By Christopher Wells
Twenty years ago, on a park bench two blocks from the White House in Washington, D.C., a volunteer doctor waited for a 52-year-old man to lift his head from the concrete. I like to imagine that every few minutes, the doctor, who had religious motivations for his work, may have squinted at the words of a passage like Zechariah 7:9-10. The message is clear:
“Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.”
By this day in 2005, the person sleeping on the park bench, Steve Thomas, had been addicted to drugs and alcohol for more than 30 years. The doctor offered rehabilitation.
It made all the difference. After accepting treatment, Steve went on to become one of the most popular speakers in the history of the National Coalition for the Homeless’ public speaking program. By the time of his death in 2022, Steve’s speeches had reached hundreds of people around the country. After hearing Steve speak, dozens of people triumphed over decades-long battles with addiction, poverty, and homelessness.
When Steve recounted his story to me in 2018, I asked if anyone had inspired him to devote so many of his sober years to helping others get well. He named several people. Almost all of them were religious leaders.
The role of clergy
Steve’s motivations were not unusual. Clergy and other faith-based leaders inspire countless numbers of people to give back to their communities.
In 2016, a Pew Research Center survey found that across all faith traditions, 65 percent of people who pray daily and attend religious services at least once a week had recently volunteered or donated to help the poor, compared to 41 percent of other American adults.
Definitive research shows that during past centuries, the presence of faith-based leaders has been among the most reliable predictors of a country’s future economic and political stability. Researchers have observed, for example, that “areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are, on average, more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment especially for women, and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations.”
And in his influential book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Robert Putnam, who is described by the National Endowment for the Humanities as “America’s pre-eminent political scientist,” credits religious organizations for building the social networks and norms that make society functional. Religious institutions, he writes, “are the single most important repository of social capital in America.”
The importance of benefits policies
This is why it is so important to establish public policies that help denominational benefits organizations provide retirement and healthcare support for clergy and lay employees who staff organizations like churches, synagogues, soup kitchens, and daycares, among other types of organizations. Strong denominational benefits plans promote stable and consistent staffing for religious movements and institutions that drive community resilience.
They also present opportunities for bipartisan collaboration in support of the public interest.
Take the Clergy Act, for example. Earlier this year, Representatives Vince Fong (R-CA) and Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Senators Katie Britt (R-AL) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced the Clergy Act. By re-establishing the path to Social Security benefits for clergy who have made a decision to opt out of public insurance programs, this bill would help bolster retirement viability for people who may have overlooked the significance of their retirement needs while devoting themselves to the spiritual and physical well-being of others.
In a statement for a news article published March 5 on the MinistryWatch website, Rep. Fong says of the Clergy Act:
“Our faith leaders are pillars of strength in our community, offering guidance, hope, and compassion. We are grateful for their selfless service, and it is only right that we stand with them now. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this critical legislation and honor those who devote themselves to our communities.”
From across the aisle, Rep. Thompson had this to say in a press release on January 8:
“Faith leaders play a critical role in supporting our communities. Thank you to Representative Fong for reintroducing the Clergy Act with me in the 119th Congress.”
The bipartisan support for the Clergy Act exemplifies the unifying nature of benefits-related causes in the religious services sector.
Called to care
The right public policies can go a long way to help denominational benefits organizations provide adequately for the retirement and healthcare of faith-based leaders whose work has driven human progress for centuries. When policymakers champion such policies on a bipartisan basis, they demonstrate the American people’s capacity to unite across social and political boundaries in pursuit of societal objectives that will benefit all of us.
