claimed the Archdiocese had failed to pay them overtime compensation in violation of the Washington Minimum Wage Act.

Trial Court Dismisses Wage Claims

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington dismissed Rosas’s harassment claim because he had not indicated that he had been sexually harassed but allowed Alcazar’s sexual harassment claim to proceed (4 DLR A-10, 1/8/07).

Alcazar subsequently settled his sexual harassment claim against the Archdiocese and was dismissed from the lawsuit.

The district court dismissed all other claims on the pleadings as barred by the First Amendment’s ministerial exception. “This exception prohibits a court from inquiring into the decisions of a religious organization concerning the hiring, firing, promotion, rate of pay, placement or any other employment related decision concerning ministers and other non-secular employees,” the trial court said.

Ministerial Exception Applies to State Law Claims

Rosas argued on appeal that the district court had erred in dismissing his state law claim without first determining if requiring the church to pay overtime wages actually burdened the church’s religious beliefs. Second, Rosas argued that requiring the church to pay overtime wages did not implicate a protected employment decision. Finally, he claimed that the district court erred in determining on the pleadings that he was a “minister” to whom the exception applied.

The appellate panel disagreed. Beezer first clarified that although the district court had relied on precedent involving only Title VII cases, the exception also applied to state law claims.

Beezer wrote that the ministerial exception encompassed “all tangible employment actions” and barred lawsuits seeking damages for lost or reduced pay.

“Our previous cases focus on Title VII, but our analysis in those cases compels the conclusion that the ministerial exception analysis applies to Washington’s Minimum Wage Act as well,” Beezer wrote. “Because the ministerial exception is constitutionally compelled, it applies as a matter of law across statutes, both state and federal, that would interfere with the church-minister relationship.”

Next, Beezer disposed of Rosas’s assertion that the trial court should have considered if the law “actually” burdened the church. “The [ministerial] exception was created because government interference with the church-minister relationship inherently burdens religion.”

Overtime Claim Triggers Exception

In addition, Beezer said that Rosas had misinterpreted Ninth Circuit precedent in arguing that the payment of overtime wages was not a protected employment decision that would trigger the exception.

Beezer said that Rosas admitted that his case involved the training and selection of the Catholic Church’s priests-issues the Ninth Circuit had expressly addressed in Bollard v. Cal. Province of the Soc’y of Jesus, 196 F. 3d 940, 81 FEP Cases 660 (9th Cir. 1999); (232 DLR AA-1, 12/3/99).

“This case thus quintessentially follows Bollard’s explanation,” Beezer wrote. “Rosas interprets our case law too narrowly. Bollard refers not only to the selection of ministers but more broadly to ’employment decisions regarding … ministers,’ ”

Beezer wrote that the ministerial exception therefore encompassed “all tangible employment actions” and barred lawsuits seeking damages for lost or reduced pay.

Finally, Beezer rejected Rosas’s argument that the district court erred in ruling on the pleadings that the exception applied because Rosas claimed that his primary duties at the church primarily involved maintenance rather than ministerial duties…

Here is some text from Judge Beezer’s decision (emphasis mine and discussed below):

“The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.” Everson v. Bd. of Educ., 330 U.S. 1, 18 (1947). The interplay between the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses creates an exception to an otherwise fully applicable statute if the statute would interfere with a religious organization’s employment decisions regarding its ministers. Bollard v. Cal. Province of the Soc’y of Jesus, 196 F.3d 940, 944, 946-47 (9th Cir. 1999). This “ministerial exception” helps to preserve the wall between church and state from even the mundane government intrusion presented here. In this case, plaintiff Cesar Rosas seeks pay for the overtime hours he worked as a seminarian in a Catholic church in Washington. The district court correctly determined that the ministerial exception bars Rosas’s claim and dismissed the case on the pleadings. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, 1 and we affirm.

…

Cesar Rosas and Jesus Alcazar were Catholic seminarians in Mexico. The Catholic Church required them to participate in a ministry training program at St. Mary Catholic Church in Marysville, Washington as their next step in becoming ordained priests. At St. Mary, Rosas and Alcazar allegedly suffered retaliation for claiming that Father YanezCurrently Pastor of Holy Family Parish in Seattle, WA. sexually harassed Alcazar, and they eventually sued Father Yanez and the Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle (“defendants”) under Title VII. 2 In addition, Rosas and Alcazar sued under supplemental jurisdiction for violations of Washington’s Minimum Wage Act for failure to pay overtime wages. See Wash. Rev. Code § 49.46.130. The district court dismissed the overtime wage claims on the pleadings, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c), and Rosas’s overtime wage claim is the only issue on appeal.

