enormous cost and unnecessary treatment accompanying end of life medical care. also a new and controversial multifaith university training future minsters, rabbis not only in their own traditions and in each other's. >> major funding for religion and ethics news weekly is provided by the lily endowment, an inian ap lis-based family foundation dedicated to founders in christian religion, community development and education. additional funding provided by mutual of america, designing

customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. the estate of william j carter and the jane henson foundation and the corporation for public broadcasting. welcome. i'm bob aber nethy. good to have you with us. as the occupy wall street movement spreads around the world, religious leaders continue to play a role in the demonstrations. in london, st. paul's ka ahead at yal ral shut down for the first time since world war ii about the growing protester who is set up camp on the church's grounds. they worried their presence was a safety hazard. here in the u.s., more than 200 clergy signed a petition calling for economic justice and offering spiritual support to the protesters. while jewish groups have been part of the protest, the anti-defamation league condemned what it said has been

anti-semitic signs at some of the demonstrations. religion continues to play a prominent and controversial role this presidential campaign season and came up in the republican presidential candidate debate in las vegas we have a report. >> mitt romney said candidates should not be selected on the basis of faith. >> that are idea that we should choose people based on religion for public office is what i find most troubling because the founders of the country went to great length to make sure and even put in the constitution that we would not choose people who represent us in government based upon their religion. >> romney was responding to recent remarks by dallas evangelical pastor robert jeffress who said he believed that romney as a mormon is part of a cult that is not christian. at the values voter summit, jeffress introduced rick perry

referring to evangelical faith. >> do we want a candidate who is a good moral person or a candidate who is a born again follower of the lord jesus christ? >> jeffress's comments stirred controversy among other conservativ conservatives. >> pastor jeffress, do not give voice to bigotry. do not give voice to bigotry. >> romney's mormon faith was an issue in the last campaign, prompting the 2007 speech while he will be true to his belief they will not dictate his presidency. it's an issue of particular concern to many evangelical voters. according to the public religion institute, almost 60% of white evangelicals believe mormonism is not a christian religion. romney have high profile supporters, he still hasn't caught on at the evangelical grass roots. neither as perry who has been

touting his faith so much so that per's wife told supporters she believes he has come under unfair attacks. herman cain who said he is a conservative christian is making a play for voters with several recent faith-based stops including a book signing at the late jerry falwell's liberty university. evangelicals are a key constituency especially in the primary season. in 2008, 44% of republican primary voters were self-identified evangelicals. several early voting states. this time around, evangelicals are undecided. at the values voter summit, ron paul won the poll followed by cain and rick santorum. perry and michele bachmann tide for fourth and romney came in sixth.

now a special report on advanced directive, part two on the problems of end of life medical care. too often, elderly patients become unable to say what kind of care they want. at the gunderson lutheran medical center in wisconsin, elderly patients are encouraged to make choices about their future care and sign advanced directives so everyone knows their wishes. lucky severson reports. >> what helps you when you face serious challenges in your life? >> well, i always get comfort from audrey, my wife. >> 61 years? >> of 61 years, yes. as of last friday. >> that's great. >> then our pastors.

>> so your faith? >> yes. very important. >> conversations like this at gunderson lutheran hospital in wisconsin are what set off the nationwide outcry over the so-called death panels. this is curtis nelson connected to a dialysis machine with his wife audrey and his son, dennis. y is reecea is a nurse and guiding the discussion. >> with your particular illnesses and you have the multiple miloma and the heart failure and kidney disease, it's difficult to predict when a complication could occur. it could happen suddenly and you might be unaware to make the decisions. >> the end of life conversations began in the 1980s at the urging of the medical ef sis. he had grown alarmed after listening to staff doctors distressed about how to treat terminally ill patients. >> what are does the patient want me to do?

the patient is too sick to ask the family, when we asked, the family had no idea what the patient would or would not want. we were really faced with this moral or ethical dilemma. >> when are the doctors don't know what the patient or family wants, there is only one thing to do. >> here anywhere in the world quite honestly when you have a patient coming into a hospital who is very, very ill and maybe dying, the assumption is that treating and attempting to prolong a is the right thing to do. that indeed from an ethical perspective is the right thing to do, but is it what the patient would want? >> you have a serious complication from your kidney disease. you have a good chancive living through it,ut you won't be able to walk or talk or both and you will require 24-hour nursing care. you would choose the following. to continue all treatment

because living as long as possible is the most important thing. you would stop all efforts including dialysis to keep you alive because your quality is life is more important than quantity or you are not sure? >> that would be terrible to have to -- i wouldn't want to have that. >> stop all efforts then? >> if you got into a position like that, yes. >> in lacrosse, wisconsin, 96% of patients who die have gone through the discussions and designated how they prefer to spend their last days. >> this program is not trying to talk people out of treatment. this program is trying to help patients make informed decisions so that we know what they would want even in a crisis. we can deliver the services that matches their preferences. >> the program has been so successful representatives from around the country now attend seminars at gunderson lutheran

