You work for a Catholic Church doing social work, can you explain the organization you’re working for and what it does.

I work for the Catholic Church of St. Charles Borromeo in Arlington, as their social justice minister/coordinator. The church is your ordinary seven-days a week church…The social justice ministry within St. Charles is a pretty organic and open-ended network of services, advocacy groups, and charitable organizations in the Arlington County, DC metro, and state area. It includes services for Community Organizing, support for the homeless, hunger relief, advocacy for affordable housing, letter-writing to legislators, emergency aid, missions in Haiti and the Philippines, services for the senior community, and prayer and education on pro-life and nonviolence issues.

What are the benefits, limitations of working with a religious institution?

The benefits of working with a religious institution? The constant reassurance that whatever we do, it's alright if we fail or fall behind because this life is the pre-game show to what’s to come. That can be quite comforting when you hit stumbling blocks: to look up and perceive the eternity of God’s kingdom.

I don't always see it, but every now and then, that sense of permanence can be quite uplifting. The limitations? After having gone to a fairly liberal and open college, finding a hard time talking openly about sex, sexuality, cynicism towards your government and local authorities, and the constant need to apologize after cursing. (I FUCKING hate that last part-sorry...)

Delegate James Almand; Daniel Marrin (St. Charles Social Justice Minister); and Fr. Gerry Creedon (Pastor, St. Charles).

How did you get hired for this?

I've asked myself that a couple of times now, and I think there are a couple of reasons. First, I got along well with the office staff when I met them. Next, there's the fact that I've been able, more or less, at this age to afford living on about 21,500 per year with health insurance provided Third, I'm definitely more bilingual than my predecessors and get along well with the Latino population of the church. Fourth, I was raised with a real sense that one's religion needs to be integrated with service, and vice versa. I often have become cynical if my faith didn't talk about social service, and rather bored or hopeless if the activism I got involved in didn't bring up faith.

I have been out of college since June 2001 physically, and probably mentally since November 2001 when I realized my parents expected me to move out of the house.

The advice I was given was to settle down in DC and find a job to just get by on while searching for something more fulfilling. So, I did that. I went from a PT night sales job, while not having to pay rent at my uncle's house, to a job transcribing senate and government hearings for the AP out of Largo, MD. With that job came some good experience in transcribing, great touch typing abilities, and an overwhelming sense of frustration and cynicism towards government that led me to quit by May, when I was by then living in an apartment with roommates in Clarendon.

Two months of more PT jobs, and once again dealing with folks back in NY who thought me crazy, led to me finally finding this job in mid-June at Saint Charles. Then in July Father Creedon called me on my cell to say I had the job if I wanted it. It's had its ups and downs, but I still think I'm doing a good job at it. I just wish we could make more advancements against what I see as a tide of conservatism that attempts to fuck almost all of our daily efforts, outside of advocating against abortion.

I imagine I've gotten employed because I came to interviews with great energy, know-how, a good attitude, education, and flexibility. Also, I was willing to live with relatively low-paying jobs, 28K no benefits, 22K with benefits now, due to my age and idealism.

There seems to be two broad categories of opposition: personal and political. Personal is all the individual action (veganism, aesthetic non-conformity...) while political opposition pushes for systemic change. How much do these categories mean to you? Which do you find more interesting or imperative?

I had an ex-girlfriend who was a vegan and did it out of political opposition to the meat industry. It's fine as a personal choice, I guess, but you're not going to bankrupt the meat industry (which I'm not in favor of in the first place) by losing a few radical vegans here and there.

Personal changes are great, in that they make sure that as the Bible says, we're taking "the plank out of [our] own eye before our brothers," avoiding hypocrisy. And it has to overlap, right? I mean the Civil Rights movements grew out of bus boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama, people taking the individual choice not to ride the buses, and growing it into a political movement. I would argue that the sweatshop movement is the best follow-up to that, the best method of making personal choice that is conscious, political, and moral, and that could move into a widespread movement. Unfortunately, the war on terror has distracted us from that effort, unnecessarily so. At the same time, I'm not all that in favor of political change, mostly because I think there's so much more than can be accomplished in our lifetimes. When it comes to politics, the "Think Globally, Act Locally" idea really applies: listen, help, and fix Arlington and my parish environment where possible, and once that's good, move to communities close by, with an awareness of global interconnections, immigrants, money, soldiers, products and goods, and things like the sweatshop products in our local shopping malls.

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