…

Because the judgment was on the pleadings, the pleadings alone must be sufficient to support the district court’s judgment. We thus base our decision on the very few allegations in Rosas’s complaint. Rosas alleges as follows:

1.3 … The Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle hosted [Rosas] as [a] participant[ ] in a training/pastoral ministry program for the priesthood.
. . . .
2.2 Cesar Rosas entered the seminary to become a Catholic priest in 1995 in Mexico.
2.3 As part of [his] preparation for ordination into the priesthood, the Catholic Church required [Rosas] to engage in a ministerial placement outside [his] diocese, under the supervision of a pastor of the parish into which [he was] placed. The Archdiocese of Seattle sends seminarians to Mexico and has Mexican seminarians come to its parishes. [Rosas was] placed in St. Mary Parish in Marysville, Washington under the supervision of defendant Fr. Horatio Yanez.
. . . .
2.10 … [Rosas] was hired to do maintenance of the church and also assisted with Mass. He … worked many overtime hours he was not compensated for.

First, I think the Court erred in defining exactly what a minister is. Is a seminarian a minister of the R.C. Church? It could be argued that in the Roman Church, prior to Vatican II, most seminarians were ministers of the Church since they were likely tonsured and deemed clerics entitled to beneficences (the civil benefits then enjoyed by clerics)This is still the case in the PNCC, where seminarians enter the clerical state via tonsure..

In this day and age a R.C. seminarian is no more a minister than your average lay person. They receive no beneficence from the Roman Church (health care, salary, stipend, room and board), nor are they entitled to carry out any ministry different than your average lay person (men and women both who may serve at the altar, distribute the Holy Eucharist – yuk, read the lessons, etc.). The average seminarian is just a student and a “civilian” with a vocational choice.

Next, seminaries are open to any lay person who may engage in a variety of ‘ministries’ or jobs in the Church. It is definitely no exclusive club and there is no real differentiation any longer. Any person may be in a training program related to their studies (an internship/externship) which makes the work these seminarians were doing no different from your average pew dweller. The Court, and likely the defendant’s lawyers, missed that point

Additionally, look at the work they were “hired” to do. The Archdiocese of Seattle took these university educated Mexicans, and in typically American fashion, made them maintenance men who also happened to serve as altar boys from time-to-time. It would only have been worse if the Archdiocese would have had them go out and pick crops. There is definitely something wrong here. If the ministerial teaching was to be about menial labor and humility, why not send them to a monastery?

Judge Beezer quoted the Fifth Circuit’s holding that if a person (1) is employed by a religious institution, (2) was chosen for the position based ‘largely on religious criteria,’ and (3) performs some religious duties … that person is a ‘minister’ for purposes of the ministerial exception,” What was missed was that the choice of these individuals for this service had very little to do with religious criteria and more to do with whether they had strong backs. Further, the religious duties portion of the test likely fails because the ministerial or religious portion of the training was so de minimis as to be almost non-existant.

So did the Court err in finding that these men were engaged in ministerial training? Absolutely! There was no ministerial training going on. These two young men were merely janitors, and the whole escapade a scam aimed at obtaining cheap labor. What happened here was wage theft, all disguised as “ministerial training;” another example of actions inconsistent with teaching.

As the Seattle Herald reported:

The two seminarians became disillusioned by the experience and have given up their quest to become priests…

“Both these young men had a lifelong dream of being priests,”… “It’s emotionally damaging when your lifelong dream and your spiritual vocation is shattered by the very people you entrusted that dream to.”

So much possibility wasted in a world plagued by a shortage of men willing to offer their lives for worship of God and service to His people. A sad case, and a case teetering on the edge of going the other way if all the facts had been established.

Christian Witness, , ,

St. Nersess Armenian Seminary Second Annual 3K walk

From friend, Fr. Stepanos Doudoukjian, Director of Youth and Vocations for the Armenian Apostolic Church in the United States: The St. Nersess Armenian Seminary Second Annual 3K walk is just a few weeks away. The walk will take place on Sunday, April 11th following Badarak at 10am, a light lunch at noon, and the 3k walk beginning at 1pm.

