|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 618
January 3, 2003
LUCKY SEVERSON, guest anchor: Coming up -- the many homeless people who are out there because they are mentally ill.
SAM TSEMBERIS (Director, Pathways to Housing): I think that we really desperately need to figure out some solution to this. And there is a solution.
SEVERSON (to Mr. Tsemberis): And the solution is?
Mr. TSEMBERIS: Housing. First.
SEVERSON: And the religious and ethical issues likely to make news in the year ahead -- a conversation. Welcome. I'm Lucky Severson, standing in for Bob Abernethy. It's nice to have you with us.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LUCKY SEVERSON: Shock and grief this week following the shooting deaths of three American missionaries in Yemen. The Southern Baptist missionaries were working in a Baptist mission hospital in the town of Jibla when a gunman entered with a semi-automatic rifle. Martha Meyers, William Koehn and Kathleen Gariety were killed immediately. A fourth missionary was wounded. Southern Baptist International Mission Board President Jay Rankin said the missionaries knew the risks they were taking.
JAY RANKIN: Our personnel as Americans and Christians are well aware of the risks of living and serving in a place like Yemen, yet their love for the Yemeni people and obedience to the conviction of God's leadership has been expressed in a willingness to take that risk and give of their lives.
SEVERSON: Many local Yemenese familiar with the missionaries' work mourned their deaths this week. Yemeni officials called the attacker an "Islamic extremist." U.S. spokespersons said it was too early to tell if the gunman has links to al-Qaeda.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LUCKY SEVERSON: Meanwhile, Christians in Pakistan say their government is not doing enough to protect their minority community. Several hundred people this week protested a series of deadly attacks against Christian targets there over the past year. Demonstrators accused the Pakistani government of pandering to extremists who call for violence against non-Muslims. The latest incident happened on Christmas Day -- a grenade attack on a small Protestant church in central Pakistan. Three girls were killed and more than a dozen other people where injured. Christians make up less than three percent of Pakistan's population.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LUCKY SEVERSON: As the economy falters, the number of Americans who are living on the streets is on the increase. What is even more alarming is the number of homeless who are mentally ill, who have slipped through the cracks. The problem, we are told, began in the '70s when people with mental illness were transferred from hospitals to community care. Along the way the care and treatment have not materialized or have disappeared. Now there are some new approaches, some quite controversial that offer promise.
In her previous life, Jean Garrison might have been a school teacher or a nurse. She has that kind of attitude about her. Instead she's here shivering, in a coat we provided, anxious to get back to the warmth and safety of what passes as her home inside Penn Station.
(to Jean Garrison): Where did you spend last night?
JEAN GARRISON: On the trains, the subway trains.
SEVERSON (to Ms. Garrison): You slept on a train?
Ms. GARRISON: I didn't sleep, Lucky. You can't sleep because a person can't sleep or they'll be robbed of everything they possess these days.
SEVERSON (to Ms. Garrison): How about the night before? Where were you the night before?
Ms. GARRISON: The same thing.
SEVERSON (to Ms. Garrison): Pretty miserable life, isn't it?
Ms. GARRISON: It's a nightmarish existence, and to further complicate things, in order to get off the streets and get onto a train you are obliged to pay the fare. Now I can't pay the fare because I have no money at all.
SEVERSON: There was a time, recently, when Jean did have some money -- a disability check for $600.
Ms. GARRISON: I felt wonderful. I said to myself, "This is marvelous. Let me go to a hotel room." I went to a hotel. I stayed for two days -- three, four.
And I said to myself well, you have a couple of hundred dollars left. Maybe it's time to leave, but at least you had three or four days rest. You could wash your clothes. And I was happy. I was happy.
SEVERSON: Jean was diagnosed with a mental illness years ago and she is not alone. Authorities estimate that on any given night one-third of America's homeless are suffering a serious mental illness, compared to only 4 percent of the general population. What it means, most everyone agrees, is that the traditional approach of providing housing only to those who comply with treatment programs is not working. Too many are falling through the cracks.
SAM TSEMBERIS (Director, Pathways to Housing): I think that we really desperately need to figure out some solution to this. And there is a solution.
SEVERSON (to Sam Tsemberis): And the solution is?
Mr. TSEMBERIS: Housing. First.
SEVERSON: Sam Tsemberis runs a housing program for people with mental illness in New York. He says the number of homeless was appalling even before the bad economy forced many people out of their living rooms onto the streets.
