On May 3, I heard an excellent presentation by Eric Gill and nine other members of Local 5 about the challenges they were facing in getting fair and equitable compensation for hotel workers, who are often on the front line of aloha to many of our tourists. By the time the presentation was over, I was concerned. Not because of what Local 5 was trying to do, which I wholeheartedly support, but rather because the nature of economic politics today greatly threatens the small local community churches, which have been the backbone of the religious movement in this country and Hawai'i.

Gill mentioned that when they go to the negotiating table today, there is nobody who is local on the corporate side at that table. Hotels, like so many other elements of our economy, are now controlled by large multinational corporations whose bottom line is profit, seemingly without concern for the human cost. As an example, Gill talked about the increased use of luxurious hotel beds that are very heavy, resulting in increased injuries to the housekeepers who have to move and make them.

As I listened, I remembered hearing our city and state leaders talk about the importance of targeting the "higher-end" tourist, as they spend more money here. Perhaps those higher-end tourists, no matter what their background, are people whose God is often their money and are not likely to darken the doors of our faith institutions, except perhaps to marvel at their architecture as they do at the Valley of the Temples.

They come and fall in love with the beauty of these islands and build their gated, multimillion-dollar homes on the North Kona coast, or purchase "condotel" units to use one or two months out of the year, driving housing costs and property taxation beyond the reach of local residents, especially those in the service industries.

While the Local 5 can justly try and tap some of these resources for the benefit of their workers, what are the implications for our local religious institutions? While hotel workers make up some of the membership of our churches, they are often not able to increase their giving to their church.

Another sobering insight was that hotel maintenance workers at the top end of the union scale earn $22 an hour. If my math is correct, this comes out to about $46,000 a year, more than most pastors make — and they have no union and are on call 24-7.

Twenty years ago, as a seminarian in care of the Hawai'i Island Association of the United Church of Christ, I served on the board of directors of the Northern California Nevada Conference UCC. At that time we were trying to set suggested salary guidelines for pastors. It was determined, in light of the required level of responsibility and academic training (a masters degree), that a pastor should be compensated at the same level as the local high school principal. Less than 5 percent of the 150-plus pastors were meeting that salary level.

We suggested compensation be set equal to those of local teachers with comparable years of service and academic training. Only 25 percent of the pastors even met those criteria. If you add to this the five-year-old statistic that the average seminary graduate left seminary with $19,000 in student loan debts, you begin to get the bigger picture of the economic threats facing our local faith institutions.

Religious institutions today face spiraling health, liability insurance and maintenance costs. Some are fortunate enough to own a parsonage, which can be used to offset a low salary. Others have endowments that help to postpone the effects of these spiraling costs.

However, the floodtide of polarizing economics driven by multinational corporations is eroding the middle class and is still rising. The long-term prospect for the economic survival of churches, synagogues and temples, which often serve as community centers, is bleak.

It is religion that is threatened, not faith. Faith is becoming more and more necessary for individual and community survival in an increasingly secularized society. But for faith to grow, I envision a growing movement back toward house churches, in which worship is held in homes, meeting the needs of those who can get there by foot, not car.

Religious training is likely to become more a process of mentoring than academics. The result will be a greater sense of community among worshippers and an increased celebration of the diversity of expressions of faith — for faith is a God-given individual gift which cannot be forced on another. This will be coupled with a decline in denominationalism and an empowerment of laity.

The transition will not be easy, as it means surrendering human control to divine guidance. Jesus said to his disciples in Mark 10:27: "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible." Therein lies my hope.

The Rev. Dan Hatch is currently serving as interim senior pastor of the Community Church of Honolulu. These views are his, not those of the church. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.