coming up, the quest for a new way to measure human well being. could it have less to do with economics and more to do with quality of life? and is laughter good for your spiritual health? >> major funding for religion and ethics news weekly is provided by the lily endowment, an indianapolis-based family foundation dedicated to the founder's interest in 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, the jane henson foundation, and the corporation for public broadcasting. >> welcome. i'm deborah potter for bob abernethy. good to have you with us. as the occupy movement sets up protests and police ratcheted up response, a growing religious coalition called occupy safe vowed to stand with the protesters. in new york after tents were cleared from zuccotti park, several houses of worship offered sanctuary. many congregations and clergy provided resources and support to the protesters including the prominent church trinity wall street. this week when protesters broke into a lot, the church said they didn't have permission to be there. police made several arrests. trinity's rectors welcomed them to participate and not to occupy

it in a way that excludes others. in washington religious groups lobbied with federal budget cuts with the latest bills to fund the programs came before congress. the several of several they asked not to reduce global aid. the super committee agreed to cutting the deficit, a super vigil is taking place in washington this weekend. participants are praying for the committee to protect programs that help the poor. in kansas city, missouri a roman catholic bishop cut a deal to avoid prosecution for failing to report a child pornography complaint against a priest in his diocese. to avoid additional charges, bishop robert finn agreed to meet for years to report any incidence of child abuse. the victims advocates called it a cozy deal that was ineffectual. as a u.s. conference gathered in

baltimore, the group's president timothy dolan said the sex abuse scandal at penn state reopens a wound for the church. to discuss the parallels, we are ginned by kevin eckstrom and kim lawton from religion and ethics news weekly. let me start with you. what are the parallels between what happened at state and the long running sex abuse scandal in the catholic church? >> you have people who should have known better who made bad decisions. often times the worst part of the scandal is not necessarily the abuse. as bad as it is, it's the cover up that gets people upset. you saw that with bishops who moveed from one place to another and saw it at state where they knew what was going on and didn't report it from the outside it looks like they tried to keep it quiet. >> they're moved locations and allowed jerry san dusk to have access to a satellite campus and it's like the same thing you are

mentioning with the priests being moved even though you know something is going on. it's that effort to protect the institution that seems to take over. >> right. that's what a lot of people are noticing. circle the wagons and protect the institution at the expense of the children. that was one of the parallels and one of the differences though is that the institution at penn state moved in the way and they moved to hold people accountable. some of the victims rights groups that i have been talking with are frustrated that the church hasn't seemed to do that or if there were repercussions it comes from the state as we saw in the kansas situation where the state did the indictment. >> what do you think the church has to teach? are they in a position to be advising others on how to deal with the sex abuse crisis? >> the church has done a comprehensive study in new york

about the roots of the problem and how it develop and got worse and how it was ignored. they do have a statistical data to offer. this is what we learned. these are the steps we have take tone prevent this from happening again. dolan said we learned the hard way. how this got out of hand and to the extent that we can help other institutions deal with this. they are happy to do it. >> it's interesting because when they put the guidelines nothing 2 thousand 2, even back then they were saying they hoped they could be a model for other institutions. they point out that the church is not the only place where sex abuse takes place. they have been hoping all along it could be a model, but they haven't always lived up to the guidelines and things they have done. the arch bishop said we have been hesitant. people in glass houses and all of that. we have resources to offer for

how to deal with the situation. >> the big challenge for the church and penn state is it's one thing to have policies and guidelines, but if you can't implement them. that's a big problem is getting the bishops or the diocese to implement the policies. if you can't, they are meaningless. >> somebody said while the church has things to teach, the church may be able to learn from penn state in terms of how they handled it and holding people accountable. >> at a higher level than it has been the case in the catholic church until now at least. >> right. also i think for the church, a lot of people think this is the church and people who speak for god and god's representatives on earth. they should be held to a higher standard than penn state. >> if you talk to some people, football is say religion and there is parallels in terms of the high regard in which a football coach might be held.

therefore is in a position of authority and power in order to be able to really manipulate young people. >> the big difference to remember is that penn state has the ability to fire people and did. it's harder in the catholic church. >> thank you both very much. in illinois, catholic charities stopped providing foster care and adoption service this is week. they wanted to keep the state funding for the services, but continued to provide them only to married couples and single people living alone. that violated the rights of prospective parent, gay or straight, in civil unions that were legal in illinois in june. the gross national product is one measure of the state of the u.s. economy, but do financial data alone provide an accurate picture of the state of the country? wealth is not one of the unalienable rights mentioned in the declaration of independence, pursuit of happiness is. the tricky part is figuring out how to count it when calculating

the true condition. that hasn't kept people from trying. . >> we are very good at measuring what we make in this country and the services we provide. it's called the gross national product. 43 years after robert kennedy complained that the gross national product measures everything except that which matters most, economists say maybe there should be an additional barometer. >> we need more metrics to fully understand human well being and welfare and how to advance it. >> in other words, happiness, subject of a to rent of recent books from the dalai lama to harvard's ex-president. even in the academic world, happiness has been a cottage industry. >> there is a search for a financial crisis in the sense of where our fundamentals are wrong and were we chasing the right