The 3K walk has turned into a fun, healthy and spiritual way to raise money for St. Nersess Seminary which really needs your support right about now. There are 4 seminarians who will be graduating in May and who will be serving in parishes within the year. The seminary expects possibly four more new seminarians in the fall of 2010. It is an exciting time for St. Nersess and they could use your support.

If you wish to support the efforts of our friends at St. Nersess, please send your checks payable to St. Nersess and mail them to St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, 150 Stratton Road, New Rochelle, NY.

Christian Witness, , ,

Love not in word or speech, but in truth and action

The title above from 1 John 3:18. From the Salt Lake Tribune: Churches help folks find jobs

Good works » For many worshippers, helping Utah’s unemployed is a spiritual mandate.

Larry Adakai was out of options.

He lost his welder job after taking too much time off to care for his ailing wife through numerous surgeries. The Navajo father had no savings and few places to turn.

That’s when the Rev. Steve Keplinger and the good folks at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Page, Ariz., part of the Utah diocese, stepped in.

They offered him handyman work around the church and prepared dinners for the family. They paid his union dues so he could be hired at a nearby site. They faxed his application to the new company, then gave him gas money to go there and take the necessary welder exams.

It took six months, but now Larry Adakai has the job, Mary Ann Adakai is fully recovered, and their 14-year-old son, Marcus, is feeling good about life.

Today’s economic realities are prompting more and more workers like the Adakais to turn to their religious communities for encouragement, advice, contacts, training, financial aid, spiritual solace and, frankly, jobs.

More than 90,000 Utahns are out of work, up nearly 20 percent from a year ago, as the state’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.8 percent in January. Executives, students, hairstylists, truck drivers, builders, Realtors, people in every profession and at every level face an unknown future, many for the first time.

“We used to place 300 people a month,” says Ballard Veater, manager of LDS Employment Services, who has worked for the church since 1978. “Now it’s half that many.”

When a person loses work, it’s like a death in the family where the one who died is you, Veater says. A job is at the core of who we are.

For many people of faith, helping the unemployed is more than a kindhearted gesture. It’s a spiritual mandate.

“When I was scared, they talked to me,” says Mary Ann Adakai of St. David’s leaders. “When I lost all hope, they helped me with prayers.” Indeed, such assistance is the centerpiece of Keplinger’s theology.

“Trying to help people get back on their feet is the most Christ-centered thing we can do,” he says. “It is more important than worship.”

…

Joining religious forces

Sunday was hardly a sabbath, an unemployed Presbyterian woman told Anne Gardner last fall, because of the stress of not knowing what Monday would bring.

That comment prompted Gardner, a business executive, to launch the Park City Career Network, with a handful of faith leaders.

Gardner, a Catholic, invited Ellen Silver, the director of Jewish Family Services; Bill Humbert, an executive recruiter and a member of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Parish; and Dale M. Matthews, a career coach and Greek Orthodox, to join her in a weekly workshop at Temple Har Shalom in Park City. Among other benefits, the effort helps job-hungry seekers define “The Brand Called You.”

The group offers people of all faiths free training similar to the LDS approach. It also provides monthly speakers, who might address such topics as debt negotiations, retirement planning and the emotional stress of job searching.

The typical job seekers are in their early to mid-40s, with either college or graduate education, working at a management level or above. They are not used to having to look for a job. The weekly meetings, begun last fall, attract about 15 people; 21 “graduates” have found jobs and another nine have started their own businesses through this effort.

“We encourage people to reach out in the community, to be active in the community, and make sure you continue your routines,” Gardner says. “We tell them to have faith in whatever their guiding principles are.”…

Christian Witness, Perspective,

A primer on Christianity understood

Nicholas Kristof writing in the NY Times: Learning From the Sin of Sodom

A pop quiz: What’s the largest U.S.-based international relief and development organization?

It’s not Save the Children, and it’s not CARE —” both terrific secular organizations. Rather, it’s World Vision, a Seattle-based Christian organization (with strong evangelical roots) whose budget has roughly tripled over the last decade.

World Vision now has 40,000 staff members in nearly 100 countries. That’s more staff members than CARE, Save the Children and the worldwide operations of the United States Agency for International Development —” combined.

A growing number of conservative Christians are explicitly and self-critically acknowledging that to be —pro-life— must mean more than opposing abortion. The head of World Vision in the United States, Richard Stearns, begins his fascinating book, —The Hole in Our Gospel,— with an account of a visit a decade ago to Uganda, where he met a 13-year-old AIDS orphan who was raising his younger brothers by himself.

