NEWS STORY: Church leaders, activists say end to poverty `biblically mandated’

c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Declaring that efforts to eliminate poverty are”biblically mandated,”some 600 religious leaders and activists gathered for a four-day summit focused on what the church and the government can do to fulfill that mandate. And to make their point, as their final act on Wednesday (Feb. 3), they fanned out […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Declaring that efforts to eliminate poverty are”biblically mandated,”some 600 religious leaders and activists gathered for a four-day summit focused on what the church and the government can do to fulfill that mandate.

And to make their point, as their final act on Wednesday (Feb. 3), they fanned out across Capitol Hill to press legislators to support a series of programs and principals aimed at reducing poverty.


Ranging from Roman Catholics to Pentecostals, participants at the Call to Renewal-sponsored gathering attended workshops and worship services and heard talks from pastors such as evangelical preacher the Rev. John Perkins, politicians such as Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo and policy analysts such as John Carr, secretary of the Department of Social Development and World Peace of the U.S. Catholic Conference.

For some, like Jeffrey Grubert, from St. Edward Catholic Church in Laguna Niguel, Calif., it was a big step.”This is a big deal,”said Grubert.”I mean, I am coming from a mostly white, wealthy area that has not really been too concerned with these issues and I am going to tell this member of Congress, `I think that these issues are important and worth our attention.'” Other participants, like Linda Butler, 48, from Springfield, Ohio, who contacts her representative in Congress regularly, have more experience hammering out political beliefs. Butler, a self-employed fundraiser and head of a local Call to Renewal chapter, came to the event to network with other grassroot groups concerned about poverty. “We wanted to come to the national conference so that we can do more in our community when we come back,”said Butler, a member of Covenant Presbyterian Church.

Although the summit did not endorse any new specific legislative proposals, leaders issued a statement of principals that urged support for a number of existing anti-poverty programs and challenging recent claims by both Republicans and Democrats that welfare reform has been a success.

Instead, the statement said, success should be measured not by how many people have moved off welfare rolls but how many have successfully moved out of poverty. “We believe that God has a special concern for those who are poor, and that efforts to enable families to move into work with dignity and community so they can move out of poverty are biblically mandated,”the statement read.

While much of the summit was focused on what churches could do and are already doing to fight poverty, there was also a general consensus that religious communities cannot do it alone and that government _ including the federal government _ has an important role.

In particular, the summit stressed the need for”living wages”as the most important goal of any anti-poverty program, arguing that if people are working rather than on welfare, they should not be getting poorer.

Additionally, the summit outlined five other initiatives _ from legislation to provide quality child support and health care to laws that would restore food stamp eligibility for legal immigrants _ as critical to aiding the working poor.


Officials from Call to Renewal, the four-year-old movement sparked by the Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, evangelist Tony Campolo and others seeking to bring an alternative to the Religious Right into the nation’s political debate, estimated people from 40 different denominations and 40 different states attended the summit conference.

Butler said developing support for the legislative agenda was not difficult.”There was a common ground among all of us from our different communities that these were five recommendations that we could all take to our reps and be specific about,”Butler said.

Wallis called the congressional visits the”Matthew 25 lobby,”citing the passage in the Gospel where Jesus declares”as you have done to the least of these so you have done to me.”Those words are so foreign here,”Wallis said of Capitol Hill.”Jesus is not on the political map.” Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., called by Wallis the”father of charitable choice,”praised his hotly debated legislation which allows church congregations to tap directly into federal money for social programs.”I think there is something special about the faith community; I am convinced of it,”Ashcroft told the group.”You represent vision. The government alone cannot do the job; we need help.”All of you _ your churches, your synagogues, your communities _ have been serving the poor, the underprivileged _ often on a shoestring budget,”he said.

Perkins told the group he believed poor people,”if given the resources, can best solve their own problems,”adding,”We are not here just for the short run _ just to get grants _ but to develop policy.” Wallis said the summit also aimed at establishing networks among local churches and social groups to increase their political muscle.”If we just have all these grassroots efforts with no ability to project a voice, then we can’t move beyond our neighborhoods,”he said.”We are going to create a federation of organizations.” But he stressed it would be bipartisan and that both Republicans and Democrats can jointly support anti-poverty efforts.”Our agenda is for poor people,”he said.”We are not going to be a power bloc in one party or another.”

DEA END ROCKWOOD

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