coming up -- is it ethical for terminally ill patients to end their lives? >> for-profit companies with social goals they say are as important as maximizing profit. and bob faw on a white writer who listens to native americans and says their spirituality helps him overcome the guilt he feels from the country's treatment of its original inhabitants. major funding for "religion

& ethics newsweekly" is provided by the lilly endowment, an indianapolis-based private family foundation dedicated to its founders' interest in religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america. designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. >> welcome, i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. this week at the vatican, pope francis urged prayers for ebola victims and called on the international community to do everything possible to eradicate the virus. the world health organization said the rate of new cases may be slowing in liberia, the worst-hit country but the fight was far from over. during a visit to west africa, u.s. ambassador to the united nations samantha power said a much greater international response is needed to defeat ebola.

a delegation of top religious leaders came to the u.s. this week seeking help for their besieged community in iraq. isis has particularly targeted the anxious religious minority, which isis calls pagan. more than 300,000 have been displaced and now need humanitarian aid. the delegation says it has documented the names of nearly 7,000 girls and young women who have been kidnapped by isis and forced into sexual slavery. the group urged the international community to do more to stop what it called the extermination of uzites. >> we knew there was hatred, but not to this extent where people did not see us as human beings. >> they should no longer exist in what they call muslim lands.

god will call muslims account accountable for allowing them to remain in the middle east. >> they documented kidnaps, forced marriage and sexual abuse of girls and young women in nigeria by the islamist group boko haram. the report says more than 500 women have been abducted there in recent years, including the 270 school girls kidnapped in april. >> the catholic arch diocese of new york plans to merge 14% of its parishes with others, according to cardinal timothy dolan. in a newspaper column, the new york archbishop said it was not feasible to keep so many parishes open because of the dwindling numbers of catholics and priests. meanwhile the archdiocese of chicago citing budget deficits, announced this week that it would close or merge 14 elementary schools at the end of the academic year.

>> earlier this year in april, 29-year-old britney maynard was given six months to live after being diagnosed with advanced brain cancer. she made headlines when she pledged to end her life with the help of a doctor rather than continue to suffer. mayna maynard's announcement caused much debate. joining me is kathy lynn grossman, senior national correspondent for religion news service who has been writing about death and dying for many years. kathy, welcome. good to have you here. >> thank you, bob. >> how do we all divide on this? >> americans divide fairly sharply on this issue. it depends on their value system. if their values are primarily based on what they believe and the personal choices they want to make, personal control over things, value system versus people who make their decisions based on religious choices that god alone decides the day of

your death. >> it's pretty evenly divided? >> it is. research has known. >> what's the difference between what we are talking about here and euthanasia? >> there is a very sharp difference. euthanasia is deliberately killing somebody else with or without their consent. this is physician-assisted dying. in the five states where it's legal, someone following rigorous regulations, how long they lived there, britney maynard moved from california to oregon specifically to qualify for this you given a prescription for lethal drugs. the person takes the drugs themselves if and when they choose to. not everyone who gets the prescription ever uses it. >> what about the family, the other people involved in this? it must be terribly difficult. >> it's terribly difficult when somebody is dying. the best thing you can do for the people you love is to have advanced directives. talk with the people who care about you and tell them what your wishes are for how you would like to be cared about

when your days are nearing an end. spell it out in writing. make sure they have a copy. choose someone to speak for you when you can't speak for yourself. >> do families typically all agree on this or not? >> no, they don't, which is why it's really important to have these conversations. there are many resources that you can find online or by mail that will help you talk about this or talk with your doctor, talk with your clergyman to help work this out. >> name somebody very specifically you want to have the decision. >> you do not want to have to open your eyes in a hospital bed and have your physicians, children and ethicists arguing about your care. >> kathy lynn grossman, many thanks. >> thank you. we have a lucky sevenson story about the growing number of benefit corporations or b-corps. they are for-profit companies that think their service to

their workers and communities is as valuable as maximizing profit, and they insist in the long run those twin missions are good for their shareholders. >> this is a company called united by blue. for every product they sell, they promise to remove a pound of trash from oceans and waterways, and they don't just send a check. they host cleanups across the country. it's one of over 1,000 businesses in the u.s. now designated as a benefit corporation or b-corp. >> they are doing it because they are guided by a sense of whether they call them values or ethics or spirituality or religion, whatever it might be, that's their center of gravity that says even when no one is looking, and even if nobody else cares, i care. and this is how i want to behave. >> jay cohen gilbert is one of three stanford university school mates who did extremely well in business then co-founded the b-corp movement. in 2006, they started a

nonprofit organization called b-lab, dedicated to using the power of for-profit businesses to solve social and environmental problems. increasing number of states have approved new legislation promoted by b-lab, making it easier for companies to commit to higher standards of purpose and accountability. >> the idea is to change the conversation from you and i supporting just a good product to you and i supporting a good company. >> mark houlihan and andrew are b-corp co-founders. >> lots of us can feel really good and you can have lots of people who want to live in a different economy, but the rules of the old economy are an impediment often. we have to do things like change laws so that it's clear that investors can choose to invest in these kinds of businesses and create long-term value without being worried about getting sued by a short-term investor who wants to think about nothing other than how much money they make this quarter.