—What sickened me most was this question: where was the Church?— he writes. —Where were the followers of Jesus Christ in the midst of perhaps the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time? Surely the Church should have been caring for these ‘orphans and widows in their distress.’ (James 1:27). Shouldn’t the pulpits across America have flamed with exhortations to rush to the front lines of compassion?

—How have we missed it so tragically, when even rock stars and Hollywood actors seem to understand?—

Mr. Stearns argues that evangelicals were often so focused on sexual morality and a personal relationship with God that they ignored the needy. He writes laceratingly about —a Church that had the wealth to build great sanctuaries but lacked the will to build schools, hospitals, and clinics.—

In one striking passage, Mr. Stearns quotes the prophet Ezekiel as saying that the great sin of the people of Sodom wasn’t so much that they were promiscuous or gay as that they were —arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.— (Ezekiel 16:49.)

Hmm. Imagine if sodomy laws could be used to punish the stingy, unconcerned rich!

…

One of the most inspiring figures I’ve met while covering Congo’s brutal civil war is a determined Polish nun in the terrifying hinterland, feeding orphans, standing up to drunken soldiers and comforting survivors —” all in a war zone. I came back and decided: I want to grow up and become a Polish nun.

Some Americans assume that religious groups offer aid to entice converts. That’s incorrect. Today, groups like World Vision ban the use of aid to lure anyone into a religious conversation.

Some liberals are pushing to end the longtime practice (it’s a myth that this started with President George W. Bush) of channeling American aid through faith-based organizations. That change would be a catastrophe. In Haiti, more than half of food distributions go through religious groups like World Vision that have indispensable networks on the ground. We mustn’t make Haitians the casualties in our cultural wars.

A root problem is a liberal snobbishness toward faith-based organizations. Those doing the sneering typically give away far less money than evangelicals. They’re also less likely to spend vacations volunteering at, say, a school or a clinic in Rwanda.

If secular liberals can give up some of their snootiness, and if evangelicals can retire some of their sanctimony, then we all might succeed together in making greater progress against common enemies of humanity, like illiteracy, human trafficking and maternal mortality.

The only aspect of the article I would say wasn’t covered well was the subtle shot at the Church’s defense of life. That’s part of a continuity rarely understood. That said, the subtle shot makes the point, Christians should not be single issue people. We should take heed of our very teachings on the continuity of life. As with the mite and the beam (Matthew 7:3), if we cannot care for our brothers and sisters, how can we criticize those who do not respect life.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political, , , ,

When defense is co-opted for offense

A Serbian-Canadian’s reflection of NATO’s involvement in the internal affairs of Serbia. Also recall that NATO bombed Serbia on Easter Sunday. From The Bloody Catholic Easter 1999 by Dr. Vladimir Ajdacic at Swans

Easter is the most sacred and the happiest day for Christians. However, the people of Yugoslavia will never forget Easter 1999. NATO, led by the Americans, carried out vicious bombing attacks on a variety of civilian targets in Yugoslavia. Despite a message and request from the Pope not to bomb during this important Christian holy day, NATO bloodied their hands. The patriarch of the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church, Aleksej II, predicted their actions correctly. NATO’s message, written on the bombs and tomahawk missiles was, “Easter presents to the Serbs”…

Similarly, NATO working outside its bounds in Afghanistan, continues to ‘mis-target’ civilians.

Christian Witness, ,

Fr. Allen Jones, simple servant

An interesting article, Twenty years of Victoria Street Ministry for Father Allen Jones, concerning the above named priest, was forwarded to me by E-mail. Fr. Jones was ordained through the Apostolic Catholic Church in Brazil (De Costa line) and appears to do a lot of good work as a simple servant (no pretend-to-be-a-bishop here). I also like the fact that he’s not about ‘changing-the-church,’ but rather about doing good. May God bless his work, humility, and Christian witness.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political

Military Aid to Israel: Legal, Political, Economic, and Humanitarian Impact

Josh Ruebner, National Advocacy Director, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation will be presenting Thursday, February 25, 7PM at Albany Law School on “Military Aid to Israel: Legal, Political, Economic, and Humanitarian Impact.” The presentation is sponsored by the Muslim Law Students Association (MLSA)

Military Aid to Israel: Legal, Political, Economic, and Humanitarian Impact

Thursday, February 25
7:00pm – 9:00pm

Matthew Bender Room 425
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue,
Albany, New York 12208-3494

Between 2009-2018, the United States is scheduled to give Israel $30 billion in military aid. Through its illegal 42-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, Israel has misused U.S. weapons in violation of U.S. law to kill and injure Palestinian civilians, destroy Palestinian civilian infrastructure, blockade the Gaza Strip, and build illegal settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem. The average American taxpayer will pay $19.19 in military aid to Israel in 2010.

