Retired ASU math professor Matt Hassett led a community forum on the economic stresses facing families at Tempe First United Methodist Church Sunday.
The forum one of several put on by the church covering different topics relating to social justice, including immigration, respite care and care for the environment.
Hassett said he chose to speak about the economy because his consulting work in the mortgage and healthcare industries gave him some expertise, but he said the main purpose of the forum was to get input from community members.
“I don’t want to just force my ideas on people,” Hassett said. “Our goal is to open up in the spirit of dialog.”
Hassett, a member of the church since 1987, volunteered to lead the discussion at the request of its Social Justice Minister Kent Olson.
“We feel it is important for the church to speak and work for justice because there are very few institutions in our society still healthy enough to do that,” Olson said.
Before the forums began, author and community activist Tex Sample of the Valley Interfaith Project gave a short talk to the congregation at the 10 a.m. service entitled “A Justice of the Common Good,” in which he advocated grass-roots activism as a means of affecting change.
“A justice of the common good is more than a bunch of individuals pursuing their own interests,” Sample said. “I’m suggesting working on a local level, organizing from the ground up.”
After Sample’s speech, the congregation split into groups to attend different forums, including the discussion of the impact of the economy on families led by Hassett.
Participants in the forum discussed the lack of healthcare options for people who have retired or lost their jobs and for those who hover just above the poverty line.
“In times of economic stress, one of the first things you can lose is healthcare,” Hassett said. “It’s not just the poor who are affected.”
Church members also discussed advocating a living wage — one that allows everyone in the workforce to live at certain standards of healthcare, education and housing, rather than simply meeting their basic needs.
“We need to worry about people getting a living wage,” Phoenix resident Carol Brown said. “There is no such thing as a ‘minimum wage’. People need to get paid enough [to] live a decent life.”
Sample said the economic forum was a step in the right direction.
“[Legislative] changes are made possible by people like you getting together and sharing concerns,” Sample said. “We need to apply pressure locally.”
Hassett said he was pleased to be a part of a forum with the potential to lead to real political and economic change in his community.
“The problems faced by our economy affect me and my family,” Hassett said. “I’m very proud my church is a part of this.”
Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu.