goals? >> the tiny country of bhutan uses gross national happiness, a survey that measures the quality of life there. france and england are trying to include happiness when assessing their economy. international business consultant and author david roth kof. >> something like happiness sounds frivolous, but it's not. the purpose of society is to create a better quality of and not to create the highest amount of aggregate wealth. >> from the sublime moment of an artist in a performance, to children playing blissfully to church going ladies displaying their sunday best, we know what happiness looks like. but what exactly is it? for the last 11 year, carol

graham tried to measure happiness. >> i have been looking at it. >> we are getting a handle on it. there is a new science of measuring it. we haven't cracked all the codes and it's not an exact science by any means, but we find very consistent patterns. >> by surveying thousands about how they view their lives and if they smiled that day or were worried, carol graham found that money doesn't necessarily guarantee happiness. anxiety actually diminishes it and people of faith tend to be happier than people without. >> one of the things that surprised me when i got into this enterprise was how common the determinates of happiness is around the world. people get happier with age as long as they are healthy. stable employment and friendships and family matters. income matters only up to a point.

>> the fabulously successful internet pioneer and sports team owner had to learn what brings happiness the hard way. as a young man he made a fortune and found it was not enough. >> maybe you are lucky and can start your own business and take a public or sell it and make a lot of money for a clear victory. i did that in a really compact amount of time and you get there and i think that's what the dream was all about. it's not as fulfilling as you were told it would be. >> after a near crash in an airplane, they vowed to seek not wealth, but happiness. in his book, he outlines steps to happiness, one of them, empathy. after making a harsh statement about his cleaning crew -- >> i called a meeting and said i apologize. teach me what your job is. i want to clean the building. i want to walk a mile in your

shoes. >> so on the same day that president obama attended a game -- >> i'm sitting next to president obama and espn and first time sitting president had gone to a game. the game ends and president leaves. i'm feeling like a million bucks and now it's let's go clean the women's bathroom. >> he did it to show empathy for the clean up crews. >> for taught me a lot. a year later, no one in our company of 1500 people ever talks about me sitting next to the president of the united states. they all reference when i cleaned the women's bathroom and showed empathy. >> he said what he also found is that truly happy people recognize what he calls a higher calling to leave in this world more than you take.

>> people who give back who are self reflective of their role in society, they tend to be the people that are role modelled and remembered and that are loved. >> father jonathan morris, vicker at the old cathedral at new york city wrote a book about happiness. >> part of finding out who we are and flourishing at the deepest levels has to do with helping my neighbor. that's part of really tapping into this notion of a search for meaning and purpose and the pursuit of happiness. >> from the attitudes of jesus in his sermon on the mound, philosophers and poets agree true happiness is rooted in a higher calling. that is possible only says father morris through a union with god. >> that are means connecting to my very origin.

my essential origin and somehow developing a relationship with him that gives us purpose, a special type of purpose and gives us joy. >> in his blueprint for happiness, even ted, hardly an avid church goer said stay in touch with a higher being. >> some people interpret that as meditation and some interpret that as your inner voice and some people interpret it as prayer. regardless of how you personally internalize and make an outcome of it, that is a very, very important part of the process of finding what makes you happy. >> all that research on happiness has real world implications. for example, if a lack of medical care causes anxiety, shouldn't government pay more attention to health care than general prosperity or maybe we

should do what they are trying to do in bhutan. >> it's hard to imagine contentment being a goal that we would agree on as a public policy objective. at least not in the united states. we are an opportunity focused society. i think we can agree that giving more people the opportunity to lead fulfilling lives is an objective of public policy that fits with everything our country is about. >> after all, despite our enormous wealth, in quality of life surveys taken in various countries by news week and gallup, the u.s. doesn't even make the top ten. >> what could we do to improve the quality of people's lives? education? health care? rewarding jobs? environment? you find that there a lot of measures of quality of life and you find the countries that do

better than we do in terms of those metrics of quality of life actually have an approach towards government where government sees its role as providing those things. >> even hard headed business men agree we should focus less on the gross national product and concentrate more on what really matters. >> you don't necessarily win if you are successful. there is a lot to miserable wealthy people. there is way more people who if they focused on the communities and giving back they would be much happyner their life. >> happiness then has many faces. what all the books and all the academic studiesing is is that happiness is a process and not an end point. everything that can be counted does not necessarily count. everything that counts cannot

necessarily be counted. for religion and ethics news weekly, this is bob faw in washington. in other news, pope benedict xvi is visiting the west african country this weekend, the second trip to africa as pope. his first in 2 understand 2009 was surrounded by controversy after the distribution of condoms does not prevent the spread of aids. his trip includes a stop to the seminary and the grave of the late cardinal. vatican was infuriated by an ad by ben ton. this doctored image was part of an ad entitled unhate, showing world leaders locking lips. the vatican called the photo offensive and the company agreed to to withdraw it.

