Is the State Replacing Religion?

With the introduction of so many government social programs over the course of the last century and current talk about socialized health care, the role of religion in America seems to be dwindling. The government, with its programs, has filled large portions of what has traditionally been religion’s niche, specifically, the reforming of society. Religions, specifically Christianity in America (being the dominant religion), have, in previous centuries been the main source of organization to improve the living conditions for the underprivileged and disadvantaged in society. Since the beginning of the century, however, (more specifically the Great Depression and WWII years) American government has taken a much larger role in the lives of its citizens. This is good in the sense that the government offers much more stability and better sources of funding for such programs (being able to tax citizens rather than relying on donations) which is to the great advantage of those who utilize the programs. This change can also be seen in a negative light as well. With the state essentially taking the place of organized religion in terms of matters of social concern, religions have lost a lot of power, both monetary and in terms of social support to be able to make a positive contribution to society. People are less apt to donate to a local church which may have programs to help the poor because they are already paying taxes which support similar programs. Also, because of the negative side of politics much of the funding may be burnt away in pork barrel projects or pay for all the bureaucratic tape that holds back the programs own fruition because of petty partisan arguments. While the congregations and denominations are not without their own squabbles, they at least have some sense of independence from each other which allows them to carry on separately. The churches in America still have the ability to make a difference in society, however, since the government has taken over the role of primary provider for the populous and the churches are quite limited in their interaction with the state, it seems that the role of religion is becoming one more of dialog than of action. And if the future is going to continue on in a similar fashion, then it seems to me that, in order to keep up with the government (and hopefully protect the people from the potential abuse of the government) the different churches and religions in general need to start crossing the borders of denomination and dogma in order to make a difference in this changing world. The current situation in which all religions are fractured into different their separate spheres only works to fracture people, harm spirituality in general, and also weaken religion as a facilitator of positive social change. National governments seem to be taking the place of religions (especially in the practical forms of socialism and communism, which actually negate and replace religions) and it is up to the various religions of the world to come to terms with their similarities in order to fulfill their own goals of improving humanity, which seems to me at least to be the very point of religion, that is, bringing people together and improving their lives here on earth (which will hopefully transfer on to whatever afterlife is coming).

The History of Carver Park

Well, as Liz rightly pointed out, my post for this past week was not at all what the assignment said. I had accidentally pasted the wrong document into the blog, so she unfortunately had to read a crazy creation story I had written a while back. Unfortunately, I also destroyed the document that I originally meant to post (I had been cleaning out my cluttered desktop and figured that the document I posted was no longer in need of being stored on my computer – wrong on that one). So I am going to do my best to rewrite what I remember of what should have been my last posting.
As some of you may know, I am from Minnesota. I’ve spent pretty much my entire life before college at my home in Victoria, Minnesota, a town of about 4,000 people that pretty much makes up the edge of the Twin Cities suburbs. I live on the outskirts of the town and am surrounded by farmland that has been convert over the past decades into a park reserve approximately 3,700 acres in size, over twice the size of the Mines of Spain here in Dubuque. The park is called Carver Park and is very similar to the Mines of Spain, but without the bluffs, of course, and with the addition of four large lakes, several smaller lakes and a host of ponds and wetlands. This is where I spent a lot of my childhood since the only other kids in my five-house neighborhood moved away when I was about five or six.
There are several old building foundations scattered throughout the park from barns and farm houses that have long since crumbled or been destroyed. There is also a historic house in the park that belonged to the Grimm family that emigrated from Germany, and created the first winter-hardy alfalfa which is now grown across the country. Many other farms were scattered through the land that is now park area, but have since been forgotten and overgrown with young forests of maple and basswood. My own home and neighborhood is located on land that was once farmland, belonging to one of my neighbor’s families.
It is my neighbor that I think would be most helpful in collecting information about the land around Victoria and the families that first lived there before the old farms were turned into park land. My neighbor is called “Uncle Ron” by most people who know him well, which is a good portion of the town. He is very active in town affairs and I’m sure has scores of knowledge about what life was like before the park was made. He lived around the time that the houses in our neighborhood were built and may even remember or have photographs of what the area looked like early in the 1900s.
Some of the obstacles in collecting information may simply be the availability of the history of the town. I’m not sure what information has all been saved through the years and much has surely been lost. Also, as older population in the town dwindles, many of the memories disappear as well. It would also be difficult to get specific information that I would need to recreate the sense of life when all was still farmland. The old minds of the town have surely become somewhat more forgetful and may prove to be more difficult that anything. For the book itself, I would want to make a format as some kind of memoir of what the land looked like before it was suburbanized and turned into park reserve. I would likely use a lot of old photographs and try to recreate maps of what the town looked like in older times in order to give a sense of what life was like before cars buzzed all over the land. It would certainly be an interesting undertaking and would add to my appreciation of the natural beauty of the parkland I grew up on.

