WARREN – Lutherans and Catholics might not agree on how many sacraments there are or who may be ordained, but their perspectives on social justice dovetail at many points, two speakers made clear during the Lutheran/Catholic Covenant Celebration Sept. 20 at St. Paul Lutheran Church here.
The event, entitled “Seek Justice: Lutheran and Catholic Understanding of Social Justice,” featured the Rev. Andrew Genszler, director for Advocacy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) Washington office, and Jim Tobin, associate director for Social Concerns, Ohio Catholic Conference. The event was sponsored by the Diocese of Youngstown and the Northeastern Ohio Synod of the ELCA. Some 80 persons were in attendance. It was the fifth joint session involving members of the two faith traditions since a covenant was signed at the highest levels of the two churches – and in local Catholic dioceses and Lutheran synods throughout the world – a decade ago. (The worldwide covenant marked the resolution of a doctrinal dispute that sparked the 16th century Reformation.)
The afternoon program featured presentations by the two speakers, table discussions, a question-and-answer session, Evening Prayer and supper.
In his remarks, Tobin pointed out that “much of our social teachings are in line with each other. So much of what we have to say is, ‘Yes, we’re there, too!’”
Working on legislation is getting ever-more complex, Tobin said. Just the prior week alone, he told those present, he worked on several issues – the death penalty, for example. “Let’s not kid ourselves,” Tobin said. “We have some great teachings on this issue, but our average congregant is probably unaware of [Church teaching] – or in favor of the death penalty. We have a lot of work to do on that issue.”
Some days, Tobin said, “I look for an easy issue, but there are none. Issues seem to get more complicated. Take immigration. In Ohio, there are a large number of Latino immigrants. Many of them come to our parishes. We are trying to provide supportive services. But we are seeing more deportations. We would like to figure out a way to provide better legal support, but we need money we do not have to do those kinds of things.” A bill coming up would seek to tighten enforcement even more, he noted. “I can’t tell you the number of legislators who have said to me, ‘What part of “illegal” don’t your bishops understand?’”
His office is also working on the casino gambling issue and payday lending reform, Tobin added. He called the latter “a tough issue” because of the lack of bipartisanship. “The need for consensus building is high.”
In a reflective mood, Tobin said that doing legislative advocacy requires him to think about how he brings his faith to the issues at hand. He talked about several “roads” that help him reflect on that link. “These [roads] help center myself as to why we are working on these issues,” he said.
Recalling Saul on the road to Damascus, Tobin said “we all need to keep going back and drawing strength from our ‘road to Damascus’ experience – those moments when we were under God’s grace and ready to go.” Those who work with legislation also need to recall the road to Emmaus, he suggested, where the disciples, feeling dejected, ran into the risen Christ and had their eyes opened about the meaning of scriptural passages. “Right here today, in terms of our dialogue, this is the road to Emmaus, as we break open the traditions of our churches.”
But most of the time, Tobin said, drawing laughter, “I’m on the road to Ninevah,” the road on which God gave Jonah instructions and Jonah did not want to follow them. “So often I lack that trust; I don’t want to confront victims’ families, for example. It’s hard. I can’t tell you the amount of times I find myself second guessing.”
Many present-day Christians, Tobin said, find themselves on the road to Jericho – the “good Samaritan” road – trying to decide what to do about issues such as crime and the need to help “all those people who are losing their jobs, suffering, don’t have health care and so on. It is not lost on me that those who found it hardest [in the Gospel] to see those in need were people of faith. They were the ones who walked by.”
Tobin then used a card trick to demonstrate his main point that “proclaiming the Gospel” and “promoting justice” are the two inseparable aspects of living lives of faith. “As Christians,” he stressed, “we have a lot of people proclaiming the gospel, but it doesn’t affect the community. They are not working on justice. If you accurately proclaim the gospel, you are promoting justice. If you really promote justice, you are proclaiming the gospel.”
In conclusion, Tobin said, it is important to recall that the key word in the Christian tradition is “and” – charity and truth, protecting life and pursuing justice, caring for rich and poor, working with management and labor. “It’s that connection that we are trying to do, connecting between proclaiming the gospel and promoting justice.”
Opening his presentation, Rev. Genszler noted that Lutheran/Catholic dialogue sessions here “have been much more civil and productive and fruitful than the recent town hall meetings” nationally on the health care issue.
He said the climate on Capitol Hill has changed with regard to how church-affiliated persons are received. “It’s no secret that I can’t walk into a congressional member’s office there and have the same assumed moral authority bishops would have had in 1955,” he pointed out. “There was a different dynamic, a different understanding then between the public decision maker and the faith leader. What members increasingly want to know now is ‘How many Lutherans are going to call me tomorrow because this is an issue of faith for them?’ Period. Because principles get us about five seconds on Capitol Hill. Principles form everything we do, but we need a movement of Lutheran/Catholic understandings, arrangements and joint ministries all across the state of Ohio” in order to give members of Congress the idea of how concerned people of faith are about any given issue in the state, he said.
Rev. Genszler said he was not going to bring a church-wide agenda or a program for Lutherans to the meeting. “The stakes are too high for that,” he told the audience, “especially regarding economic life, markets and justice. You know people – you could be the people – whose mortgages and investments are going down the drain, who have to choose between rent and gas, between child care and health care. That’s our reality now. These people are in our pews. The stakes are too high to talk as if we can set the agenda in our church, in our public life. The agenda has been handed to us in our time by mortgage failings and economic circumstances.”
Rather than an agenda, he said, Lutherans and Catholics need a movement to address these issues – “a movement of discipleship, a movement of people who understand themselves, perhaps even before they understand themselves as Lutherans or Catholics, as disciples of Jesus.” The Lord promised his first disciples the Spirit as an advocate and he promises the same to us, the newly-ordained minister said, citing the importance of advocacy.
He told a story about a faith-based organizer who works on environmental issues. The woman gave a talk, and afterward a single mother came forward. “I get what you are saying,” she told the organizer, “and I understand the faith principles involved. But I don’t have time to care about that.” However, her eight-year-old daughter noted that her mother was there “because of me.”
“I think that says a lot about the hope and the promise that we carry as advocates,” Rev. Genszler told the gathering. “We don’t just carry positions, principles, social statements. We really carry the life of our church and the life of our communities on Capitol Hill.”
Using a PowerPoint, he discussed how Martin Luther’s teachings and the subsequent Augsburg Confession dealt with some of the same issues that modern Christians face, though in quite different times and circumstances. Luther saw government as instrumental in public life. “We don’t have the luxury, from our theology, of throwing up our hands and saying that government is the great evil,” Rev. Genszler added. “As Martin Luther said, government is an instrument and a gift for the common good and we should interact with it for the good of our neighbor.” He said economic justice was “one of the few things Catholics and Lutherans did not disagree about early on; even then there was common cause and joint witness.” He added that both churches might benefit not simply from a discussion on capitalism, for example, but on “what unregulated capitalism clearly has done.”
He praised the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for its role in keeping current on the pressing issues of the day and working with Lutherans and others on those issues.
Noting that all ELCA bishops had signed a Statement on Economic Life during the height of the recent financial crisis, Rev. Genszler suggested common areas for working together might include debt relief/forgiveness, financial responsibility, executive compensation, corporate power, and government regulation. The issue of fair trade coffee would be “an easy place to start” for joint study and action, he said, since “Lutherans have coffee as a kind of third sacrament [they officially recognize two]. You’re getting involved with a social justice issue and helping the growers sustain themselves.”
For more information on Lutheran/Catholic Dialogue events and efforts, contact Tom Sauline at 330-744-8451, ext. 300.