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Writer of icons

From EK Pictures, Poland, a marvelous group of photographic retrospectives.

In Writer of Icons (Pisarz ikon), they have photographed the life and work on Ivan Shishman, 50, a father of seven, and artistic restorer from the town of Izmail, Ukraine. Ivan was a one time communist, and later the owner of a video shop specializing in pornography. His only tie to the Church was the memories of his grandmother who recalled the “old ways.” He has given up his former life and now restores churches and icons, as well as creates new works.

Also check out their series on the town of Norylsk, Siberia in Norylsk – zatrute miasto.

Norilsk hosts the biggest factory in Russia engaged in the production of “rare” metals (palladium, platinum, nickel, cobalt, and copper). The price paid by the residents is huge. Two percent of the world’s CO2 production comes from Norylsk. An area of 100,000 hectares (50,000 acres) around the city consists of burned down forests. It is widely recognized as one of the worst ecological disasters in the world, and average life expectancy is ten years less than the average across all Russia.

Perspective, PNCC, ,

10 reasons I’m a National Catholic —” Reason 4: Unity in essentials, latitude in non-essentials

There is quite a history behind the famous saying: “In necessariis unitas, In dubiis libertas, In omnibus autem caritas” (In essentials unity, In doubtful things liberty, But in all things love). This saying is commonly referred to as the “Friedensspruch” or “Peace Saying.”

The quote is sometimes attributed to St. Augustine. In reality it is properly attributed to Peter MeiderlinOn the, spurious claim that Augustine was the author, see especially Friedrich Lí¼cke, íœber das Alter, den Verfasser, die ursprí¼ngliche Form und den wahren Sinn des kirchlichen Friedensspruches “In necessariis unitas, in non necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas!: Eine litterarhistorische theologische Studie (Gí¶ttingen: Verlag der Dieterischschen Buchhandlung, 1850), 4-6; Eekhof, Zinspreuk, 10-15., a Lutheran theologian and pastor who lived in Augsburg during the early seventeenth century. Meiderlin lived in a very troubled times, a time exposed to the ravages of the Thirty Years War and its aftermath. There was ongoing strife between Lutherans and Calvinists as well as within Lutheranism itself. The Lutheran movement had become a battleground for competing political forces and numerous doctrinal disputes based on theological differences among the leaders of the nascent Reformation.

Why go off into Lutheran and Reformation history? Really, to understand the basis for my reasons in joining the PNCC. Every confession has, to some extent, turned the “Peace Saying” on its head. This is perfected in the great departure from what was commonly believed among all Christians in the Church of the first 1,000 years to a development of unknown doctrines and laws.

Peter Meiderlin’s argument for peace is illustrated in the story of a dream he hadThe account of the dream is found in Meiderlin’s original Latin book, entitled Paraenesis votiva pro pace ecclesiae ad Theologos Augustanae Confessionis, based on the edition of Pfeiffer, was reprinted by Lí¼cke in íœber das Alter, 87-90.:

In the dream he encounters a devout Christian theologian in a white robe sitting at a table and reading the Scriptures. All of a sudden Christ appears to him as the victor over death and the devil and warns him of an impending danger and admonishes him to be very vigilant. Then Christ vanishes and the Devil appears in the form of a blinding light, moonlight to be exact, and claims to have been sent on a mission from God. He states that in this final age the Church needs to be protected from all heresy and apostasy of any kind and God’s elect have the duty to safeguard and keep pure the doctrinal truths they inherited. The Devil then alleges that God has authorized him to found a new order of these doctrinally pure elect, some sort of a doctrinal heritage coven. Those who join will bind themselves to an oath of strictest observance to these doctrines. The Devil then extends to our devout theologian the invitation to join this militant fellowship for his own eternal welfare. Our theologian thinks about what he has just heard and decides to bring it in prayer before God, upon which the devil immediately vanishes and Christ reappears. Christ tenderly raises the trembling Christian up, comforts him most kindly, and before he departs admonishes him to remain loyal only to the Word of God in simplicity and humility of heartFound at “In Essentials Unity”: The Pre-History And History Of A Restoration Movement Slogan by Hans Rollmann..