How much of this total will your community provide? Is this a good use of your tax dollars? What role do your taxes, here in Albany, play in perpetuating violence in the Middle East?

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is a national coalition of nearly 300 organizations working to change U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine to support human rights, international law, and equality.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political

Unemployment, Jobs, and Justice

Two from Interfaith Worker Justice:

Extend Unemployment and COBRA Now!

Are you unemployed? Do you know someone who is? Urgent action is needed to make sure that Congress extends the lifeline for workers by extending unemployment and COBRA coverage before the end of the month. Your response will help someone put food on the table, keep their lights on and of course, enable them to live with some dignity during this harsh economic climate. Click Here to take action!

This isn’t an issue of slackers who sit around enjoying a check. There are too few jobs for too many unemployed workers, approx. 1 job for every 4 persons unemployed. Further, the skill sets of many unemployed workers will not transfer forward. They will need significant retraining to be prepared for the time when jobs once again become available. Also remember that unemployment assistance, which is temporary help for people who are ready, willing, and able to work, makes an immediate economic impact. Those dollars are spent, returning $1.67 to the economy for every dollar in assistance.

Principles on Jobs

It is time for people of faith to act and bring their moral vision to the national conversation on jobs.

Interfaith Worker Justice has stood with workers in times of economic prosperity and stands with them now in this time of economic crisis. Yet we are continually confronted by stories of workers who want to work but can’t find jobs, workers whose hours have been cut from full time to part time and workers who have been victimized by employers who will not pay them for the work they have done.

Our religious traditions teach us that work is a sacred act, that when we labor we are —God’s hands— on earth. Those who work and those who cannot work must be treated fairly. —Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages.— (Jeremiah 22:13)

As people of faith, we call for an economy that provides a good job for everyone who wants and needs one. While it is good and right to pass measures that can put some people back to work, it is not enough. All jobs should be good jobs, paying living wages and benefits, allowing workers dignity and a voice at the workplace, ensuring worker’s health and safety, and guaranteeing their right to organize unions.

IWJ has developed a “Statement of Principles” on Jobs that I have signed. Please join me in signing that principle statement.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, , ,

PNCC members – Planning a Wedding?

If you are planning a wedding there are certain cautions you should take as a member of the PNCC. If your intended is a member of the R.C. Church, and you plan to marry in the PNCC, your intended may face difficulties with their pastor or bishop.

The core problem is that the R.C. Church requires that your intended obtain a “dispensation from canonical form“This from the R.C. Archdiocese of Chicago. It gives the general principals etc. Your intended’s diocese may have different requirements. from their bishop. If they do not, your marriage will not be recognized by the R.C. Church. Note that if your intended does not do so, the Roman Church may consider you to be “living in sin.”

For years, the dialog between the PNCC and RC Churches has tried to resolve this issue (as well as the ability of PNCC members to stand as godparents in the RC Church). The PNCC has repeatedly requested that the Roman Church do away with this requirement. The main difference between the Apostolic Churches is that the sacrament in both the PNCC and Orthodox ChurchesA dispensation from canonical form is required for validity in PNCC marriages while it is only required for liceity in Orthodox marriages. The requirements should, at-a-minimum, be the same since the theological argument is the same. are based on one sacramental theology while that theology differs in the Roman Church. In the PNCC and Orthodox Churches the priest is the minister of the sacrament. In the Roman Church the couple is said to be the minister of the sacrament.

Also of note, if you plan to marry in the R.C. Church, some priests therein may deny the Eucharist to your intended and their family. You do need to cover this issue with them in advance. If they insist that they cannot give your intended’s parents or family communion, grab the nearest pew missal and point to the section in the back regarding admittance to the Eucharist. If that doesn’t help — well that priest (or deacon) isn’t following the rules, so you may want to seek marriage in your PNCC parish.