Mr. TSEMBERIS: If we had a hurricane and people were homeless, we would simply call FEMA and emergency housing would be built and everyone would be housed again. Well, we essentially had a hurricane happen to these people with mental illness when the real estate market went way up and there was no federal subsidy for their housing.
SEVERSON: Against a chorus of skepticism, Tsemberis started the Pathways to Housing program over a decade ago.
(to Mr. Tsemberis): What was it that sent you off on this course?
Mr. TSEMBERIS: Years of frustration of trying to do it the other way.
SEVERSON: Pathways is one of the few programs in the country that offers housing to mentally ill homeless with hardly any preconditions, such as staying clean and sober. Laurie Ahern, co-director of the National Empowerment Center, says most mental health agencies do use coercion in their programs.
LAURIE AHERN (National Empowerment Center): In other words, if you want a home then you have to show up Friday and get your Prolixin shot, and there are people that would rather be free and homeless on the streets than be forced into treatment that they don't want.
Mr. TSEMBERIS: It's hard to change a mindset -- you know, isolate them -- somehow treat them as not as capable as ourselves. There's a lot of stigma and prejudice.
SEVERSON: Prejudice that runs deep and, Laurie Ahern says, influences public policy.
Ms. AHERN: We don't have a lot of tolerance for people that are different, for people that look different, people that act different. And we want to control them.
SEVERSON: Sam is checking on a woman he helped find an apartment for almost a decade ago when she was on drugs and in and out of jail. Her name is Qumar.
QUMAR: I got caught a few times. Got caught jumping a turnstile, trying to go to a church to eat food.
SEVERSON: She got jail time for trying to steal food, for trying to find a place to sleep. No surprise, then, that the largest provider of housing for the mentally ill in this country is the criminal justice system. And a cell costs taxpayers about twice as much per day as a small subsidized apartment.
(to Qumar): And you haven't seen her since she was, like, four or five?
QUMAR: Since she was about four.
SEVERSON (to Qumar): Do you know where she is?
QUMAR: No.
SEVERSON: Qumar spent so much time drugged out and in jail, the state took away her boy and two girls.
QUMAR: When they were taken, I had an apartment, but I felt like since they weren't here that there was no reason for me to be there. I felt like I let my children down.
SEVERSON (to Qumar): So from then on you started living on the street? Do you get to see your children today?
QUMAR: No.
SEVERSON: Because of her drug abuse, she was ineligible for housing under any existing programs, until Pathways came along and took a chance.
Mr. TSEMBERIS: She'll tell you, her own story -- the way that she's turned her life around and has been in touch with her family again, her health problems taken care of, her substance abuse cured for years.
QUMAR: I know now what I didn't know before -- and that there's people that care.
Ms. AHERN: What most helps people recover is having people believe in them, having trusting relationships.
SEVERSON: Tsemberis says surveys have shown that 85 percent of the people in Pathways houses stay off the street. One in five are working or in school, and 70 percent are voluntarily participating in treatment programs. Still, most homeless and mental health programs remain skeptical of the housing-first approach. When members of a church in White Plains, New York, heard that Pathways was moving in, the response was typical. Even though they're committed to helping the homeless and mentally ill, they were opposed to Pathways. The Grace Episcopal Church operates a shelter upstairs along with other programs for the homeless. The church's rector is Reverend Janet Vincent.
Reverend JANET VINCENT (Rector, Grace Episcopal Church): It's very hard to be a Christian if you're not reaching out in some tangible way to other human beings, especially those who aren't like us, and especially to those who at some times we're a little bit of afraid of, like the mentally ill and the poor.
SEVERSON: The congregation welcomes the homeless and the mentally afflicted, but not without reservations.
KAYLA GRAVES (Parishioner): I'd be scared for myself, but I'd probably be more scared for my younger sibling. I'd be scared to be by myself around that person. I'd also realize that I'd ask God to keep my family safe and other people safe in my neighborhood.
JONATHAN KONRAD (Parishioner): I'd be kind of scared if somebody moved next door. Not that I wouldn't like them, but probably the fact that they're different might scare me for awhile.
SEVERSON: Studies have shown that the mentally ill are no more prone to violence than the average person, unless they are also abusing drugs. And that is why the pastor and her congregation oppose Pathways.