Meiderlin’s dream captures my state of mind in coming to the PNCC. Where was the essential Catholic faith I grew up in? Where could I find the Church which called me to hold the commonly believed truths, the foundations of the Church in Sacred Scripture and Holy Tradition, and which would stand strongly enough on those foundations so as not to attempt to control everything (Matthew 23:4).

I was trying to avoid being part of “[the] new order of [the] doctrinally pure elect, …a doctrinal heritage coven.” I understood the Catholic faith to stand on foundation of Scripture and Tradition, the infallible nature of the Church as a whole, which also acts as a guide along the path to eternal life, meeting people where they are and bringing them to Christ. I wasn’t looking for the Church that gave me free-reign to decide for myself. If I wanted that I could be Protestant, Universalist, or nothing at all, because in each, even the essentials of Scripture and Tradition are subject to debate and individual interpretation. I didn’t need doctrinal or liturgical, or sacramental innovation, nor priests and bishops who wing theology and kill Holy Tradition to suit the whims of the day. I know I needed the truth of Catholicism, but not thousands of pages of proscriptive rules and regulations no one can bear.

So, I needed truth, as well as the latitude to get to heaven in an environment that gave me peace and comfort in my struggles. I needed the essentials of the Catholic faith to be sure, and I needed that they be strictly adhered to, but I did not need regulations that acted to do no more than act as points of separation, points that made me feel unworthy and outside.

Those laws of separation are too painful. Certainly they work for the benefit of those who hold themselves as doctrinally pure, elect, and on the inside. That high standard becomes so high that it often becomes insurmountable for many. As can be seen, some just ignore what they perceive as insurmountable (they ignore their Church’s teachings and doctrines, are essentially bad Catholics, but continue to go and commune without any change of heart — they are right, the Church is wrong). Some try to change it, fighting against the mountain that will not move (they battle from the inside until they are exhausted and lose heart, because it is quite impossible to win against an administrative culture based on absolutes). Some leave, whether in anger, hurt, disappointment, or out of an unwillingness to change, and in leaving abandon all faith. — I’ve done each.

The laws and doctrines of the non-essentials, the lack of charity (not financial, but that of the heart) works then to obscure the teaching of what is essential, and loses souls. How can people understand the teaching of Scripture and Holy Tradition if they are caught up in arguments over the disciplines imposed by men? How will people walk toward God if we formulate laws that push them away? We are not speaking with children when we say “My children,” but adults. I wanted to be treated like an adult on an adult path to God.

Yes, I hold the essentials and I desire no change in them at all. The creeds, humanity as saved and redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the ministry and Apostolic succession as established by the Catholic Church, the necessity of regeneration, the benefit of the sacraments, the call to live as Christ demands — not as man dictates, repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and living in the community of faith at every level — Church, Diocese, Parish, and home. Yes, I desire the Catholic way of life. Yet I have no love or respect for the elevation of man made, dubious, doctrine and law which obscure (and work to block) the path to heaven. The philosopher Seneca warned of cramming the mind with unimportant things. “We are ignorant,” Seneca writes, “of essentials because we deal in non-essentials.”

Bishop Hodur clearly stated that every person is called by God and that this call is to engage in a joyous journey toward heaven. Yes, it is not without struggle, against ourselves and the allures of the world, but in community that struggling together leads to victory. I needed that community. We must “remain loyal only to the Word of God in simplicity and humility of heart.” Humility calls for the elevation of God’s way (and yes, the Church teaches His way because the Holy Spirit abides in the Church) over our ways, our thoughts, our innovations. Simplicity means we must take great care not to obscure Scripture and Tradition by that which is man-made.

