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A Crisis of Faith & Farming in Rural America The authors of Rural Ministry: The Shape of the Renewal to Come open an intriguing dialogue and discussion concerning the issue of faith and farming. In the opening chapter of this text, the reader is introduced to some basic facts relative to the challenges of people living in rural America. First, farmers who were frequently thought to be the largest segment of the rural population, are in fact fewer in number than at any time since the 1890s. Second, a higher percentage of rural families live in poverty than urban families. Third, these demographic changes have put pressure on the rural church in America to respond to poor people’s needs. The authors base their work on the premise that the rural citizens across America are in a state of crisis. Rural people, they contend, are losing their neighbors, houses, land and religion. In fact, according to the Glenmary Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, the authors assert that at least 40 percent of the people in rural America are unchurched. In the midst of this unhealthy spiritual void, there too is the question of national and global food security and food safety in a world of declining per capita caloric food intake, and an increased concern about toxicity in food supplies. This crisis, moreover, is heightened to even more serious levels by the harsh reality that significant parcels of arable land are being intensely cultivated while rural populations, food supplies, and human demand (consumption) fluctuate. It appears, furthermore, that the unpredictability of farming success, along with acquisitions and buyouts of farmlands across America by government and corporations, has precipitated a farm crisis that not only affects rural families and communities, but also the church who must contribute significantly to the renewal of individual people, the land, and the communities of people rooted in the land. It is in the context of this crisis that I explore the interlinking issue of faith and farming in rural America. Life in rural America has become so desperate that many just give up on farming, their families and even themselves. "It's a way of life," Jim Naylor said at a recent prayer service during the Rally for Rural America in Washington, D.C. He held a sign that said, "No Farms, No Towns, No Future." "If you can't do what you want to do, what you growed up to do, then what's the sense in living?" he asked. Faced with the worst farm crisis in 20 years, more than 2,000 farmers joined Naylor in Washington to rally against the financial and spiritual crises facing rural America. Unlike the natural disasters of the past, farmers say the current crisis is entirely man-made. In all the voices calling for help for rural America, some of the loudest belong to the religious community. Pastors and bishops, according to many sources, say the farm crisis has seeped into America's heartland churches by threatening the vital sense of community, draining revenues, and casting a long shadow of despair over both pastors and parishioners. "When farmers are forced off the land, they lose a great deal," says Judith Bortner Heffernan, executive director of the Heartland Network for Town and Rural Ministries, an extension of the United Methodist Church. "They lose their heritage, they lose their place in the community, they lose their connection with God because they feel farming is what they are called to do." The desperation in rural America has presented churches with a range of issues many say they are unprepared to address. Financial worries put additional stresses on overworked families and threaten the local ministries of many community-based churches. Suicide rates are up, depression is deepening and, perhaps most threatening, some say, people don't see God on the family farm! Being a farmer, they conclude, has become nothing short of a leap of faith. Even more grim, to illustrate, making a living at farming the land has become a precarious business as shown by volumes of sobering statistics I gathered from the United States Department of Agriculture. Minnesota is expected to lose 10,000 farmers this year. In Wisconsin, five dairy farmers quit every day. In Kansas, farmers took home only $23,016 in 1998, compared to $26,995 in 1997. Farm debt also rose to $6.9 billion in 1998. A corn grower in 1975 earned $562 per acre. Today, that farmer earns just $290. My research suggests that in instances like this both farmers and church officials believe the blame lies with agribusiness giants who are pushing family farms out of business. Farmers contend the large corporations are dictating production and squeezing competition, leaving farmers few places to sell their crops. When Naylor quit milking cows in 1993, for example, he could get $13 for 100 pounds of milk.
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