Protestant and Catholic Social Action

I will have to admit before I start this post that I am not Catholic so I do not know a lot about their Christian social action. I can just comment on the readings. After reading Thusen and Fisher’s readings on Christian social action I have noticed some similarities and some differences between Catholics and Protestants. One difference I did notice in the articles was that in the challenges that each of the religious groups faced. One big issue was the separation between church and state. The people did not want to elect Alfred E. Smith because he was a Catholic. He toured sweatshops and wanted equality between all people. He admired the ethnic and religious diversity around him, but the people still would not elect him. He lost by a landslide. He even expressed that he did not want his religious affiliation to interfere with the Constitution or the laws.

According to Fisher, some of the steps in changing social action came with what was going on in the world around us. He says John A. Ryan’s pioneering work made a Catholic response to the injustices that accompanied the rapid urbanization and industrialization of the United States. Ryan proposed some reforms that he believed would be reinforced with religion. This was also a challenge because the separation of church and state was a huge issue.

Dorothy Day was also an influential Catholic. She founded the Catholic Worker movement and insisted that the New Deal’s programs were too mild. She wanted spiritual dimensions to address human poverty and suffering. One thing that this article mentioned was that Day believed that few Catholics in the working class were aware of the social teachings on social issues. This kind of took me aback. I know that not everyone knows everything but you would think that if people say they are Catholic, then they would be aware of some of the issues so that they could defend them. I also think that this is changed over time. People seem a lot more educated on the issues they believe in.

The separation between church and state was a big issue in Fisher’s reading and I believe this is a lot different. In the public schools there really isn’t much of a change, but there are so many Catholic schools now that if people can afford it and really believe in Catholicism, they will send their children to a Catholic school. I know these schools are private and do not receive funding like public schools do but I do believe they receive some assistance. (I really don’t know.) Even if they do not receive assistance, it does not seem like there is much separation there because of the fact that it is a school and it is not allowed at the public schools. I am not sure if this is a very valid point. I will need to do some research. I am not Catholic and I did not go to a religious affiliated school growing up, so coming to Loras was a big change. One of my professors prayed out loud in one of my classes and later that day when I was talking to my mom on the phone I told her about it. I told her it was weird but really cool. It was weird just because I had grown up not being able to do that.

The article by Thuesen was a hard read for me so the list on differences will not be as long. One big difference I did notice between them and the Catholics was the fact that they had a lot of problems internally. There were/are divisions among the Protestants and they did/do not agree on everything.

To me, it does not seem as if Protestants are as strict as Catholics when it comes to the church. Catholics seem to separate themselves from other Christians and that is one thing that deters me from the religion. I do not understand why I cannot take communion with Catholics. We are both Christians, and both believe in the sacrifice that God made for us. We both believe that he died for our sins and will one day return. That is enough about that.

One similarity that I mentioned early is that the different groups are facing challenges. These churches are still facing problems today and that will probably never change. It is part of our ever evolving world. I do believe that both groups are making progressive changes. Politics had an influence on the two religious groups back then and they do today as well.

My "Local History"

Based on my Reading from Kammen, I would pick the environment of my school that I went to from preschool to senior year of high school. More specifically, I would pick my graduating class. If I had the time I would like to know the stories of my classmates. If they, like myself, went to Lisbon Community School for their whole life, and if not where else they went. I would also like to know how they feel they got to where they are today. I would like to know what everyone is up to now, and how they like what they are doing. I wonder how well Lisbon prepared each individual for whatever they are doing today and if they took full advantage of this situation. I am involved in a lot of various activities now and I was in high school. It was easy being that I came from a small school. Part of me wonders if people kept to being involved in everything as they continued on from Lisbon or if they were overwhelmed by the transition.
In order to gain all of this information, I would of course need to contact all of my classmates. I think it would be a lot less time consuming if I came up with some sort of survey that they could complete with open ended questions and send it back to me. It would not be as gratifying because I would love to see most of my classmates, but with my hectic schedule it would be a lot more feasible.