Meiderlin tried to avoid both extremes during the period in which he was writing. He sought to avoid disintegrating sectarianism and of a levelling orthodoxy by taking a middle position that affirms salvific essentials while maintaining responsible freedom. His principals were just as applicable in his day, in 1897, and today. I found that principle well respected in the PNCC, which maintains both and keeps the peace in love. This life then reflects what St. Paul calls “the most excellent way” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). This is Meiderlin’s dictum: “We would be in the best shape if we kept in essentials, Unity; in non-essentials, Liberty; and in both Charity.” That is what I sought and found. It made me free, and I found a much clearer path to the Jesus who loves me out of my sinfulness. Jesus called the sinners who came to Him to the path of repentance, a change of heart, not to the following of man made regulations which are of little consequence to the desired result – a relationship with God who saves.

The “Friedensspruch,” or “Peace Saying,” is key. I wish to live in unity with what Christ demands of me. He calls me to live in the Church He established, in which He exists through the working and inbiding of the Holy Spirit, in which we follow His way by the teaching of Scripture and Holy Tradition. I also need the latitude to be included, despite my faults and failings, because inside I will continue to walk the way, climb the ladder to eternal life.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC

A student discusses faith in college

From the GW Hatchet: Andrew Pazdon on Being Catholic in college

A former PNCC member talks about his experiences and his faith journey. I wish him well and support his effort at understanding his faith. Of course I do not appreciate his uninformed view of the Church in which he was raised. His limited comments on the PNCC seem to come out of an early 1900’s Roman Catholic diatribe against the PNCC – calling it a sect, and referring to its being a part of the Old Catholic Churches of Utrecht (no longer true since they long left Catholicism and we left them). Perhaps, as a student of international affairs, he should better understand the beliefs of others before labeling them.

As his journey continues, perhaps his views will be softened, and he will not disparage the faith in which he was raised, likely the faith of his parents and grandparents. He may also come to understand that the distinctiveness of the R.C. Church lies solely in claims which are disputed throughout the rest of Catholicism (Orthodoxy, Oriental, and PNCC). It has never been about the R.C. Church’s understanding of Catholicism, to which we all subscribe, but its troubling papal and doctrinal claims. The troubles the R.C. Church is having find their roots in those claims.

My faith has been tested, yet strengthened by my time on campus

Growing up in the woods of New Hampshire, the thought never crossed my adolescent mind that fasting, constructing advent wreathes from moss and pine trees in my backyard, spending hours in Church, and various other Catholic customs (with a hearty dose of Polish folk customs) were not normal.

That didn’t mean I didn’t dread sitting through Mass every week. But now that dread is gone and, in the midst of my 20-something partying years, it’s very likely you will find me every Sunday at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle.

My faith and relationship with the Catholic Church have evolved, been tested and, in the end, been strengthened. Today, I am just as likely to tell people I am Catholic as I am a Polish-American from New Hampshire. I am proud of both my heritage and my faith.

I didn’t grow up in the Roman Catholic Church, but rather in a sect of the Old Catholic Church called the Polish National Catholic Church. Despite this, and now in a time during which Roman Catholic Church pews are being deserted, I have found a reawakening of my relationship with God.

Through much of high school I was, religiously, a lamb that had wandered astray from the herd. I challenged my childhood religion. I considered my options, including agnosticism, Islam and other Christian denominations. But I knew something was ultimately missing from my religious and spiritual life. It wasn’t until I actually left home and came to D.C. that my faith really felt reaffirmed.

I didn’t think my faith would be strengthened in college. When I thought of college, I thought Sunday morning was for nursing headaches, not for Mass. I do not know for certain what changed inside of me. But perhaps it was the everyday freedom that allows for sleeping in and drinking that allowed me to feel on my own, in a no-pressure venue, the comfort of faith. Yeah, I’d like to sleep in sometimes, but I feel better when I act on my faith instead.

I’ve even found I’m not the only GW student who gets up early on the weekend to spend some time with Jesus Christ. There are a number of fellow Catholics I have come across who are also deeply religious, yet manage to lead normal college lives filled with partying, college hook-ups and hours spent Facebook-stalking instead of deep in prayer.

