By Gayle Simonson, Edmonton Journal January 8, 2011
Religious groups today are often referred to as faith communities. Most try to work together to support each other but also to reach far beyond their own locale to be a force in the world.
But how effective is that force when so many people suggest that we are in a post-religious society? How do people outside the religious groups see these faith communities?
A letter to the editor suggested that churches contribute nothing to the community. Nothing could be farther from the truth, but can we measure their current role in the wider community?
In the past it was obvious. The churches provided schools and hospitals. Church leaders spoke out on social issues and were respected and reported. Today it is less obvious, but a 2007 report, co-sponsored by Imagine Canada, Volunteer Canada and Statistics Canada, called Caring Canadians -- Involved Canadians contains some interesting information. The report is based on the Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, a survey conducted every three years.
According to this report, those who attend religious services weekly are eight per cent of the population but contribute 39 per cent of all charitable donations. Even ignoring their religious contributions, on average they donate considerably more to other charities than those donors who are not religiously active.
Acting on their faith
Similarly, rates of volunteerism are highest among those who are religiously active. Forty-five per cent of all Canadians volunteer, but 25 per cent of those who do volunteer contribute 78 per cent of total hours. That means about 11 per cent of Canadians provide that 78 per cent of volunteer hours and a high proportion of that 11 per cent are religiously active.
While it offers valuable information, the report actually underestimates the value of faith groups when it uses only donations outside those groups as a measure. Many of the donations through a faith group also go to local community and international support. As an example, the United Church works with partners in more than 30 countries and members contribute millions through the church to global emergency appeals such as the Haiti earthquake.
Many social service agencies are faith-sponsored. Consider Catholic Social Services, Jewish Family Services, the Mustard Seed Church, the Bissell Centre, Hope Mission, the work of the Salvation Army, and many more. In addition to financial support, people of faith offer volunteer support for these initiatives and others such as the Edmonton Food Bank, Amnesty International and Habitat for Humanity.
Certainly many people not affiliated with a faith group offer strong support as well, but on average, contributions from those in faith communities are higher.
We recognize the positive side of community, but not all communities are positive. While we may call it peer pressure when teens are struggling to relate to their own age group, it is in fact a search for community as young people struggle to develop an individual sense of identity. For some, that pressure can lead to dangerous behaviour. After all, even criminal gangs are a form of community. It is important therefore that young people see good modelling of community, whether within a religious group or elsewhere.
In his book When Atheism Becomes Religion, Chris Hedges suggests some problems facing North American society are a result of personal isolation and a search for meaning in material things rather than community.
He writes that North Americans are "plagued by its consumer culture, (and) waste their energy on attempting to satisfy the insatiable demands of an all-consuming self. People have become cut off, engulfed in the fruitless search to find an unachievable happiness in the things they accumulate, the experiences and products they are sold, and the careers they have built. The promised self-fulfillment never arrives."
In her book Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass has concluded: "People need community to change, to sustain a life of pilgrimage, and to go deeper in change. Pilgrim people need pilgrim congregations."
She would agree with Toronto activist and church member Kofi Hope: "In community with others, dreams can be achieved."
The power of community is strong. Whether that community is through a faith organization or is formed on some other basis, community has the power to work for good.
A previous report on the same topic concluded: "We would do well to pay more attention to the enormous contribution already made by the faith community, to tap into its great potential and to share in the concern about its diminishing role in society .... Without our faith communities, our network of charities and non-profit organizations would drastically diminish."
Gayle Simonson writes columns on
United Church history and is the author of Ever-Widening Circles: A
History of St. Stephen's College.
Offerings
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