>> through a stringent set of standards, b-lab measures a company's real impact on workers, the community and environment. in other words, they certify that the company is doing the good it promises to do. >> have you had any corporations that lost their certification? >> you bet. we are a pretty pragmatic culture here in the u.s. we pretty much want to see performance. not just a good mission statement on the law. that's where things like a b-corp certification matter because it shows that folks are actually walking their talk. >> the king arthur flour company is the oldest flour company in america, over 200 years old. employee-owned and a b-corp. their headquarters in vermont includes a warehouse and onsite bakery. >> it's an opportunity for us not to think about the bottom line, which, you know, is

important but there are other things that are as important, the environment, our society, our community. all of our shareholders. all our stakeholders. not just the bottom line. >> king arthur pays its employees well, offers health insurance for part-timers and gives its workers a week off each year to do community service. jay rimmel says it's caused employees to think more about giving. >> there is a local haven, homeless shelter, we volunteered there. there's food shelf locally a lot of us volunteered for. people do readings for school kids. it's trickled down and pulled people into doing volunteer they wouldn't normally have thought of. >> martin philip is in charge of the bakery, a self-titled bread head, he came to king arthur from the world of investment banking. now he's proud to work for a company that cares about more than the bottom line. >> it means that we are looking at who we are within a community. it means that we are looking at

who we are within the environment, so how are we taking care of our environment? what are the resources we are using, how could we do better? >> we want into crease our assessment on the environmental side. we decided to put in these electric vehicle charging stations, which we are one of 70 in the state of vermont. >> there are critics of the b-corp model. a common concern is at the very existence of b-corp implies there is something missing or lacking in conventional companies. >> we hear that all the time. we are not here to stand against anything. we are here to stand for something. it's not about tearing anybody down. it's about highlighting the leaders and showing people there is a better way to do business and everybody else can follow. >> he is a professor of business ethics emeritus at st. thomas. he helped draft a document in 2012 entitled, "the vocation of

the business leader." business loadership is a noble calling and an opportunity to practice catholic social teaching. >> good goods, good work and good wealth are the three pillars of this vocation of the business leader, and all three of those principles are to be found in the business corp idea. >> but professor goodpastor says there are working problems with the b-corp seal of approval. >> unscrupulous managers who in the name of doing good abuse the capital that was given to them, and make excuses because we didn't get a good return this year because we were busy doing what we had to do in the social sense. when in fact it was mismanagement that led to the

poor returns that year. and there need to be safeguards for the shareholders. >> corporate law generally favors the shareholders who invest to make a profit. mark houlihan learned that first hand. >> the moment we sold the company, by law, the only thing we could consider at that time was maximizing shareholder value. it felt to me at the back end of that there had to be a better way. >> one of the more famous examples of the company's fiduciary obligations to the shareholders occurred in the year 2000 when ben and jerry's ice cream, the famous do-gooder company was suddenly purchased by a european conglomerate. the founders were accused of selling out, but their lawyers said if they didn't sell, because the offer was above market price, they could be sued by the shareholders. with the b-corp designation that would be far less likely to

happen. >> welcome to ben and jerry's. i'm going to be your tour guide today. i'll take you on a three-part tour of our factories. you'll see a quick video how the company got started. >> ben and jerry's was allowed to continue its social mission and is a certified money-making b-corp. it's that bottom line that causes some to question the real value of b corporations. can they compete at the bottom line? >> we know that b corps have gone out of business at a lower rate than companies like them in the rest of the economy. >> not only do they survive and not only are they creating jobs, over 50% of b-corps in that period had 5% job growth. during the same five-year period where private industry in the u.s. shed 7 million jobs. >> there have been over 40 studies done about b corporations like king arthur flour, comparing them to conventional companies. >> all whom have concluded that stronger environmental social

and governance performance needs to long-term value creation for shareholders, period. full stop. >> the timing may be ripe for companies pushing for more than just financial profit. >> there's some interesting data that's come out recently about millennials who now represent over 50% of the work force. and that they are looking for something more than just money and their work. >> students of today, at least the ones we see in our classrooms, want that larger meaning. it's not that they're totally selfless or that they're only altruists, but sure they want jobs and they want to have families and communities and resources, but that's not enough for them these days. i don't know if it ever was enough, but at least they're more explicit these days about how important that is to them.