I think I would run into a lot of obstacles. One might be my classmates not being willing to complete the survey or talk to me. Another obstacle could be that they would think it was a joke or not really care about it so they would not take me seriously. While reading Kammen, I never realized that being biased or not telling the whole truth had such a big influence on the writing or history and the correctness of it. I think I would have difficulties not being biased based on perceptions I had in high school. I also think I would select information to use in my “history” and according to Kammen, selection is not good while writing history. One needs to tell everything. They need to tell about the good and the bad, the successful and the unsuccessful. I believe that I would have trouble talking about my classmates being unsuccessful or running into certain troubles in life whatever that may be. I know I do not like to talk about the bad in life but I like to focus more on the good things that have happened. Therefore, I do not think I would be able to write a good local history.

To complete this project, I would have to put all of my emotion aside and really focus on the project at hand. That would give me the best result. I would have to forget who I was friends with and who I was not, perceptions I had, and focus on the good and bad information I receive so that I can tell the whole truth in my “local history.” I would also have to put forward a huge effort in order to receive truthful information from my classmates and make sure that everyone completes the information I need in order to complete this project.

I think that my writing would be fairly informal. That is how my class was and I think it would give the best portrayal of who we are. I would put the necessary footnotes in that are needed based on the criteria that Kammen describes so that all my classmates would be credited for their contributions. The more I talk about this “local history,” the neater I think the project is. I am very interested in what my classmates are up to and would think this would be worthwhile, of course if I had the time.

My Initial Meeting with Pastor Jay

I finally met with Pastor Jay yesterday to discuss some plans. We talked about a lot of opportunities that Kelli and I could help with not only with St. John’s Lutheran church but also in the surrounding community. One thing Pastor Jay and I talked about was helping out with the Open Closet that there church holds on the first and third Saturday’s of the month. He showed me the actual rooms where they had the pseudo store set up. I say pseudo because they do not charge for anything that is in the Open Closet. They take donations of clothes, shoes, toys for around Christmas time, jackets, etc. They sort through them on Thursday mornings to make sure that they are good used clothes. They have integrity for the people and do not want to give away stuff with stains or holes. I will not be able to sort on Thursday mornings because I work at that time, but I will be helping winterize this Saturday and work the Open Closet the following Saturday. (Because of winterizing this Saturday, the schedule for this month is a little messed up.

Another service opportunity we talked about was the soup kitchen that they are trying to implement. An eagle scout is working on this project but it sounds like it is slow moving. Right now they are looking for a consistent donor to supply the food. The Eagle Scout has been talking with Sears to get some appliances donating as well. There is no particular time line for this project so we might want to set something up for this. It sounds like it has been put on the back burner for the last year and a half and the need for it is there in the community. This might also create a chance to minister to the people that come in and create a growing number in their church.

One issue that we did talk about is the lack of youth in the church. Pastor Jay said his confirmation class right now has five students and they are all males. He also said that there are only about 15 youth total. If we could somehow get the youth number to increase, this might create opportunities and also increase involvement in the church. Pastor Jay mentioned the situation as a catch 22. They do not have the numbers in the youth department, but until they get higher numbers this is going to deter people from coming there if they have children.

Another thing that was discussed was putting together a web page to let people know about whom the church is and what they believe in. Pastor Jay also talked about making a section for donations on the website. I have never created a website before but I offered to be of assistance as much as I could be.

We discussed the church archives and Pastor Jay talked about some booklets that were put together about the church history and the community itself. He sent us an email today saying that the church would be open from 1-5 Monday through Friday and that we could access those records. This will give us a great amount of help on the history part of this project.

I am excited about all the service help that I will be able to give throughout the semester. I am excited to lend a helping hand and excited about what is in store for me. I am thrilled to learn about people with different backgrounds and those less fortunate. I just hope that I can better someone’s life through this experience.