and success is due in part of the backing of the catholic and lutheran churches. a similar pattern is under way in minneapolis supported by the head of the national head of evangelicals. the pastor of the wood dale church outside minneapolis. he witnessed too many families going through emotional turmoil when their loved one was dying. >> for the family that there processes in place is wonderfully helpful. often children and spouses, they are frighten and don't want to make a mistake and give up too soon and hold on too long. if it's been discuss and especially if it's documented in writing, that is really a gift. >> the pastor said he and his wife filled out advanced directives and encourage members of his congregation to do the same. the directives he said are biblically base and to use it as

an example of a story of jacob when he knows he is about to die. >> it tells about him bringing all of his sons around him. he gave a prepared statement to every one of them. it was different for each one. the bible line in genesis 49 said that he gave instructions. that's marvelous. here long ago was a man who knew he was going to die and gave final instructions. >> advanced directive today detail individual treatment, assign power of attorney and are available electronically. they are not death panels, a description he said is simply a lie. he said some people choose to stay alive with any technology medical science can offer. a majority request less invasive treatments. some because of their religious views are ready to meet their maker. >> if those hopes don't come true, what else would you hope for?

>> if the lord said i can come in. >> that are the lord says you can come in? >> yeah. >> they train nurses social workers and pastors to conduct the discussions. bernard filled out his own. >> i am not making a judgment for you or anyone else. i think we live in a world in which we have to share resources. that's a spiritual value for me. if i receive medical care and it reaches a certain stage and it's not going to change the out come for me, but a lot more money could be spent. the cost of this care has reached a point that i no longer feel is ethical. other people don't even have basic needs being met. >> it wasn't the original intent of the advanced health care planning program, there has been an additional benefit. it saves money. typically hospital costs for a patient's last six months of life average about $31,500.

some hospitals is twice that amount or more. at gunderson lutheran it's $22,000 because the patient spends fewer days in the hospital. >> where would you rather spend your time if you had two years to live? in the hospital going through tests and procedures? we are putting many, many patients in this country through a lot of additional suffering and expense, some of which they will have to pay for. it's the fourth most frequent reason for families to go bankrupt. >> another reason costs are less. doctors here are paid a salary. dr. jeff thompson is ceo of the gunderson lutheran health system. >> in our organization and others like us, a physician gets no extra money because they do a ct scan or lab work. there is no added incentive to put patient in the hospital. >> dr. greg thompson, a critical

care specialist said these days they mostly treat patient who is have a better chance of long-term survival. >> many of the patient who is have the underlying terminal disease don't even come to the intensive care unit because they have already decided that at this point in their life, that's not the level of care that they want. they want care, but not the critical care that they would receive in a critical care unit. >> there is a growing number of people who don't want to have a lot of tubes connected to them. i would say that increasingly i am hearing people say i want to die at home. they are making a choice that dignity is more important than more days. >> any hope for you? >> i hope he gets off of this. if it is going to happen, it wouldn't be a long drawout process.

>> that's the biggest thing. if it's going to go that way, i don't want to have it dragged out. >> this is a good conversation to have. >> yeah. >> in these discussions, talk is about practical things, but often turns deeply personal. >> people don't like talking about death. it's a taboo in our society. this is a very intimate conversation. when you talk about these issues, you are really talk about the meaning of life and about your religious beliefs and faith. ultimately about who you are. that's a little frightening to most of us. >> at the end of the discussions, he said he often hears the same thing from the nurses and facilitator who is conduct them. >> what are they will report is what they experienced was a sacred space. what happens in families when they really get into the meaning

of this conversation is they tell each other how important they are. to each other. >> the idea of advanced directives appears to be gaining traction. intimate discussions about the end of life are starting to take place in hospitals around the country. for religion and ethics news weekly, la cross, wisconsin. in other news, there has been international concern over the number of young tibetans who have set themselves on fire in recent months to protest china's policy towards tibet and spiritual leader, the dalai lama. prayer services were held this week for the who have committed self imilation this year. five have died including one nun. officials from the tibetan government in exile called the deaths tragic and urged china to

improve its treatment of tibetans. the indicted roman catholic bishop of kansas city said he has no plans to step down as the head of the diocese. he became the first bishop changed with covering up the actions of an abusive priest. he is the highest ranking official in the u.s. catholic church to be indicted in the sex abuse scandal. victims groups alleged that many others have committed similar acts. greek orthodox leaders say they are jubilant about an agreement with the port authority to rebuilt st. nicholas church. the only house of worship destroyed on 9/11. they sued the port authority earlier after negotiations for rebuilding near ground zero broke down. the church will be rebuilt at a new location close to its original site. we have a story now on a new and

already controversial multifaith university in california created to train future christian minster, jewish rabbis and muslim imams not only in their traditions, but those of each other. saul gonzalez reports on the theological schools that is claremont lincoln university. . >> the korean-american drummers leading a line of professors. a new expertiment in education began this fall. this was the opening of southern california's claremont lincoln university which describes itself as america's first interreligious school of theology that put the pastors, rabbis and muslim imams on one campus. the school's philosophy was captured in the opening remarks of muslim-american scholar. a professor at claremont. >> the diversity of human kind