not a lod of religious leaders are known for a sense of humor. one priest said that's a shame. father james martin believes joy, humor and laughter are good for one's health. he spoke about the new book between heaven and mirth. >> you can hear the about the funny saint. probably not. >> st. lawrence who was on a gridiron over hot coals. turn me over and take a bite. i'm done on this side. in latin. or st. august stin said give me chastity, but not yet. >> the father said humor is an under appreciated value in the spiritual life. martin has written a book called between heaven and mirth. he said humor, laughter and joy are essential elements of spiritual health. >> if you are not finding joy in

your faith, there is something wrong. humor brings us down to earth and reminds us that we are not god. >> all too often, joy has a disreputable reputation in religious circles. >> have you done to mass where they say so we join with the choirs of angels and holy, holy, holy lord. if that's the way the choirs are sing, we're in big trouble. >> there is a misunderstanding that said religious needs to be serious and gloomy. a lot of things are serious concerned about your salvation and the afterlife and suffering and those things, but we tend to focus so much on that to the exclusion of joy. >> part of the problem in the christian world is a distorted view of jesus. >> we focus on the passion and death of jesus which is certainly important to the exclusion of the rest of his ministry which was much more

extensive. much had to do with joyful things and table fellowship and visiting friends. we need to have more balance. >> according to bible scholars, many of the pair bells told were pretty hilarious. >> the idea that someone had a flank there and another person has a speck of dust in theirs would have been funny. the problem is because we are so far away from the culture and the time, we don't get the humor. for people in palestine, they would be laugh out loud funny. >> here gets frustrated that in so many churchesth the images o the saints have serious, anguished or angry expressions. >> if we think of jesus as a crumpy person, it will affect what we think the model christian should be. that's grumpy. i think that's a mistake. >> consider john the 23rd which was pope from 1958 to 1963. >> his most famous joke came when a journalist asked him how

many people work in the vatican and he said about half of them. >> john paul ii known for a sense of humor even in his last days. >> timothy dolan of new york said he was visiting pope john paul in the end of his life and to buck his spirits up, arch bishop dolan from milwaukee went to john paul and dolan is a big guy. he said your holiness, i'm happy to report the archdiocese of milwaukee is agreeing. john paul said so is the arch bishop. >> humor played an important roll in his own life. >> the funny or wonderful or unexpected things that happen to me that make me laugh at myself might be signs of god's playfulness. i can't speak for god, but sometimes when i am brought up short or find myself laughing, maybe this is god saying don't take yourself so seriously. >> please welcome the chaplain

of the colbert nation, father jim martin. papaj., what's going on? >> martin appeared on the popular comedy central show the colbert report. stephen colbert calls him the program chaplain. >> what's it like to be on that show? >> in a word, fun. jesus was relatively poor. >> he may not have had much, but he was a hobo hipster. you know his dad is loaded. he was just choosing to be poor. >> he believes it's a wonderful place for a catholic priest to be. >> even if i'm on for two or three minutes, i probably reach more people than in a year's worth of homilies or all my books. >> humor and joy are means of e vanj limp. >> why would anyone want to join miserable people. joy shows you are happy in your

faith. >> martin said there is bad humor that mock people or even worse, people's beliefs and when it comes to religion, some can be sensitive. >> the difference between making fun of god and just being silly about the way that we relate to god which are two different things. err on the side of safety. if you think it might be offensive, don't say it. >> as a priest, he often makes jokes because people know that under the humor is love and commitment. >> a guy goes to a franciscan church and knocks on the door and the guy said will you say a rosary for my intention. he said sure. he said i want a lexus. the franciscan said what's a lexus. he said forget it. he knocks on another door and he opens up and said father before i ask you something, do you know what a lexus is and she said do you know what a lexus is?

i want one. he said i don't blame you. will you say a rosary that i get one. he said sure. it's a rosary. >> something deeper than happiness, being joyful he said doesn't mean being happy all the time. gratitude can move people towards joy. >> we are so focused on the negative of which there were many, it moves us away from being grateful for that what which we have. a roof over our head and food and clean water and those kinds of things. the gratitude reminds you of your blessings and connects you more with god and brings you a sense of joy. >> laughter doesn't hurt either. >> when you are deadly serious, you are seriously dead. >> i'm kim lawton reporting. >> the crystal cathedral in southern california will soon have new owners. the church that declared bankruptcy last year agreed to sell the iconic building to the

roman catholic diocese of orange county. it was approved by a bankruptcy court judge this week. they plan to move to a new location, possibly a nearby catholic church. finally, washington national cathedral is open for the first time since an earthquake damaged the building in august. it reopened for the consecration of the new bishop of washington. marianne edgar bud set first woman to hold the position, serving with the first woman presiding bishop of the church. it may be operating again, but it needs repairs that will cost about $15 million. that's our program for now. i'm deborah potter. follow us on twitter and facebook and find us on you tube and watch us any time, anywhere on smart phones and iphone. there is much more on our website including more jokes from father james martin and comment on our stories and share them. audioand video podcasts are also

available. join us at pbs.org. now more from the service at the washington national cathedral. >> major funding for religion and ethics news weekly is provided by the lily endowment, a private family foundation dedicated to founder's interest in religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america. sdipg 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.