Jonathan Morris, U.S. Army Ranger Ret.and Rowan County Sheep Baron
♦ Salisbury has an over abundance of persons with Masters and Doctorates in Divinity some who are self-ordained Rowan County Commissioners backed by a golden tablet of rules dropped from the heavens.
Recently I asked a clergy friend about the opportunities for seminary graduates in the area. He said that for a variety of reasons, there is a clergy “bubble” and that so many remain in the area without the ability to find productive work in their chosen profession that they are now referred to as “Hobby Clergy”.
Hobby Clergy come from various walks of life. Many are middle aged folks down on their luck with the traditional job market and move back in to assist elderly parents. Without being encumbered by a mortgage and utilities, the cost of attending seminary is affordable for some on a nice part-time salary. Others have been in their chosen careers for over 20 years and are looking for a rewarding part-time or retirement job that is less demanding than the daily corporate grind or honest labor. Others are supported by family trusts and simply obtain joy from theological learning. And a small group actually intend to go out into the world and seek full-time Clergy employment, even though they, too, often end up as “hobby clergy”.
Rowan County has a glut of unemployed—or ‘semi-retired’—clergy already, because of the breakaway of 17 Lutheran churches from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The new denomination, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, are similar to another large breakaway group, the North American Lutheran Church, in their disdain for “Social Gospel” theology that veers far enough from scriptures as to not be meaningful for local preferences when it comes to matters of faith. There is such a glut of Lutheran pastors in the area, that it is always easy to find a substitute when a pastor gets sick or goes on vacation. But Lutherans in Rowan County are much more selective when it comes to selecting a longer-term ‘interim’ pastor or calling a full-time pastor to their congregations.
The Episcopal Church’s bishop began an assessment process to determine whether mission churches should actually receive full-time priests. Some Episcopal churches in the area are frustrated with interim priests that appear to be part-time for the indefinite future. Unlike Lutheran churches, it is the bishop, rather than the congregation, who gets the final say on the calling of a priest—full-time, or part-time. Instead of breaking away or firing a priest who doesn’t fit with the congregation, Episcopalians are left to decide whether it’s worth getting up on a Sunday morning. And many of them are staying home, according to some Episcopalians I’ve spoken with. The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, NY, had stood since 1879. But when their congregants voted to break away from the National Episcopal Church, the property was willingly turned over to a Muslim entity by the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, rather than have it remain in the hands of traditional Episcopalians who wanted to worship as unaffiliated Anglican Christians.
No doubt, the proliferation of more clergy than needed has changed the landscape in Salisbury and Rowan County. Specifically, there is more chatter in politics over liberal ‘social gospel’ issues. The more liberal Hobby Clergy are active as Community Organizers in efforts to battle “Food Injustice”. They have waded into the political waters with the Rowan County Concerned Citizens, and support the folks who are suing our County to end Christian prayers at public meetings. And they are pounding their chests over such perceived injustices as the purchase of West End Plaza (formerly ‘Salisbury Mall’), and insisting that the City of Salisbury knows what is best for our community.
As my clergy friend and I were winding down our conversation, I asked him what all the community activism was designed to accomplish. He grinned and suggested that it may look good on a résumé for a liberal congregation in suburban Chicago or Madison, and that otherwise, it gives some an identity and something of value for them to “DO”, in between monthly recharging of their SNAP (“Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program”) Debit cards.
Ah, the joys of “Food Justice”: When someone else pays for what you eat. That sort of summed it all up for me.
