Eastern Iowa faithful look for answers when personal, church values conflict

As faculty adviser of a student atheist/secular organization at Kirkwood Community College, Lydia Hartunian has heard her fair share of reasons for leaving the church and religion.

A lot of them, she said, were brought on by the inability of someone to reconcile his or her own beliefs and values with those of their church, particularly around social issues.

“The first thing that comes to mind is the gay community,” Hartunian said. She said one gay student last year said he fell out of religion because he didn't feel accepted and another, the son of a pastor, could be “out” to his family but not to his church community.

Meanwhile, the 2009 lifting of a same-sex marriage ban in Iowa has created a flurry of controversy, in both religious and political circles.

The majority of the faithful may not be leaving religion behind but many feel tension between what they think and their particular church's stance on social topics. A Gallup poll released Dec. 29 showed seven in 10 Americans feel religion is losing its influence on American life, the highest percentage in the 53-year history of that particular question being asked for the poll.

It's not surprising, said Raymond Mentzer, director of the University of Iowa's religion department, nor new. Social issues long have divided churches and congregations, he said; what's new is that now people are talking about them.

“I don't know if it's because of increasing levels of education or the increasing amount of information made available by the media but people have their own points of view and they're sharing them,” Mentzer said.

“You wonder, too, if with increased mobility in America people leave their community and that, in part, means their faith community,” he said. “Travel is always a very liberating experience and one of the liberations is that you kind of rethink your religious affiliation, which may lead people to believe they really don't have one.”

The divisiveness isn't just about homosexuality, Mentzer said.

“I've talked with a number of Catholics, for example, who wouldn't mind seeing women in the pastorate,” he said, “but they understand that probably won't happen anytime soon.”

“It's very tricky, these social issues,” he said. “There are a number of theological faculties who have seen their support from the church slip because they have become increasingly liberal.”

The Rev. Tom Capo has been in the middle of social issues and controversies for more than a year. Capo, pastor at Peoples Church Unitarian Universalist, 600 Third Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids, has officiated same-sex weddings and supported retaining the three Iowa Supreme Court justices voted off the bench during the November election.

“In every denomination there are people who will attend a church and not necessarily believe everything the church espouses,” he said. “I don't think it's new, but I think that people are feeling freer to have a voice, to give voice to their feelings.”

“Previously, to bring voice to your feelings would bring persecution,” Capo said. “I think generally people are feeling freer to give voice to non-traditional beliefs, they don't feel like they have to fit into the Christian ‘mold.' “