Rev. VINCENT: The reality is that there are many people in our society who will never be able to live independently.
JANE KONRAD (Jonathan Konrad's mother): We really try to live out the gospels. You know, John's gospel of love one another and to be there for people. We need someone holding your hand, to empower you to move forward and to better yourself. And you can't do that by yourself.
Mr. TSEMBERIS: The long-standing traditional belief is you need treatment and sobriety before you get housing, before you're worthy of housing. And we find that people, once they get housing, want to keep it. Their motivation to remain clean and sober, to getting treatment kicks in.
SEVERSON: Armando did prison time.
(to Armando): You were pushing the law in several different ways, right?
ARMANDO: Every way but loose.
SEVERSON: And then he became severely depressed.
ARMANDO: I slept by the United Nations and the Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, I slept there. I learned how to use garbage bags and a box to stay warm.
SEVERSON: He didn't qualify for the county housing program.
ARMANDO: They said I couldn't have an apartment because I didn't know how to cook, I swear to God.
SEVERSON: But Pathways found him a place several years ago. What Armando has now is a reason not to go back to the streets.
(to Armando): They treat you differently, right?
ARMANDO: Without a doubt. With complete respect.
SEVERSON: And there are success stories, people do move on. Consider Laurie Ahern, mental health expert. She was once diagnosed with schizophrenia and locked away. A few weeks ago she was given a national honor for her work in the mental health care field.
About the same time she was notified that government funding had been cut for the program she co-directs. As for Jean Garrison, we don't know where she might be.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LUCKY SEVERSON: Aftershocks continue over the claim that scientists have cloned a human. Still no proof positive from the sect that makes the claim -- the Raelians. We've got Rick Weiss, science writer for The Washington Post, with us to talk about what's next.
A lot of skepticism about this claim. Is the skepticism warranted?
RICK WEISS (The Washington Post): I think there's a lot of reason to suspect that this is a hoax and not a real first human cloning. But even if it is, you've got a couple of other scientists lined up at this point who are saying they, too, have clones born. And I think there is a growing sense among scientists and the public that if not this time there is going to be a human clone at some point.
SEVERSON: Are we ready for it? Do we have the legislation? Is there an agency that can regulate this?
Mr. WEISS: Well, right now even six years since the cloning of the first mammal, Dolly, the sheep, despite all the talk that's gone on in Congress, Congress has not managed to pass any kind of a restriction yet on human cloning. The FDA claims it has some authority over this process, but that hasn't been tested in court yet. So I think the pressure is really on now for Congress to figure out a way to do this.
SEVERSON: And with this new Congress, aren't the chances much better that there will be some sort of legislation?
Mr. WEISS: There is more of a consensus it seems that some legislation is going to pass. The question is, "How broad is it going to be?" And the big debate right now has to do with whether the restrictions should only be on the creation of a cloned human baby or whether even the creation of cloned human embryos for research purposes should also be banned.
SEVERSON: In fact, those who are in favor of more research on cloned human embryos are very concerned about this claim, aren't they, that we're going to get some very restrictive legislation?
Mr. WEISS: That's right. They believe that cloned human embryos can serve as a great source of special embryonic stem cells, which can be turned into therapies, and they don't want that line of research shut down.
SEVERSON: One last question. Is all this fear justified?
Mr. WEISS: Well, it's hard to say. You know, there was a lot of excitement and fear when people were doing in-vitro fertilization and the first IVF baby was born. That's become quite routine now. It will be interesting to see whether cloned babies 10 years from now have evolved to the same status of just being a new way of being born.
SEVERSON: Thanks very much. Rick Weiss with The Washington Post.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LUCKY SEVERSON: As we batten down the hatches on the year that was, Bob
Abernethy and some fellow religion reporters take a look at 2003.
BOB ABERNETHY: Looking at the year ahead, it seems there's a lot of unfinished business from 2002 to be played out. And we want to explore that with Mary Leonard, who covers social issues and social policy for The Boston Globe, with Jeff Sheler, who covers religion for U.S. News and World Report, and with David Gibson, religion writer for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, who is writing a book on the sex abuse and cover-up scandal in the Catholic Church.
David, welcome. Where does that story go now?