Short of a Meeting and the Liberal Arts Education

Due to scheduling conflicts and my vacation Thursday through today, I have not met with my supervisor in person. We have talked via email with Pastor Jay from St. John’s Lutheran Church and Kelli has also contacted him per phone conversation. The church has a lot of history and they kept a pretty good record of it. A few years ago some individuals made a record book.
From my neighborhood walk, I noticed that our church was almost on the outskirts of the neighborhood and according to Pastor Jay the church involvement is low and mainly elderly people. This might be why the neighborhood involvement might be low. That is something we can definitely work on through media advertisement (webpage) or a neighborhood newsletter. Pastor Jay has expressed interest in both of these ideas. We also talked about helping with the open closet project. That seems like it will fit into my schedule nicely so I am looking forward to helping out with that project. St. John’s also got a grant to build a soup kitchen and they have an eagle scout that is working on that project. Pastor Jay thinks he would be thrilled to receive help on that project so I think we will help out with that as well.
I foresee a lot of service opportunities through this church and I am excited about all of them. Interacting with those who are less fortunate and helping them out in any way makes me feel good. I am by no means well off, but my basic needs are met and then some, and I couldn’t ask for anything more. I have opportunities that some of them will never see and I see that as being very blessed.
Based on reading the first chapter of Nussbaum chapter 1, the term “liberal arts” means a well rounded education to me. It emphasizes tradition. This is a free education. It gives students the freedom to take charge of their own thoughts and critically analyze for themselves. From this I also got that in order for an education to be truly liberal, it must be open to all people and not just those who are considered elite. It needs to be exposed to everyone. In the United States we are very fortunate. In places such as Europe, they are “one-tracked.” They might be “geniuses” at whatever their specialty might be, but I do not think there world knowledge and reasoning for themselves will be anything compared to what we receive.
The liberal arts are relevant to the world outside college. They are relevant because it allows you to gain exposure to a variety of different topics and experiences. This increases your ability to reason through different situations based on your expanded knowledge base that you have acquired. Martha Nussbaum thinks that this will be used outside of the college experience because we live in a democratic society and we will continue to use these skills outside of college. If you have mastered the technique of Socratic reasoning, then you should be able to inquire about topics more because they will develop moral and political beliefs. This allows them to not just learn the subject, but reason through it. In order to produce independent thinking students, we need to rely on philosophy.
According to Martha Nussbaum, her position differs from others because some people believe that it weakens personal values. They think it questions tradition, or stuff they have learned while growing up, and in some cases would lead some students to not follow what they were taught before they came to college.
The liberal arts can help ready people for service by the exposure instilled in the education. They will better understand other people in their positions and their situations and beliefs. They will also be able to support their belief, not just follow the crowd. If they have a belief that they feel is supported by something, they will defend this belief more.

Past Service Work and Goals

When I was in eighth grade, I went on a mission trip to Tennessee. We went to an area in the mountains that had one of the highest poverty rates in the nation. We shared the story of Christ with the people we helped and we also did manual labor in their community. We did everything from building porches and stairs to building doors. In junior high and high school I was part of 4H. We did service work each year usually consisting of raking leaves for the town and elderly people in the community. For my Sunday school class in high school, we always distributed bags of fruit to the elderly people and we also raised money and bought Christmas gifts for the less fortunate in our town. I was also part of National Honor Society and we had a service project that we completed every year. I cannot recall what we did each year for that.

1. From this learning experience, I hope to get a sense of accomplishment. I am not going to lie; so far in the honors program it doesn’t really feel like I have done anything differently. It may be because it is all I know. I have taken the same style classes of everyone else that is in the graduating class of 2010 from Loras College. Since we are the “Honors” students, I feel like we should do something to prove that other than take some classes titled “honors.” Since the rest of our graduating class does not take a class like this and will not be doing the community service that we are required to do, I hope to get a sense of accomplishment from this class.
2. This has nothing to do with the class specifically, but more so the people in it. I hope that we can become more of a tight knit group. We have not really had our whole class together since democracy and global diversity. A lot of people have also dropped the honors program or graduated early, so there are only a fraction of us left from the starting group. I just hope that we can work together effectively and get a lot accomplished. I know we will not have a problem with this because we have a very intelligent group of people, but I just hope we can get closer as friends.
3. I would like to take something from this learning experience with me into the future. I cannot name what it will be specifically but I hope to gain something that will make me a better person and that I can express it to those around me. Since I do not know exactly what this will be, there is not much I can explain about it.
4. The last thing I want to accomplish from this experience is a sense of understanding about people from different walks of life. I know that the people that we will be working with will not have the same background as I had and I want to be able to listen and understand if the need arises. I want to gain a greater understanding of people as a whole. I want to be more sensitive to other’s feelings as well.