is not a sign. it is a sign of god's creation and the beauty of humanity is in our very differences. >> what do you hope to accomplish here at claremont-lincoln. what is the grand vision? >> you have to get beyond people defining religions by the traditional walls. >> phillip clayton sees the schoolas offering an alternative to traditional religious education. >> when you train rabbis in one school and pastors in another and imams in another, they create an united states versus them mentality. what if we create something that has not been done. let's let them work out their differences in the day to day education. when they go out into the communities, they won't do the outsources, but the we. what that would do for the face of religion would be staggering. >> claremont lincoln is the creation of a much older

institution. united methodist claremont school founded in 1885. it partnered with southern california's academy of jewish religion and the islamic center of southern california to form this new school. students attending the school can get master's degrees in studies and muslim counseling. >> i would like you to stand or turn in the direction that you normally pray. >> all are required to take classes like this that emphasize inner religious education and understanding. many of the students feel they cooperate get this kind of multifaith education anywhere else. >> most of the reason i am here is i look to other colleges and other programs and it appeared that they were preparing students to be leaders in the church of yesterday. claremont is training people to be in the church of tomorrow. >> the ambition to train muslim

clerics is important to a muslim american student of iranian decent. >> we need to have a voice that's an american voice as muslims. having somebody in saudi arabia tell us how it should be in america is in my opinion not the way i would want to be told. >> however the creation of the school has generated criticism. >> i'm actively involved in blogging and social networking and i began defining sights that would label what we were doing as the work of the devil and people guaranteeing the blog fear that i was on my way to help. it drew a hostility. people felt that we were under cutting the way they defined their entire religious traditions which is this oppositional and exclusionary approach. >> however many of the students and faculty at clairmont lincoln don't want to ignore the tensions and theological differences between the faiths. >> i hope that there is

conflict. i often say when we get in interfaith we need to say oh, you are wonderful, no you are wonderful. if we are truly going to be conversation partners, we need to say this is how i view your tradition and i think we really also need to get in a conversation about history. so much of what we carry and interfaith dialogue is about the negative. if we are not willing to go there, so many of us are not willing to move forward. >> another reason why claremont went multifaith. survival. other schools of theology and seminaries, this campus faced a declining enrollment and tightening budget allowing students from other faiths to train here is one way to keep the lights on and the doors open. this is an extremely hard time. we have a dwindling number of

student and we decided we want to be ahead of the curve. >> because you had to be. you had to open up to other faiths to keep your head above water. >> sure, but we had a 45-year history of being edgy. we were sort of pushing the youthful and we decided we would push on this one. >> to help it go multifaith, this school received a grant from david lincoln and his wife, joan. in their honor, the school was named after them. clay buildings to survive, more and more schools of theology and seminaries have to adopt the interreligious approach. >> we are starting to get visits from deans and presidents to say oh, we have seen where you are going. can we talk about this movement? >> skepticism remains high. >> it's fine for claremont. it would not be good for us. >> dennis is the dean of the talbot school of theology, an

evangelical institution. he said religious clarity and not a mixing of faiths is essential to a religious school arguing a multifaith approach could weaken curriculum and argue alumni and campus supporters. >> we are asked do you admit non-christians here? they want to know. they want to hold us accountable for that. that's something we want to look at. >> they want to make sure it's not here. >> not as enrolled students because they are fearful of the curriculum. >> do you think it's easy for faith to cohabitate like that in theological instruction? >> no, i think it's difficult. i think there great challenges. >> however at claremont they think the future is on their side and increasingly multifaith america. >> some of us are looking at a jewish direction. some of us are looking at a

muslim direction. some are looking in a christian direction and yet we are all looking in a god direction. >> beyond christians, jews, and muslims, administrators are talking about enrolling buddhists and hindus. for religion and ethics news weekly, i'm saul gonzalez. >> on our cal entdar this week, hindus and the sikhs are pparing for celebrating the fest valve lights marking the victory of good over evil. the holiday lasts for five days. finally when an earthquake shook washington, d.c. in august, the washington national cathedral was one of the structures damaged. this week engineers inspected the highest pinnacles, the city of washington applied to the federal government for disaster assistance to help with cathedral repairs. the damage has been estimated

around $15 million and the cathedral had no earthquake insurance. nobody imagined that what is almost the highest point in the nation's capital, an earthquake would ever be a problem. that's our program for now. i'm bob aber nethy. follow us on twitter and facebook and find us on you tube. watch us any time, anywhere on smart phones and iphone. there is much more on our website where you find special links and resources on advanced directives and more of our interviews about end of life care. you can comment on all oursters and share them, audio and video, podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, aretha franklin sing precious lord at last weekend's dedication of the martin luther king,jr. memorial in washington, d.c. ♪