DAVID GIBSON (The Star-Ledger): Well, Bob, the sexual abuse scandal has been compared to the second chapter of a Russian novel, and this really is just the beginning in many ways, and I think the most profound effects we still have yet to see. What's going to happen with the Catholic priesthood, will celibacy be revisited, are lay people going to take more of a role in the running of the Church, especially on financial matters, and again, what's going to happen in Rome? The Pope is ailing, he's older. There was a sense that he didn't really have a handle on this scandal. What really is going to happen in Rome and are we going to see a change at the top?
ABERNETHY: Jeff, what do you think lies ahead in this story?
JEFF SHELER (U.S. News and World Report): Well, I think that this is going to be an important year. The bishops have basically done what they said they were going to do, and now, this year, we're going to see if it works. The new regulations come into effect this year. We should be able to see if, in fact, priests are being removed from office, if they are being defrocked and if, in fact, those new rules are working. We're also going to see, I think, this year a real increase in the financial pressure on the Catholic Church. As some of these new disclosures come to our attention, it will play right into some of the litigation that is already costing the Catholic Church hundreds of millions of dollars -- that I think we've only begun to see the tip of the iceberg on.
ABERNETHY: And the new law in California?
Mr. SHELER: That new law in California lifts the statute of limitations for a full year. And that means, during the year ahead, anyone who has ever suffered an abuse by a priest, no matter how many years ago, they are free to bring this forth and to bring it to court. So just in California alone, we're going to see an explosion of lawsuits.
ABERNETHY: Mary, let me turn your attention to another matter. Bio-technology has been growing so quickly.
MARY LEONARD (The Boston Globe): There is an Italian fertility doctor who says he's going to clone a baby boy in January -- this month. There's a doctor in Kentucky who says the same thing. And there is the Raelian Cult which believes that humans actually came about 25,000 years ago from space alien clones. If people actually believe it's happened, it will really spur the legislative effort on Capitol Hill to ban cloning.
ABERNETHY: Yes. And there is no law now that says you can't do it?
Ms. LEONARD: There is not. Last year there was an attempt and the House passed a bill that would have banned reproductive and cloning for medical research. The bill was never taken up in the Senate.
ABERNETHY: Jeff, it looks as if there's a strong possibility that we are soon going to be at war against Iraq. If that happens, what role to do you expect for the religious leaders and religious communities in this country?
Mr. SHELER: Well, this past year we've already seen they'll begin to speak out on the prospect of a war. And we've seen the Roman Catholic bishops and the mainline leaders on one side speaking against the war. We've seen a number of evangelical Christian leaders speaking in favor of it. And I think if the U.S. does launch a preemptive invasion of Iraq, I think we're going to see those lines harden.
But more important than that, I think we're going to see in the Muslim countries a very important and dangerous increase in radicalization. We're going to see demonstrations in the street -- violent demonstrations. We're going to see attacks -- terrorist attacks on U.S. interests, both abroad and probably in this country. And when that happens, I think that is going to tremendously multiple the ill will that is already here in this country among some religious groups toward Muslims. We've already heard evangelicals speaking out against Islam, despite what President Bush has said: that we're not at war with Islam. Evangelical leaders -- many of them do not believe that. And once the bombs start falling and terrorist attacks again resume, I think that you're going to see a dangerous inflammation of the rhetoric. And it will really create some major problems for our country.
ABERNETHY: David, you want to add to that?
Mr. GIBSON: Well, I do think it's something we have to watch. The rhetoric that Jeff was referring to from some of these Christian conservative leaders is really inflammatory and has added to the difficulties of maintaining our comity as a society, as a religiously pluralistic society. And I think it's interesting that even President Bush has started to come under criticism from his allies on the religious right for saying that we're not at war with Islam. That religious leaders would be criticizing President Bush for saying things like that, I think, is a bit ominous.
ABERNETHY: Mary, you were referring to the new Congress, Republican's control of both Houses. What's on the agenda?
Ms. LEONARD: Well, I think beyond cloning, the abortion issue will be very high on the agenda for religious and social conservatives as they see an opportunity now to pass a ban on a so-called partial birth abortion procedure. There will be an effort, certainly, to confirm judges that Bush nominates who are hostile to the Roe v. Wade decision. The effort to re-authorize the welfare reform law did not happen last year as it was supposed to. There will be a push for, I think, marriage-promoting initiatives within that. And then finally the President's own Faith-Based Initiative, which he has now issued an executive order on that would help religious charities obtain federal funds to deliver social services.
