COMMENTARY: Religious people must act to reform political campaign financing

c. 1997 Religion News Service (The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell is the General Secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.) UNDATED _ Without religious people acting, there will be no clean financing of political campaigns. Blame politicians. Blame the system. Blame too much wealth or even flaws in personal […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

(The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell is the General Secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.)

UNDATED _ Without religious people acting, there will be no clean financing of political campaigns.


Blame politicians. Blame the system. Blame too much wealth or even flaws in personal character. But I believe it is confession time: If church people across the land fail to insist on reforming the way we finance political campaigns, then blame us!

But we can make it happen.

Campaign finance reform confronts us in the news every day. I commend the media: extensive reporting, perhaps even exhaustive reporting, has put the issue on the screen with force. Pleading ignorance no longer works, and the knowledge we have insists on action. People of faith, I believe, hold the key.

Look at it this way:

In all religious traditions, human dignity and equality are God-given. The Declaration of Independence uses the term “unalienable rights” when it speaks of human rights. It roots them: “endowed by their Creator.” God-given! We are now on moral, not just political ground. Election outcomes controlled by concentrations of money undercut the political equality that religious faith champions and democratic processes embody.

Or again, reforming campaign financing is a bipartisan issue of the first order. Since all churches and other religious communities include people from across the political spectrum, a bipartisan issue like this one especially fits. There is room for everyone. No one wants manipulated or distorted results in elections. But misaccumulated and misused money produces just such outcomes. Reform, however, benefits no political party unfairly. Instead, all of us benefit.

I would like for the reform of campaign financing to become an ecumenical and interreligious cause. So far as I can tell, there is no reason for any church, synagogue or mosque to hesitate. In our faith traditions _ even in all their variety _ there is nothing to force us to turn away. Nothing, that is, except some bad reasons like not caring about what happens in our public life or being too busy with less important things.

Let me underscore the hard reality: There will be no clean way to pay for political campaigns unless there is a tidal wave of insistent indignation from people like ourselves all across the country. Change will not be led from Washington. It cannot come from inside the present system. I believe the best motivation to reform campaign financing lies with people of religious faith. And there are lots of us.

I would like to see a veritable tidal wave of indignation on this issue. Then political leaders would have to respond. We would be giving them the encouragement to do what many in their heart, I believe, want to do.


Let me challenge every congregation and every house of worship to become a place where petitions of indignation about reforming campaign finance can be signed. Imagine what it would mean if everyone knew that any house of worship would welcome their public indignation and offer them a way to express it. They would not need to be members. But there they could voice the insistence of a caring American: reform campaign financing now!

Sample petitions are available. They can be requested through the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA office in Washington, 110 Maryland Ave., NE, Washington, D.C., 20002. Or you can send a fax to 202-543-1297. Common Cause in its “Project Independence” also has petitions: call 1-800-926-1064.

There is one asset religious communities share: We are already organized. So, together we can start that tidal wave for change from outside Washington. Maybe campaigns for public office can be washed clean.

MJP END CAMPBELL

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