wfn.org | Church leaders consider emerging rural crisis

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 3, 1999	Contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-24-71B{064}

PARKVILLE, Mo. (UMNS) - United Methodist leaders from  the nine-state
Heartland Network for Town and Rural Ministries met here Jan. 27-29 to
consider how the church can respond to an emerging rural crisis. 

The network includes Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota,
North Dakota and South Dakota.  

The 35 participants received an overview of the crisis from Bill Heffernan,
professor of rural sociology at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
Increasingly, the rural economy is subject to policy decisions being made in
corporate board rooms, he said.  And, many of those making the decisions are
sitting in the pews of United Methodist churches.

"These decisions are being made with the goals of profit for their
shareholders and market share for the company," he continued.  "Both of
these goals are counter to providing a healthy life for all of God's
children and enhancing and preserving healthy rural families and communities
around the world.  It is clear that that there are two value systems working
here."

Bishops, district superintendents, council on ministries directors, and
others attending the two day retreat were given statistics illustrating the
crisis:

*	Oklahoma's Department of Agriculture predicted last September that
30 percent of the state's farmers and ranchers would be out of business by
this spring.
*	North Dakota's farm income dropped 90 percent from 1996 to 1997.
*	While the average individual income of  Nebraskans rose 10 percent
in 1998 farm income was down 40 percent.
*	Wisconsin's Farm Crisis Hot Line received 2,000 calls in 1996; 7,000
in 1998.
*	Kansas has had 293 farm-related suicides since 1986; Oklahoma has
had 500.
*	Forty three million Americans, including many rural families, do not
have health insurance.
*	In early December, hogs sold for 11 cents a pound in Iowa, Minnesota
and Missouri.
  
Judith Bortner Heffernan, executive director of the Heartland Network, said
participants in the January meting understood that local churches cannot
save each family farm.  "However, they understood that there is a unique
opportunity for the church to intervene in saving each farm family.
Immediate steps must be taken to help the church respond to farm families in
this emerging farm crisis."

Two thirds of all United Methodist congregations in the United States and
about one-third of the church members are in town and country areas,
according to Judith Heffernan.  

The farm "crisis" has become a chronic condition, resulting in stress and a
decrease in quality of mental health for rural people, said Peter Beeson,
administrator with the Office of Strategic Management Services for Nebraska
Health and Human Services. He said the rural economy is increasingly subject
to international markets and that urban interests are superceding rural
American interests and rural resources are being exploited for urban needs
at a growing rate.

Beeson and others noted that during times of rural economic stress the
potential for negative mental health behaviors emerge such as drug abuse,
anxiety and spiritual depression.

"For many, the farm - the land - is the connective tissue that binds them to
God, community and family," he said.  "It is through farming that they are
able to locate themselves within the universe and give meaning to their
lives.  It is how they measure their day . . . their avenues to peace.
Without the farm and farming activities, they are lost, cut off and adrift.
For them, the farm crisis is a crisis of the spirit."

Beeson said pastors will increasingly face individual and family problems
resulting from the farm crisis and will need to know how to deal with them.
"It is important that the connection between mental health providers and
clergy be established whenever and wherever possible," he said.
"Furthermore, it is important to distinguish mental health problems from
spiritual problems.  The mental health providers are the experts at
emotional healing, but the clergy are experts at spiritual healing and it is
through a joint effort that the farm individual or family can be made whole
again."

Other speakers included Brother David Andrews, executive director of the
National Catholic Rural Life Conference.  He spoke on the theological
connection between the spiritual, political and economic aspects of the farm
crisis.

Judy Heffernan said reorganizing the rural economy in support of family
owned and operated farms and businesses, rather than the globalized and
industrialized systems now in place, would go a long way toward restoring
the mental health of families, small business owners and rural communities.
She said signs of distress are already springing up in farm communities
across the United States and in rural communities around the world.   "A lot
of people, even in the church, see this as a parochial isolated issue and
don't think of the farm crisis in terms of the food they daily eat or global
food policy," she said. 

Beeson said the crisis never ends for many families as long as they are in
farming.  "Rural America and their way of life are under siege," he said.
"The question for the faith community then becomes, 'How will we respond?'"
He urged churches to pay close attention to what is going on around them.
"When someone stops coming to church or showing up at the coffee shop it is
time to check it out," he said.

As one Nebraska farmer tearfully expressed, "I could tell when people in
town knew I was going under because they all treated me differently."  

For information on the farm crisis and related issues, contact Judith
Bortner Heffernam, Executive Director, Heartland Network for Town and Rural
Ministries, P.O.Box 1405, Columbia, MO  65205, (573) 882-7232.

The 16th annual Consultation on Town and Country Ministries will be held
March 23-25 in Kansas City, Mo., under the sponsorship of United
Methodist-related Saint Paul School of Theology and the Heartland Network.
For information, contact Karen Spencer-Barnes at Saint Paul, 5123 Truman
Road, Kansas City, MO  64127 (816) 483-9600, Ext. 233.

# # #

NOTE:  Information for this story was provided by Charlene Bailey, director
of communications for the Kansas East Conference.

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