ABERNETHY: Do you think there will be more money coming?
Ms. LEONARD: You know, that's hard to say. There isn't a lot of money in this federal budget, extra money, at least. But I think that's definitely the religious charities and certainly minority church groups and social ministries are looking forward to more federal funds coming their way.
ABERNETHY: David Gibson, the new Archbishop of Canterbury will be enthroned in February. He has already spoken of the possibility of schism within the Anglican communion over the issue of gays. Other denominations are having their annual meeting or regular meetings, and these social issues about women, about gays, have been dividing them. What do you see coming in that regard?
Mr. GIBSON: I think I see more division and more open and public debate about it. The Archbishop of Canterbury is simply saying out loud what everybody else has been saying quietly or in their denominational meetings. And they're talking openly, as you say, about schism, and it's interesting, there are these divisions -- especially over the issue of homosexuality, but also the issue of women have been roiling all these mainline denominations, especially in the United States, for many years now. But really, these things are all coming to a head and especially in the Episcopal Church, which is the U.S. wing of the Anglican Communion. You're seeing congregations and entire dioceses saying they're going to go off on their own. That is a defacto schism, and it really has grave implications for the future of any denomination.
ABERNETHY: Let me ask each of you -- is there's something, some person, or some particular issue or trend that you're keeping a special eye on as this year unfolds? Something you expect that will make a lot of news? Mary?
Ms. LEONARD: I'm not sure I know it will make a lot of news, but I think we'll see a continuing effort on the part of President Bush to bring religion into the public square. It's something that he's done that presidents before him did not do. It's certainly something to watch, and I think the expansion of faith-based offices and the initiative throughout the government and throughout the country is going to be something truly to keep an eye on indeed into 2004.
ABERNETHY: David Gibson, quickly.
Mr. GIBSON: Well, I think it will be interesting to watch the role of Evangelicals in the United States. We're seeing the next generation emerging, next generation of Evangelical leaders emerging after Billy Graham, who is passing from the scene. And we've got George Bush in the White House, who is essentially an Evangelical. That is -- Evangelicalism is the American religion today. And they are going to be calling the shots very much and setting the tone for what faith sounds like in the United States.
ABERNETHY: Jeff?
Mr. SHELER: I think I'll be watching to see how the religious voices -- how successful they will be this year in really helping our country to hold together, whether we can use our religious language and our religious ideas as something that unifies us or whether it will be something that continues to divide.
ABERNETHY: Well, thanks to all of you -- to Jeff Sheler of U.S. News & World Report, to David Gibson of The Star-Ledger of New Jersey and to Mary Leonard of The Boston Globe.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LUCKY SEVERSON: This week a couple of differing viewpoints about the lottery and religion, how they mix. The Salvation Army in Florida turned down a $100,000 gift from David Rush because the money came from gambling, from his $14 million lotto winnings. Rush says he still respects the Salvation Army. "Everyone has the right to be sanctimonious if they want to be," he says.
In California, on the other hand, the pastor of the Abundant Life Church of God takes a different view. In fact, he's already taken a check for $334,000 from West Virginia's Jack Whittaker, who won the $315 million Powerball Lotto. Whittaker says he will pay a 10 percent tithing on his winnings, and he is asking the pastor to pray for him now that he's got all that money. A very wise man.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LUCKY SEVERSON: Finally on our calendar, for Western Christians January 6 is the Feast of the Epiphany, which celebrates the public revelation of Jesus as the son of God. The holiday commemorates a visit of the Three Kings, the Wise Men, to the baby Jesus. For some Christians it also recognizes Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist and Jesus' first miracle, turning water into wine.
Meanwhile, many Eastern Orthodox and Coptic Christians are celebrating Christmas on Tuesday because they follow a different Church calendar. And in predominantly Muslim Egypt this year, Coptic Christmas will be a public holiday for the first time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LUCKY SEVERSON: That's our program for now. I'm Lucky Severson. You'll find much more on our Web site. For special interviews, essays, commentary and links to other resources, and for audio and video from RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, visit us at pbs.org, or America Online keyword: PBS.
 Back to Article Finder: Stories by Week
© 2003 EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Prepared by Burrelle's Information Services, which takes sole responsibility for accuracy of transcription. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce any copy of the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be reproduced, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any manner that may infringe upon EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION's copyright or proprietary interests in the material.
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