Both of these problems are roadblocks placed in the way of PNCC members who attempt to practice and hold true to their faith. It has also been noted that some R.C. pastors and bishops have made the process of obtaining a dispensation extremely cumbersome for those intending to marry a member of the PNCC. Of course this is an attempt to coerce members of the PNCC.

While we may not like something, we should respect the theology of the R.C. ChurchOf course it is inconsistent in relation to validity versus liceity.. We do expect them to respect ours in turn. So it comes down to politics and certain Roman bishops and priests who wish to “drive the point home” in opposition to the Roman Church’s own teaching on admission to Eucharist and avoidance of coercion.

So, take note and plan ahead. Talk to your intended’s pastor and attempt to obtain the “paperwork.” If you are marrying in his parish do cover the issue of Eucharistic reception because there have been well noted cases of grandma getting up to go to communion and being told to go away. That’s not the sort of sadness you need on your wedding day.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political

The meek shall inherit…

The Economist had a really interesting story on the psychology of power in its January 23rd issue. See Absolutely.

What was unsettling about the article wasn’t the study itself, or even its findings, but rather the author’s conclusion:

However, an intriguing characteristic emerged among participants in high-power states who felt they did not deserve their elevated positions. These people showed a similar tendency to that found in low-power individuals—”to be harsh on themselves and less harsh on others—”but the effect was considerably more dramatic. They felt that others warranted a lenient 6.0 on the morality scale when stealing a bike but assigned a highly immoral 3.9 if they took it themselves. Dr Lammers and Dr Galinsky call this reversal —hypercrisy—.

They argue, therefore, that people with power that they think is justified break rules not only because they can get away with it, but also because they feel at some intuitive level that they are entitled to take what they want. This sense of entitlement is crucial to understanding why people misbehave in high office. In its absence, abuses will be less likely. The word —privilege— translates as —private law—. If Dr Lammers and Dr Galinsky are right, the sense which some powerful people seem to have that different rules apply to them is not just a convenient smoke screen. They genuinely believe it.

What explains hypercrisy is less obvious. It is known, though, from experiments on other species that if those at the bottom of a dominance hierarchy show signs of getting uppity, those at the top react both quickly and aggressively. Hypercrisy might thus be a signal of submissiveness—”one that is exaggerated in creatures that feel themselves to be in the wrong place in the hierarchy. By applying reverse privileges to themselves, they hope to escape punishment from the real dominants. Perhaps the lesson, then, is that corruption and hypocrisy are the price that societies pay for being led by alpha males (and, in some cases, alpha females). The alternative, though cleaner, is leadership by wimps.

Rather stark: Be led by the immoral and unethical, or be led by the weak.

The problem of course is that business is unethical at its roots because its core motivations are not based on a system of ethics. The Economist, being the creature that it is, places no stress whatsoever on ascribing to a system of comprehensive ethics. They would likely agree that the strongest motivation in business is profit. As such the alphas tend to succeed because they stay married to the goal and its achievement, regardless of cost. I would bet that if slavery were legal again, and it could be carried off economically, business would opt for the lower cost of production.

In discussion of business ethics the maxim: ‘unethical behavior invites risk’ is often cited. But what is the risk? The risk (if you are not a believer) is jail, fines, and lawsuits. Others state, ‘unethical business practices create ill-will among customers,’ usually coupled with ‘unethical businesses are bound to fail.’ I would posit that these maxims only point to the most obvious examples like ENRON, rather than the stuff that has been swept under the rug.

There’s a great History of Business Ethics by Richard T. De George that points to the religious underpinnings of ethics and the evolution of business ethics. When Good People Do Bad Things at Work by Dennis J. Moberg points to behaviors that contribute to unethical business behavior. To his point about Moral Exclusion:

A final problem that brings out the worst in good people is the very human tendency to morally exclude certain persons. This occurs when individuals or groups are perceived as outside the boundary in which moral values and considerations of fairness apply.

This applies not only in the way he envisions, but in the reverse. As the Economist article points out, business leaders and people of power ordinarily and regularly exclude themselves from moral behavior.

To the Economist article, I would say that while we may self-stratify, we should take efforts to encourage the powerful and those without power to act ethically. This may involve boundaries, and the admission that faith values play a key formative role in people’s behaviors wherever they may be in the strata (I would love to see the study data tied to the religious upbringing and current faith practices of its respondents). But would the common values found in faith and moral codes make us all wimps?

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