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July 4, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 13Oakland,
CA
Churches urged to prepare for retirement storm
By Tom Ehrich
Religion News Service
Let’s assume that scattered retirement-related
squalls do coalesce into a “perfect storm.”
Let’s assume, first, that reneging on workers’ pensions continues
to be a preferred corporate strategy.
Let’s assume, second, that public officeholders cannot muster the
political will to cross party lines on difficult decisions affecting all
constituents, such as tax policy and bloated indebtedness.
Let’s assume, third, that officials proceed with risky plans to
convert pension planning into Wall Street wagering and the strategy fails.
Let’s assume, finally, that neo-con theorists get their way and
that bankrupted federal and state governments are forced to jettison entitlement
programs and safety nets.
Result? A few will have extraordinarily lush retirements, and most will
retire later than anticipated, if at all, and face years of unmet bills,
uninsured illnesses and clever schemes to nab their real estate assets.
Young workers will find the job market clogged by older workers unable
to retire. Fading dreams will be replaced by anger and despair reminiscent
of the Great Depression.
What then?
American democracy depends on a large and reasonably confident middle
class. Take that away, and democracy could be in trouble. Educational
and charitable institutions depend on end-of-life asset transfers. Deplete
those assets, and those institutions could be in trouble. So could spending
and life-planning strategies essential to our economy, which assume steady
employment, delayed gratification and adequate income throughout retirement.
Our cultural expectation that generations will live separately could become
financially unrealistic.
And what then for faith communities? That is my special concern. This
perfect storm could catch us at a relatively weak moment, when we are
increasingly divided—conservative vs. liberal, urban vs. suburban,
youth-oriented vs. older-adult-oriented—and struggling financially.
Church giving is often the first to go in hard times, so we could face
financial meltdown just as our constituents need us. Recent years of casually
blending politics and religion leave us intellectually unprepared for
dealing with the ambiguity of a fading American Dream.
Our doctrinal bickering leaves us theologically unprepared for dislocations
and despair that rain on good and bad alike. Hesitancy and rigidity among
leaders leave us ill-equipped for addressing anguish that we haven’t
seen before.
Right opinion doesn’t confer hope, and it is hope in the wilderness
that people will need.
What should we be doing? I have a few suggestions, but I think the need
for outside-the-box thinking will be even greater than we now see.
First, we must become pastoring communities. Sunday friendliness supplemented
by paid pastoral care won’t suffice. If we aren’t already
doing so, we need to get people into face-to-face pastoral groups. We
need to develop ministry teams who can sniff out denied-retirement frustration,
economic worries, inadequate health care and family strains.
Second, we need to form crossing-all-lines partnerships. Youth-oriented
congregations must join forces with repositories of the elderly. Wealthy
suburban churches must form alliances with all others, even at the expense
of the next building program.
Third, we need to find our voice as ethical Christians. We know we don’t
agree on certain issues. Fine, but there is a lot more to life than sexual
morality, ordination and Supreme Court nominees. We need to start serving
our commonweal cooperatively, not skirmishing on a few hot-button issues.
Congregations that serve the “winners” in these economic battles
need to be prophetic with them, not congratulatory. Congregations that
serve the “losers” must channel their rage into constructive
political action. We must train our members to look beyond self-interest
and social-compatibility cadres.
Fourth, congregations and denominations must take action now on the two
most likely dislocations lying ahead: health care and housing. We should
look at parish nurses, health clinics, house-sharing, communal-living
and church-sponsored retirement housing suitable for the non-wealthy.
More will be needed. Now is the time to ready ourselves for an unprecedented
social, ethical and emotional upheaval.
(Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest whose forthcoming book, “Just
Wondering, Jesus: 100 Questions People Want to Ask,” will be published
by Morehouse Publishing. His website is www.onajourney.org.)