>> as they sail away on lake champlain for their annual retreat, they feel the wind at their back. b-lab certifies companies in 34 countries and over half the states improved the benefit corporation legislation. i'm lucky severnson in burlington, vermont. kent nurburn is an author whose speciality is listening to the stories of native americans. their spirituality, their reveranc for nature. what he's learned by listening brought him a sense of personal forgiveness for the country's treatment of native americans. bob faw spoke with him. ♪

>> in the backyard of their minneapolis home, native americans jackie and kurt perform what they call a healing song. for many, what native american rituals and ceremonies mean, what indians believe and why has seemed a mystery, but in these books, it is expertly revealed and explained by this rum manied 68-year-old white man, award-winning writer and spiritual teacher kent nerburn. >> my job was to watch, record and serve in some capacity. to do what you have to do to make them open their hearts and to get the stories out they want to tell. >> calling himself a guerrilla theologian who tries to find the spiritual in everything, he has spent a career writing about native american people. in this trilogy he using actual

dialogues he's had with native americans spoken by fictional characters he calls spiritual story telling. >> my goal is to be present to their emotional reality and put it in people who, in the voices, in the characters of people that are real people, and try to make it so it speaks from honest emotions. >> he felt an obligation because of what happened in this country to the native americans. it was nothing less than cultural genocide, he told parishioners at st. joan of arc catholic church. >> these are occupied people marked by extermination by relocation, starvation, military slaughter, and finally by reeducation that ripped the heart out of the traditional ways. >> what native americans suffered troubled kent, as well, and inspired miss writing. >> to earn forgiveness, to earn

forgiveness for the shame in my blood. shame in my blood. that's you talking. >> that was me talking. i wanted to get forgiveness for the crimes of my culture. i feel like i carried the crimes of my fathers. and how do i make it right? >> so he began to explore and listen to native americans like jackie and her husband kirk, who initially was very skeptical about what this white outsider wanted. >> my folks, having been in the boarding schools, and when the boarding schools shut down, my generation being adopted out into nonindian homes, the abuses i experienced in that nonindian home, coming to terms with all of that, i had little faith in or trust in particularly white

men. so of course, i think he's only looking for some way to exploit us, exploit our culture for his own purposes. >> it made native americans open up and eventually trust kent is that this white outsider really did listen. >> he listened. what i mean by that is, he intently heard me. there was something about his spirit when i talked to him that was very gentle, authentic. >> i think kent is -- he is such a remarkable man, but i think it's because of his, you foe, his study, his theology, he's able to come to this place because of his spirituality. >> as he listened, what he found

was far removed from the hollywood stereotypes, but who instead see everything in nature as living. >> for the native people the land is a life. the events on the land are life. the wind is alive. this degree of the land being alive and the land having its own spirit and its own story and its own teachings is part and parcel of the native way of seeing the world. >> kirk and jackie explained how for them there is no distinct between the sacred and the everyday. and that the simplest objects like an eagle feather are reminders of something greater. >> there is nothing special about it and there is everything special about it. >> right. >> because of what he learned, kent told that catholic congregation they and all nonnatives would do well to embrace what native americans believe. >> we believe that what the creator had begin us is enough and the place he put us was where we belonged.

for us, the world was a mystery to be honored, not a puzzle to be solved. >> one of his books celebrating native american culture is now being made into a film. if we begin to appreciate that culture, he tells his readers, we would be far more careful how we labeled native americans. >> you named us savages, that made us savages. you made where we live the wilderness that. made it a wild and dangerous place. without even knowing it you made us who we are in your minds. >> a one-time sculptor with a ph.d. in art and theology, he game more sensitive because native americans have given him a gift, as he puts it, their world and their way of seeing have enriched my world and my way of seeing. >> what these folks do is they speak to the common humanity of us all while trying to acknowledge the uniqueness of the cultural manifestations.

i want these folks to be healing books. >> it made my spirit happy that kent is able to do something that many people, nonnatives, can embrace and appreciate and understand and relate to, and who many native can say thank you, that was done very respectfully. well done. so that brings me hope, absolutely. >> ultimately, what he has learned and what he has written has brought kent the relief he was seeking. >> you didn't cause this, but your job is to take responsibility for the knowledge and to do something with it. did you find a kind of forgiveness writing these three books? >> yes. the shame in your blood was diminished. >> it was diminished because i got lucky. i got to write these books. i got to know the people. i got to become the voice of the voiceless. and so that's my way through

this. and then the learning, maybe you get some peace, but that's really all you can do. >> for native americans and the landscape is marred with sadness and loss, but in this song of healing, as in the work of kent nerburn, there is also an echo of redemption and hope. for "religion & ethics newsweekly," this is bob faw in minneapolis. finally on our calendar this weekend, christians honor saints and martyrs on all saints day followed by all souls day when catholics and some protestants a pray for loved ones who died. wednesday shiite muslims celebrate the martyrdom of

muhammed's grandson. >> you can watch us any time on the pbs app for iphones and ipads. there is much more on our website. you can also listen to or watch every program. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, scenes from the sistine chapel at the vatican, which this week unveiled state-of-the-art lighting and air purification designed to better protect the frescos. ♪ ♪

major funding for "religion & ethics newsweekly" is provided by the lilly endowment, an indianapolis based privately family foundation, dedicated to its founders' interest in religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company.

>> rose: welcome to the program. i'm charlie rose. the program is "charlie rose: the week." just ahead, the final countdown to the midterm elections. filmmaker george louus, and neil patrick harris brings back the variety show. >> i always grew up loving the variety acts in the circus. i still am into the magic and the juggling. i'm a big fan of someone who has an extraordinary skill and they can do it, and then be anonymous and go about their lives. >> rose: we have those stories and more on what happened and what might happen. captioning sponsored by rose communications