Yesterday I was talking to a fellow new priest recently out
of seminary about our student loan debt. This is a conversation that comes up a
lot. Somehow all of the recently ordained clergy had to find around $100,000 of
funding for our education. Very few of us get out without some level of debt,
all of us will be crippled financially for years as we pay them off, many of us
for decades.
In every conceivable way $100,000 is what is considered a life gift to a religious institution except for the exceptionally wealthy. If I simply gave $100,000 to a seminary I would be a major donor. The issue, which is noteworthy, is that I am a student, I am furthering my own career, I am simply getting the required degree to do the job I want to do, etc.… except that is not what I am doing as a seminarian.
In every conceivable way $100,000 is what is considered a life gift to a religious institution except for the exceptionally wealthy. If I simply gave $100,000 to a seminary I would be a major donor. The issue, which is noteworthy, is that I am a student, I am furthering my own career, I am simply getting the required degree to do the job I want to do, etc.… except that is not what I am doing as a seminarian.
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| Imagine if student loans = tithe... |
If I were to talk to the church about how I am just a
student, say that my time in seminary is about furthering my personal career
goals and getting the required degree for the job I want to do… then I would
not have a Bishop’s permission to attend seminary. I am receiving requisite
formation, to further God’s work in the world, in order to fulfill the vocation
to which the Church has called me. It just happens that to do that I also have
to manage the equivalent of a life gift to the church in the meantime in order
that the church can then provide me the requisite tools and skills to fulfill
the vocation.
The vast majority of those called to ordained ministry
simply do not have a $100,000 life gift sitting in our coffers. So we must
coordinate, where possible, the gifts of others but in the majority of cases
cover the short fall with student loans. Suddenly, for some reason, these loans
are to be considered secular, in the world of Mammon’s worship, and not a key
part of what we take on for the sake of God’s work in the world. For some
reason we are not to look upon them as part of our work and labor to the Lord.
The reality is that since the church is unable to forwardly give to support
seminarians being formed for ministry in the church we have to backwardly give
to support the formation done. In the meantime allowing the banking industry to
take huge amounts of the money we would otherwise have to do ministry. The
truth is that it is seminarians taking on student loans that are keeping our
Seminaries funded and functional.
Now my hope is that we can find some overall transformation so that we will be paying forward when it comes to the formation of laity and clergy. Until that happens, however, the fact that the majority of our new clergy are paying it backward does not make it any less the means by which we have currently chosen to fund the church’s formation process. The intrinsic reality of a gift to the church is not defined by how it relates to linear time but in its affect upon the church. That we have a horrible system of backward giving with huge cuts taken by the banking industry in order to facilitate our gifts towards formation in the church is the fault of the church, not the seminarians bearing the burden of the church’s process.
Now my hope is that we can find some overall transformation so that we will be paying forward when it comes to the formation of laity and clergy. Until that happens, however, the fact that the majority of our new clergy are paying it backward does not make it any less the means by which we have currently chosen to fund the church’s formation process. The intrinsic reality of a gift to the church is not defined by how it relates to linear time but in its affect upon the church. That we have a horrible system of backward giving with huge cuts taken by the banking industry in order to facilitate our gifts towards formation in the church is the fault of the church, not the seminarians bearing the burden of the church’s process.
The above is the core of my thoughts on this point. There
are two side conversations that are also important to note. The first is that
this applies to all vocations discerned by the church. Many individuals have
calls to ministry that are as deep and equally discerned as those to ordained
ministry. The church simply does not provide such discernment regularly to
those not seeking ordination, may we amend this issue with all haste. The rules
above apply equally to any student debt accrued in fulfilling the formation
requisite for any called vocation in the Church’s ministry, lay or ordained.
The second is that this is not an attempt to stop other forms of giving by ministers heavily burdened by student debt. The vast majority of ministers I know have more of a problem of giving too much of themselves, financially and otherwise, to the church and not practicing safe and healthy boundaries. We all should be giving to our ministry placements and our seminaries, but when everything mounts up and we are looking at our budgets and trying to figure out if we can find enough in there to cover the cost of a truly needed vacation, or a simple splurge that will give us back a bit of balance, and that voice comes in our head about “are we tithing fully?”. This is the time to look over at that student loan payment, ask ourselves “what would my giving percent be if that was included?” and realize that the overall moneys we are giving to ensure that our formation centers remain funded tips us way over the scales of 10%.
The second is that this is not an attempt to stop other forms of giving by ministers heavily burdened by student debt. The vast majority of ministers I know have more of a problem of giving too much of themselves, financially and otherwise, to the church and not practicing safe and healthy boundaries. We all should be giving to our ministry placements and our seminaries, but when everything mounts up and we are looking at our budgets and trying to figure out if we can find enough in there to cover the cost of a truly needed vacation, or a simple splurge that will give us back a bit of balance, and that voice comes in our head about “are we tithing fully?”. This is the time to look over at that student loan payment, ask ourselves “what would my giving percent be if that was included?” and realize that the overall moneys we are giving to ensure that our formation centers remain funded tips us way over the scales of 10%.
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