I found that faith of any kind does not have to be forsaken in college, even in a bastion of liberalism and free thinking that is GW. If anything, being at GW and college in general has taught me that my faith doesn’t have to be all or nothing. I can be a Democrat and a Catholic. And I can party as hearty as anyone else and still be Catholic. I can lead a normal life, enjoying the pleasures the world has to offer, while simultaneously fulfilling a spiritual and religious yearning.

It’s not an easy time to be a Catholic. The strength of the church has been tested at the same time the strength of my faith has. Back home, the clergy abuse scandal is local and hard-hitting. Many of the early allegations, settlements and incarcerations happened in New England towns not far or different from mine. These unimaginably horrible actions caused many of my hometown friends and their families to vacate the church. I certainly don’t blame them. But as an original outsider who came back into the flock, I have looked past these heinous acts and missteps by the church to find comfort and joy.

This disease of abuse by clergy and the subsequent cover-ups has now spread to infect the church’s communicants all over the world. But this situation does not spell out the fall of the church. Rather, the church is now forced to seriously, unequivocally and firmly address structural problems. The current tenuous situation can become an opportunity for the church and its leaders to refocus on tending to the herd, so that everyone who wants to can find same comfort that I have found.

Life is full of ups and downs, but that is an integral part of the journey. My questioning of my own faith before and during college has helped to cement my commitment to it. I have faith too that my church will heal and many will once again heed the trumpet call.

Christian Witness, Perspective, , ,

From Communist to Priest

A Greek Catholic priest, Fr. Yurko Kolasa, reflects on his journey from communism to a vocation as a married man and a priest. He speaks of the martyrs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, his personal journey, his marriage, vocation, pastoral work, and a program he developed to support married life.

From ZENIT: From Communism To Catholicism To Priest: An Interview With Father Yurko Kolasa of the Ukraine

Raised in the communist Soviet Union, Yurko Kolasa knew nothing of the Catholic faith until he was well into his teens. Once the Greek-Catholic Church went from an underground following to being an openly practiced and respected religion in Ukraine, this future priest’s whole world opened up.

Today, Father Kolasa is the prefect of the training program for priests, seminarians and religious, at the International Theological Institute in Vienna. He is also a married priest of the Eastern Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and a father of four.

He also tells of the marriage preparation program he developed, how it has positively impacted the marriage success rate in Ukraine and is quickly becoming the proto-type for marriage preparation programs throughout various dioceses in Eastern Europe.

ZENIT: You have said that you accepted the ideas of Communism until you were 15. What happened that made you turn away from that ideology and turn toward the truths of the Catholic faith?

Father Kolasa: Most of my relatives were very active in communist party. As a boy I did not know anything about the persecution of the Greek-Catholic Church in the Soviet Union. It was only in 1989, when the Greek Church was legalized that I began to learn about thousands and thousands of martyrs of this Church — Greek Catholic bishops, clergy, monastics, and laity.

It was the authenticity of their faith that radically changed my life. I was crushed by the fact that there were so many people who have resisted compromise with the oppressive regime of that time and overcame the greatest moral challenges of the 20th century: the suppression of God-given freedom and human dignity by ideological totalitarianism. They gave the strongest testimony of their faith — their blood.

ZENIT: Despite the government’s effort to stamp out Christianity, the people’s faith prevailed. Can you describe how people continued to practice, or at least hold on to, their faith in such conditions?

Father Kolasa: By the end of 1947, male and female religious, lay faithful and hundreds of priests who refused to “convert” to orthodoxy, often with their wives and children, were arrested and sent to labor camps, where they endured horrific hardships. Parishes where the pastor had been arrested were to become the backbone of the underground. The faithful sang outside closed churches or worshiped at churches not registered with the regime. Priests who had avoided arrest tried to make pastoral visits to these underground communities. Nuns maintained contact between the priests and the laity, arranging secret religious services and catechizing children.

With Stalin’s death in March 1953, many priests who survived the camps were allowed to return home where they often resumed their pastoral activities. Priests celebrated the sacraments in forests or in private apartments, late at night or early in the morning, in addition to their legal jobs. Sometimes they were caught and again sentenced.

