In 2011, I will graduate with a master’s degree.  With a cumulative $94,000 in educational debt, $60,000 of which applied toward master’s-level education, I can anticipate an average $30,000 cash salary[1] for my eventual position (which requires the master’s degree I will have obtained as the minimum).  The average cash salary in the United States for a position requiring a master’s degree is a little more than $61,000.[2] If my degree is classified as a professional degree, as many agencies do, the gap becomes wider, as the average cash salary for that educational standing is $100,000.[3]

The organization I represent is part of the largest family of organizations in the world.  Collectively, we operate the largest system of education, health care, human rights advocacies, community centers, and more.  We promote values-driven lifestyles, protect the inherent worth and dignity of all people, and respond to crises both natural and human-made.  My organization alone raised more than $250,000 through its Web site in less than one week for direct aid to the victims of the recent Haitian earthquake.[4]

Foundational documents, leaders and philosophers representing my organization and its wider family challenge myself and others affiliated to call our governments to attention of those on the economic margins by legislating just and fair minimum wages, family leave benefits, health care distribution, and more social justice initiatives in response to our core beliefs.  Personally, I have participated in countless direct advocacy and letter-writing drives connected with my organization leading up to the first increase of the federal minimum wage in the United States in a decade.

Here’s the irony: myself and many of the rising leaders in my organization – necessary flow for any healthy structure – are receiving a better deal from that very government than our own organization.

My educational debt is guaranteed by the U.S. federal government.  Approximately one-third of the total amount is financed through the Stafford Subsidized Loan Program.  The government, during periods of loan forbearance and deferment absorbs the interest on that portion of the debt.  The majority of the remaining two-thirds is financed through the Stafford Unsubsidized Loan Program, which provides lower interest rates than comparable private loans, capitalizing on the government’s economy of scale and encouragement of higher education.

After I graduate and begin to work, my cash salary will likely be at a level that I will qualify for the Income-Based Repayment Plan, that caps monthly payments at a set percentage of discretionary income, around 10% or lower.  It was established by Congressional legislation in 2007 and designed for those, like myself, who are pursuing careers in lower-salary areas like non-profit leadership, education, or public service.

My vocation is one that my federal government claims is “in demand” in many of its branches, most notably in the defense forces and prison bureau.  If I were willing to offer at least five years of active service in the military following graduation, I would receive roughly 20% higher cash salary pay versus my organization, and also federal loan forgiveness, much higher retirement pension contributions, more generous fringe benefits, and experience the old adage, “the military takes care of its own.”  If I were to walk down to the recruiting center right now and enlist, the benefits would grow as the government would pay for the remaining cost of my education, I would begin receiving a commissioned salary while in school, among other benefits.[5]

While I am in school, as my income for 2009 was roughly $8,000, I receive direct government assistance from the State of Illinois in the form of food stamps – about $200 each month, or $2,400 annually.  I utilize government-funded public health clinics as I can’t afford the out-of-pocket costs to even visit my own organization’s medical centers.

So here’s my question: why is the government supporting me more than my own organization, the United Church of Christ, when I am in training to be a pastor?  And beyond that, why does the UCC say that’s OK?

The UCC, along with the majority of mainline Protestant churches, appeal to what the Roman Catholic Church calls a just-wage doctrine.  The U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, in a letter to Congress supporting an increase in minimum wage, summarizes the doctrine simply: “Wages must be adequate for workers to provide for themselves and their families in dignity.”  Under this theology – one which, I might add, is the predominant theme in progressive Christianity and floated freely in the classrooms of our theological schools, including my own – to appeal to free markets and open trade in the commercial, private sector is to idolize a false god.

So why does the church – the UCC or of any other stripe – fail to apply its own doctrine internally?  Why is it that as the cost burden of theological education has systematically been shifted from denominational funds onto student tuition over the past 25 years?  Why is it that base salary for mainline Protestant ministers in one state has effectively remained stagnant in the past decade while the cost of living in that state has increased roughly 20%?[6]

In John 21, Jesus and Simon engage in a conversation where Simon is commissioned by Jesus to “feed my sheep…take care of my lambs.”  While far from perfect, it appears that when it comes to at least one sector, the government is taking far greater strides than those organized who affirm Jesus’ words.

[1] Source: Wisconsin Conference, United Church of Christ

[2] Source: United States Census Bureau, 2006

[3] Ibid.

[4] Source: United Church of Christ

[5] Source: U.S. Navy

[6] Sources: Wisconsin judicatories (UCC, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist), U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce.