| |
09042
January 22, 2009
Christian Churches Together lobbies Obama on poverty
by Daniel Burke
Religion News Service
BALTIMORE ― In a private meeting and in public statements, the nation’s broadest coalition of Christian churches pressed President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 13 to make poverty a priority of his administration.
A dozen leaders of Christian Churches Together in the USA (CCT), a three-year-old ecumenical group representing more than 100 million Christians ― including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ― met privately with members of Obama’s transition team Thursday morning. Members also visited Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress.
Editor’s note: The PC(USA) was represented at the meeting by General Assembly Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons; Office of the General Assembly ecumenical officer Carlos Malave; and the Rev. George Telford. ― Jerry L. Van Marter
Later that day, CCT leaders convened at the National Press Club to call on Washington lawmakers to include provisions for the poor in any forthcoming economic stimulus packages.
“We’ve heard a lot recently about Wall Street and Main Street,” said the Rev. Sharon Watkins, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). “Our concern is the people who live on the street, or have no street address.”
On Jan. 21, Watkins was the first woman to deliver the sermon at the National Prayer Service, part of Obama’s inaugural ceremonies.
CCT’s statement on poverty was officially approved on Jan. 16 here, where 110 representatives from 43 member churches and Christian organizations met for an annual meeting, said the Rev. Richard Hamm, the group’s executive administrator.
Composed of the five “families” of Christianity ― Catholic, Orthodox, evangelical/Pentecostal, historic Protestant and ethnic churches ― CCT leaders said Thursday their diversity and reach lends authority to their public voice.
“It gives us power, spiritual power,” said the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, director of external affairs and interchurch relations for the Orthodox Church in America.
CCT’s decisions and statements must be approved by consensus, and leaders emphasized that they offer principles, not specific proposals.
“We’re not a poverty think tank,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder and president of Sojourners, a network of social justice-minded progressives. “It’s a meeting of churches and church organizations.”
Hamm said CCT’s statement highlights specific issues, such as an earned income tax credit and adequate schooling for poor children, but refrains from policy prescriptions.
“One of the most interesting challenges for us is to say something that is not an overstatement but that has real substance, and actually, we find there’s quite a lot,” he said.
Next year, the group will take up evangelism at its annual meeting, which Hamm predicts will provoke “an interesting conversation.”
The full text of CCT’s “Statement on Poverty”:
As Christian leaders in the wealthiest society on earth, we are called by God to urge our churches and nation to strengthen and expand efforts to address the scandal of widespread poverty in the United States and around the world. The gospel and our ethical principles place our service of the poor and vulnerable and our work for justice at the center of Christian life and witness.
Our common faith compels us. Christ our Lord teaches us that when we serve and stand with “the least of these,” we serve and stand with Him. Our Bible teaches us in hundreds of places that the God we worship has a special concern for the poor. God judges individuals and societies by how they respond to the needs of the poor. As leaders in Christian Churches Together, we believe that a renewed commitment to overcome poverty is central to the mission of the church and essential to our unity in Christ. Therefore in order to obey our God, respect the dignity of every person, and promote the common good of society, we must act. Our focus here is domestic poverty, but we reaffirm our commitment to overcome poverty all around the world.
Widespread and persistent poverty challenges us to action. The painful truth is that about thirty-seven million people in our country live below the poverty line. Tragically, 18 percent of all our children struggle in poverty. The sad reality is that millions in our nation work hard and still cannot escape poverty. We lament this ongoing poverty.
Our faith in Christ who is the truth compels us to confront the ignorance of and indifference to the scandal of widespread, persistent poverty in this rich nation. We must call this situation by its real names: moral failure, unacceptable injustice. Our faith in Christ drives us to call our churches and our society to a more urgent, united response.
We are grateful for the vast array of ways our churches are already helping millions of struggling people. We want to build on these efforts, learn from each other, and collaborate more closely. But we can, we must, do more.
We also recognize and encourage leaders in community, economic and public life who seek justice for poor people in our land. But we can, we must, do more. Our goal must be the elimination of poverty in this land.
As we as Christians renew and strengthen our efforts to overcome domestic poverty, we will seek to work with people of other faiths and all persons of good will in this urgent task.
Unfortunately, partisan and ideological divisions too often promote one-sided solutions and prevent genuine progress. We believe substantial success in reducing domestic poverty requires an overall framework that insists that overcoming poverty requires both more personal responsibility and broader societal responsibility, both better choices by individuals and better policies and investments by government, both renewing wholesome families and strengthening economic incentives. We believe that genuine success in reducing American poverty will require greater commitment and concrete action by all four of the following: churches, neighborhoods, communities, and faith-based and other organizations; government that implements better public policy at local, state, and federal levels; individuals and families; the market and private sector (employers, unions and other economic actors).
We are leaders of the Christian community, not an interest group. We have no partisan political agenda. We are conservatives and liberals, Independents, Republicans and Democrats. Together we believe that our faith demands and the people of this land yearn for concrete proposals that transcend divisive political divisions.
We give thanks to God for bringing together at one Christian table in Christian Churches Together for the first time in our history representatives of almost all the families in Christianity in the United States: Evangelicals/Pentecostals, Catholics, Racial/Ethnic, Orthodox and Historic Protestants. As a united voice of Christianity in this country, we pledge to strengthen our efforts to end the scandal of widespread poverty in the richest nation in history.
Four Objectives
CCT will promote its commitment to overcoming domestic poverty by inviting all Christians and all people, especially our leaders in public life, to embrace and implement the following objectives:
- to strengthen families and communities; because they are essential bulwarks against poverty;
- to reduce child poverty; we seek to cut child poverty by 50 percent in the next ten years;
- to make work work; by combating racism and guaranteeing that full time work offers a realistic escape from poverty and access to good health care;
- to strengthen the educational system in our country with particular attention to the public schools; because access to quality education offers perhaps the best way out of poverty.
|