Until it emerged from the underground in 1989, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was the world’s largest illegal church. It was also the most extensive network of civil opposition in the Soviet Union. Despite relentless persecution, church life continued through an elaborate system of clandestine seminaries, monasteries, ministries, parishes and youth groups until the church was legalized on Dec. 1, 1989.

ZENIT: You are a Greek-Catholic priest, you are married, and you have four children. For those not familiar with the tradition of married clergy in the Eastern Catholic rites, could you explain how this difference in tradition came about?

Father Kolasa: The tradition of married clergy comes from the apostolic times. In the early years of the Church some married men were even consecrated bishops. The Eastern Church has always allowed the possibility of married men being ordained to the priesthood.

Please note that not a single practicing priest in the Church has ever married; there have only been instances of married men who later became ordained. The Western Church has cherished the discipline of only unmarried men being ordained, except for some Protestants who have entered the Church in recent years.

I always have a great respect and high esteem for unmarried priests and always try to encourage them to treasure and to protect the gift they have received. St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:7 said; “I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.”

ZENIT: You were ordained in 2001. As you approach your 10th anniversary as a priest, could you share with us some reflections on your vocation, and how your life has changed since your ordination?

Father Kolasa: One of the most powerful experiences of being a priest is to be an eyewitness of the tremendous power of the holy sacraments, and to know that as unworthy as I am, God is using me to be a channel of his infinite divine love.

I will never forget this one moment in my life when, after a long, exhausting day of fulfilling different tasks at the parish, I was called to give the anointing of the sick to a very sick man. When I came, the poor man was in terrible pain. His whole body was caught in convulsion. I tried to communicate with him, but he would not respond. I do not know if he even heard or saw me. I began to pray the prayers of the rite of anointing of the sick. All this time the convulsions would only increase. The moment I finished with the word Amen, his body suddenly rested. His eyes were closed. He was still breathing.

I said to his sister that stood next to me, let us pray together and thank God for his mercy. As we began to recite the Our Father, the man gently opened his eyes; he looked at his sister then at me and then he smiled at me with the most blissful and peaceful smile, then he closed his eyes and breathed his last. At this moment I could not stop thanking God for saving his soul and for the gift of the priesthood…

He gets it and lives it.

Art, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Historic Moments

The Cosmopolitan Review discusses the Year of Chopin in Poland, marking the 200th anniversary of Frederyk Chopin’s birth, and what he might think of life in today’s free Poland:

There’s much to celebrate, starting with the 200th birthday of Poland’s most famous exile, Frederic Chopin, born in Żelazowa Wola, just outside of Warsaw. We join the festivities bearing gifts of poetry, prose and a guide to Chopin events worldwide. In CR’s first fiction, Eva Stachniak transforms her readers into aristocratic guests at a salon in Paris in the company of Polish exiles, among them, Chopin himself.

Were the composer alive today, would he accept an invitation to give a concert at Warsaw’s Soviet-built Palace of Culture and Science? Would he dance in the Palace’s hip club Kafe Kulturalna? Or would he side with Minister of Foreign Affairs Radek Sikorski, who is suggesting Poland “demolish its own symbol of communist misrule”?

This year also marks the rehabilitation and reburial of Copernicus, labeled a heretic long before Galileo was ever hit with that charge. From the AP via Yahoo! News: Astronomer Copernicus reburied as hero in Poland

Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer whose findings were condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as heretical, was reburied by Polish priests as a hero on Saturday, nearly 500 years after he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave.

His burial in a tomb in the cathedral where he once served as a church canon and doctor indicates how far the church has come in making peace with the scientist whose revolutionary theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun helped usher in the modern scientific age.

Copernicus, who lived from 1473 to 1543, died as a little-known astronomer working in a remote part of northern Poland, far from Europe’s centers of learning. He had spent years laboring in his free time developing his theory, which was later condemned as heretical by the church because it removed Earth and humanity from their central position in the universe.