First Visit and Nussbaum Readings

On Tuesday I had my first visit to First Presbyterian Church with Pastor Achtemeier. From my conversations with Pastor Achtemeier I learned that she and her parish currently have little involvement in the Washington neighborhood and are looking to improve relations in the future and become better Christian stewards. Pastor Achtemeier stated that the service role of Lindsey and I will be primarily to help the parish in building better relations with the community. Pastor Achtemeier showed me a map that showed where the various parish members live. In total there are about three members of church who live in the downtown area, the rest of the church members seem to, for the most part be from the area west of Dubuque and various surrounding areas, with a couple even being from East Dubuque. The church itself is small with a very round design with the pulpit and sanctuary in a corner and the pews surrounding it. The design of the church surprised me a bit, especially in how it seemed so different from the Catholic churches I’ve seen.

To me, the term “liberal arts” means a way of education in the ways of thinking. The term, “liberal arts,” to me implies an approach to learning that takes a very broad approach, a way that fosters the use of techniques rather that the memorization of technical vocabulary. I feel that liberal arts education is very undervalued in a society that stresses specialization and gives little room for modern renaissance men and women. However, I feel that it is one of the most useful sources of creative and critical thinking in society. It creates thinking minds that remain unbound by traditional definitions and boundaries, minds that will someday think up new ways of doing things rather than remain stuck in old (though mastered) techniques. Martha Nussbaum’s definition of liberal arts deals mostly with the way in which it fosters logical thinking and reasoning, especially through the study and use of philosophy. For her, the best liberal arts colleges and universities have mandatory requirements in philosophy in order to build a base of critical thinking that can reflect upon itself and improve itself as it develops. Her position differs from many others in that she feels that we should seek to develop a critical way of thinking and questioning rather than passively accepting information. Her thinking can seem a bit dangerous to those who fear what the use of reason and questioning can do to the traditional sources of authority, who have classically taught based upon such authority rather than the use of reason and critical thinking. In the service world, liberal arts can help prepare people for service by giving them the ability to critically and creative come up with solutions to the various problems in the world. It is, after all, the act of problem solving that, at least to me, seems to be the root of all service. Bad plans, even with lots of man power can do very little compared with good, efficient planning and well organized man power.

Past Service Work and Learning Plan

I have not done a great amount of service work in the past, though I do have some experience. I have served at two food shelves in high school, the ICA (Intercongregation Communities Association) food shelf in Excelsior, MN, and the PROP (People Reaching out to Other People) food shelf in Eden Prairie, MN. At the ICA food shelf, most of my tasks dealt with unloading, sorting, and moving food that was donated. It was a kind of warehouse setting run by volunteers, mostly older volunteers, so I usually did some of the heavier lifting and tasks that required more mobility (like climbing into large boxes to retrieve bags of food that were otherwise unreachable). While working at the PROP food shelf, I had the opportunity to interact with the community members who used the food shelf. There my tasks usually consisted of either sorting food donations or making carts of food for families that came in according to their needs. My work at prop had a much greater impact on my perception of things, in that I was able to meet the people who used the food shelf in person, most were very kind and interesting people, while some kept more to themselves. There were occasionally some quite demanding people that made working a little more stressful, but overall it was a very good experience.
In addition to working at couple of food shelves, I also had the opportunity to work at Feed My Starving Children in Eagan, MN. Feed My Starving Children is a nonprofit Christian organization that makes food mixtures to feed starving children throughout Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia. The food they make is designed to be easily shipped around the world, and culturally acceptable to people of the many different countries they serve. It consists of rice, soy nuggets, dehydrated vegetables, and vitamins and minerals, to provide good nutrition at a low cost, with simple preparation (just adding water). Working there I was able to taste the food, and I can say that it is much better than some of the meals I’ve made in college. The cost per meal to make the food is about 17 cents, and the work involved in making it involves mixing together the separate ingredients in the right quantities into a bag, which is then sealed and ready for shipping. In working at Feed My Starving Children I gained a more global perspective on the idea of service, and was able to see the vast difference between the way that Americans (even the more impoverished Americans) live and how the majority of people across the world live in the less developed countries.
There are a few things that I would like to learn and do over the course of my service experience this year. The first would be to make a positive change in the community I’m working in, mostly, being able to see the difference between the beginning and end of the project. I secondly like to learn about the history of the both the church and the community that I am serving in. Though I am not myself from Dubuque, my Grandparents grew up in Dubuque, and I would like to learn a bit about the history of at least part of Dubuque, in order to get a feel for what it was like for them growing up and living in Dubuque. I would also like to get the opportunity to interact with some of the families in the Washington neighborhood and learn about their lives and what their history in Dubuque might be or else their reason for coming to Dubuque. Lastly, I would also like to learn a bit about the Presbyterian faith, since I will be working with the First Presbyterian Church downtown. I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic schooling my entire life. However, I feel that one of the things that helped me to look more deeply into matters of faith was what I learned about the Lutheran faith, going to a daycare run by the wife of a Lutheran Pastor. I hope to have a similar widening of perspective by learning about the Presbyterian faith.