His revolutionary model was based on complex mathematical calculations and his naked-eye observations of the heavens because the telescope had not yet been invented.

After his death, his remains rested in an unmarked grave beneath the floor of the cathedral in Frombork, on Poland’s Baltic coast, the exact location unknown.

On Saturday, his remains were blessed with holy water by some of Poland’s highest-ranking clerics before an honor guard ceremoniously carried his coffin through the imposing red brick cathedral and lowered it back into the same spot where part of his skull and other bones were found in 2005.

A black granite tombstone now identifies him as the founder of the heliocentric theory, but also a church canon, a cleric ranking below a priest. The tombstone is decorated with a model of the solar system, a golden sun encircled by six of the planets…

I had visited his home in Toruń, Poland, and the church in which he was baptized. I found the juxtaposition with the on-going closings and desecration of historic churches throughout the United States to be amazing. The R.C. Church was wiping out churches 100 to 150 years old, and here I stood in a church that predated 1473. I will never be able to show my children the churches their grandparents were baptized in. They have all closed.

Christian Witness, Perspective,

Seyfo – The Genocide of Christians in Iraq

A trailer for the film Seyfo: The Year of the Sword, The Ongoing Genocide. 2010 winner – The Indie Fest. The film looks at the evil of the genocide being committed against the indigenous Christians of Mesopotamia: the Assyrians, Chaldeans and Syriacs. More information is available from the Iraqi Christian Relief Council.

“In the name of the father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
Love is our anthem.
If we say something, No one would care…
If we ask about something, No one would Answer.

But I ask from God; I ask from God and I beg of him
And Our Prayers to the Messiah and God:
We are not enemies to anyone.
We did not do anything against anyone.
We built Iraq, and we will build it again.

What did we do? Why? Why are you coming after us?
Is this how you define sincerity?
We give them Respect and Love, And they give us bombs.
Where are they?
They say we will protect them,
but no one is here to protect us.

I am sorry,
The flowers in the garden
but they all stepped on them with their feet.
Why is it like that? Do they not have fear from God?
But we do not, do like them.
We have one word to them.
And that is that we forgive them and we thank them …”

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, , , , , ,

Ethnic Marketing – alive and well

From friends at the CapturaGroup: Are Hispanics Really More Social?

Getting to the bottom of this question is critical because there seems to be a disconnect among Hispanic marketers when it comes to social media. On one hand, there are countless studies indicating that Hispanics are extremely engaged with social media. On the other hand, few marketers are proactively leveraging social media to reach online Hispanics…

…answerng the question in: Hispanics are really more social

In addition to being highly social, Hispanics consume a ton of media. I came across statistics that indicate that Hispanics teens spend 13 hours per day with media, more than any other ethnic group.

I then took a look at technology usage and showed that Hispanics are leapfrogging to the latest and greatest technologies, including mobile. What’s more, Hispanics have an extremely positive view of the technology and once they get their hands on it, the use it and love it…

When you combine the highly social Hispanic culture with strong technology usage, you get a perfect storm. I argued that social media is the perfect avenue to unleash the Hispanic culture. For the most part, every day Hispanic culture is confined to neighborhoods throughout America. Social media changes that. It gives every day Hispanics a voice and provides a global, viral platform for spreading the culture.

Answering the question goes to more than just selling widgets.

As Bishop Hodur pointed out, each culture brings its unique gifts and attributes together in the most social of all setting, the Church. Honoring culture is more than just window dressing and getting down with quaint traditions. It involves understanding people where they are at, blessing what they offer, and being increased and blessed by the gifts they bring. The Gospel message is beyond nation and place, yet grows in the world God created, because of the talents and gifts every nation and people offers.

Is the PNCC just the Church of one nation, one people? No, but it fully honors, respects, and works to build upon and maintain the gifts each nation and people bring. You do not have to stop being American, Polish, Hispanic, Italian, or any aspect of your nature because God honors it in using what you bring for the promotion of the everlasting message that is beyond any border or boundary.

What we can understand from the above is that Church needs to go out and meet people where they are, drawing them in, not by a few “ethnic” parishes, but by fully honoring their self determination and identity in a Catholic and democratic Church.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political, , ,

Do not separate work from religious practice

A forum at the New America Foundation finds that discourse on workplace flexibility issues must include religious practices. As issues surrounding workplace flexibility continue to be part of a national discourse, employers and policymakers should include the needs of religious Americans as part of that debate, several speakers said April 8.

At a discussion sponsored by the New America Foundation, several speakers representing various religious communities, along with a workplace flexibility advocate, discussed past religious discrimination cases based on workers who were denied accommodations for their religious practices. The speakers emphasized that legislation and increased information would help alleviate some of the challenges those workers face.

Katie Corrigan, the co-director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, a public policy initiative based at Georgetown University Law Center, said that the White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility, held March 31, had brought to the fore issues surrounding the needs of working Americans for increased flexibility between work and commitments outside of work.

Although issues of work and religious observance had not been directly addressed at the forum, Corrigan said conflicts between work situations and religious practices were similarly practical challenges to other types of work-life conflicts. “Faith is part of the conversation” on flexibility, she said.

Religion as ‘Part of Identity.’

“People of faith should not be required to leave a part of their identity at the workplace door,” said Richard Foltin, the director of national and legislative affairs at the American Jewish Committee.

Although Congress in 1972 amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act to mandate that employers accommodate religious employees if it did not put an “undue hardship” on the employer, various court rulings have made that standard difficult to enforce, Foltin said.

“Where the force of law is not strong enough, many employers recognize the mutual benefit of finding a fit between the needs of the employer and the employee,” Foltin said. Still, he said that religious discrimination claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had increased significantly since the mid-1990s. Although it was difficult to tell how many of those claims were directly related to accommodations, it was likely that they made up a good portion of the total, Foltin said.

Foltin also said that although no bill had yet been introduced in the current Congress, lawmakers had in the past introduced the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, which he said would “provide a broad higher standard of protection to people who need accommodations in the workplace” for their religious practices by changing the interpretation of what constitutes an “undue hardship” for employers. The bill may again be introduced in the current Congress, Foltin said.

Meanwhile, Amardeep Singh, director of programs at the Sikh Coalition, highlighted issues faced by Muslim and Sikh workers who need to wear a turban or head scarf while on the job. He mentioned two instances, which he referred to as “back-of-the-bus cases,” in which employees of an airline and a rental car company were removed from public-facing customer service positions because of the religious articles they wore, and were put in other jobs with no public interaction but with their same pay and benefits.

‘Back-of-the-Bus’ Cases Unacceptable

Courts had ruled that such accommodations were acceptable, Singh said, but he argued that they were unacceptable since they labeled certain workers as “undesirable.” The point of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was to be “integrative,” Singh said, and when courts interpret cases in this way, it undermines the intent of the law.

Nathan Diament, of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, emphasized the importance of information to issues of religion and workplace flexibility. “Many of the problems that are present come from a lack of information,” he said. For example, many people know about Passover seders that take place on the first and second nights of that holiday, but fewer people know that observant Jews also observe two days at the end of Passover, possibly requiring time off from work.

In addition to holy day observances, other issues that may arise include the need of employees to take small portions of a day to pray or take part in other religious observances, along with conscience issues for employees, such as those surrounding health care workers and abortion.

“On the government enforcement side, in the employer community, and among employees, there’s a lot more information that needs to get out and a lot more education that needs to go on,” Diament said.

The panel also included Zainab Al-Suwaij, executive director of the American Islamic Congress, who said that “by coming together to promote religious diversity in the U.S. we will offer an example to countries and societies around the world”; and Barry Bussey, director of legislative affairs at the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, who said that in general, his experience has been that when employers have been willing to accommodate religious workers, there usually is a way to accommodate them in a mutually satisfactory way.

In summarizing the discussion, Corrigan emphasized that in discussing workplace flexibility, employers and policymakers should recognize that “diversity is the norm. It shouldn’t be a surprise that people have religious obligations, just as it shouldn’t be a surprise that people have family responsibilities,” she said.

Christian Witness, Perspective

Religion = Happiness

From Christian Newswire: Religious People are Happier, Study Says

Researchers at Duke University suggest that people who practice some sort of religion are happier than those who don’t. The new study reveals that religious people have more of a sense of purpose in their lives.

One person who can attest to the validity of these new findings is author David Beato. The premise of his new book, The Power of Prayer, Endurance and Truth, is the influential role that religion has played in his own life.

“As a practicing Catholic I find that my religion offers me security, connectedness, fulfillment, joy and direction,” says Mr. Beato. “It has helped me to overcome some truly staggering obstacles and achieve more than anyone ever thought I would.”

In his memoir, David Beato shares the tales of his poor upbringing in Italy during World War II and his struggle to make it as a successful businessman in America. During his life’s journey Mr. Beato has faced many monumental tests of faith including the death of his beloved son, professional setbacks and deceptive family members.

A number of best-selling books underscore the connection between religious practice and happiness such as The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren or Become a Better You by Joel Osteen.

Many studies have concluded that religion positively influences people’s lives and makes it better. According to the research published in Psychological Bulletin, along with being happier, devoutly religious people tend to:

  • Do better in school
  • Be more organized
  • Live longer
  • Have stronger marriages
  • Raise well-behaved children
  • Maintain better self-control and self-discipline

“I believe religion is very important,” says Mr. Beato, “especially in times like these, with all the issues we face–war, economic problems, political disagreements and so on. We need to have faith more than ever.”

Perspective,

Government employees: higher requirements, more work, less pay

The Center for State and Local Government Excellence reports on a research study commissioned by the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). The study determined that the pay gap has increased between employees in private, public sectors.

The pay gap between state and local government, and private sector employees has widened in recent years, with private sector workers’ wages and salaries outstripping those of their public sector counterparts, according to a report released April 28 by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the National Institute on Retirement Security.

Among the findings in the report, which looked at two decades of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, are that:

  • Wages and salaries of state and local employees are lower than those for private sector employees with comparable earnings determinants such as education and work experience. State employees typically earn 11 percent less and local employees 12 percent less.
  • During the last 15 years, the pay gap has grown as earnings for state and local workers generally have declined relative to comparable private sector employees. The pattern of declining relative earnings remains true in most of the large states examined in the study, although there are some state-level variations.
  • Benefits make up a slightly larger share of compensation for the state and local sector. But even after accounting for the value of retirement, health care, and other benefits, state and local employees earn less than their private sector counterparts. On average, total compensation is 6.8 percent lower for state employees and 7.4 percent lower for local employees than for comparable private sector employees.
  • Jobs in the public sector typically require more education than private sector positions. Thus, state and local employees are twice as likely to hold a college degree or higher compared to private sector employees. Only 23 percent of private sector employees have completed college, as compared to about 48 percent in the public sector.

‘Picture Is Clear.’

“The picture is clear. In an apples-to-apples comparison, state and local government employees receive less compensation than their private sector counterparts,” Keith A. Bender, a report co-author and economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said in a joint statement from the center and NIRS.

“Jobs in state and local governments consist disproportionately of occupations that demand more education and skills. Indeed, accounting for these differences is critical in understanding compensation patterns,” according to John S. Heywood, a report co-author who also is a professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Elizabeth K. Kellar, president and chief executive officer of the center, added that in a recent survey of government hiring managers, the center was told that, despite the economy, managers were finding it difficult to fill vacancies for highly-skilled positions such as engineering, environmental sciences, information technology, and health care professionals. “The compensation gap may have something to do with this,” she said.

Beth Almeida, NIRS executive director, said that the new report showed that the pattern of public sector jobs offering better benefits but with lower pay has continued. “What’s striking is that on a total compensation basis looking at pay and benefits, employees of state and local government still earn less than their private sector counterparts,” she said.

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