c. 2007 Religion News Service

Groups Criticize Bush Budget for Cuts to Domestic Programs

WASHINGTON (RNS) A variety of faith groups are protesting President Bush’s proposed $2.9 trillion budget, arguing that cuts in medical and anti-hunger programs would leave millions of Americans sick and hungry.

The president’s budget, which was submitted to Congress Monday (Feb. 5), slashes spending on health care, education and housing. It also proposes drilling for oil in an Alaskan wildlife refuge and changing food-stamp eligibility rules.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters the budget was “disingenuous.” With Democrats in control of Congress and the federal government’s purse strings, Bush’s proposal amounts to an opening salvo in the upcoming budget battle.

That hasn’t stopped faith-based advocacy groups like Catholic Charities USA, Bread for the World, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism from criticizing Bush’s plan.

“The president’s budget misses the mark on reducing poverty in America,” said the Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA. “In fact, with cuts to key programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, the president’s budget will only serve to exacerbate problems facing millions of our nation’s poor families.”

Over the next five years, Bush’s budget would reduce funding for Medicaid and Medicare _ health care programs for the poor and elderly _ by more $100 billion.

While the food stamp changes may help new households, it may also hurt those already part of the program, according to the anti-hunger group Bread for the World.

“The president’s budget proposal offers little new for those low-income families needing help from our federal nutrition programs and reveals little for struggling rural communities and small farmers,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, Bread for the World’s president.

President Bush’s budget also proposes drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, a plan that has been debated and defeated several times in Congress.

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism said Congress must again squelch the plan.

“As a habitat for hundreds of native species, and home to the indigenous Gwichin tribe the (refuge) is an invaluable part of our natural and human world,” RAC said in a statement.

_ Daniel Burke

Haggard Says He’s `Completely Heterosexual,’ Plans To Move

(RNS) The Rev. Ted Haggard, who left his Colorado megachurch and the National Association of Evangelicals amid a sex and drug scandal, believes he is “completely heterosexual,” the Denver Post reported.

Haggard recently emerged from three weeks of counseling at an undisclosed Arizona treatment center, said the Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur, Colo., one of four members of a board of overseers for New Life Church, which Haggard founded in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“He is completely heterosexual,” said Ralph, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship. “That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn’t a constant thing.”

The newspaper reported Tuesday (Feb. 6) that Haggard sent a weekend e-mail message to some members of his former church informing them that he and his wife, Gayle, intend to leave the city and take master’s degree courses online.

He cited Iowa and Missouri as possible states where they may move.

Ralph said the board has encouraged the former pastor to consider secular work if the couple continue plans to earn master’s degrees in psychology.

The overseers also encouraged Haggard to attend a 12-step program for sexual addiction, the Denver Post reported.

Haggard’s dismissal from the church and resignation as president of the NAE followed allegations that he was involved with a former male prostitute. Haggard admitted he committed “sexual immorality” and said he bought methamphetamine but never used it.

Representatives of the board and the church could not be reached immediately for comment.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Study: Majority of Americans See Link Between Economic, Spiritual Health

(UNDATED) A majority of U.S. adults say that the overall health of the nation’s economy is dependent on how spiritual Americans are, a survey by the Gallup Organization shows.

Seventy-seven percent of the respondents said the nation’s economic health depends a “great deal” or “some” degree on its spiritual health.

The survey, called “The Spiritual State of the Union,” was conducted for the Spiritual Enterprise Institute, a West Palm Beach, Fla.-based center that focuses on building understanding of how spiritual values affect economic life.

“This in-depth study, which examined the role of spiritual commitment on many facets of life, as well as society as a whole, makes it abundantly clear that one can’t understand America, unless one has an awareness and understanding of her spiritual underpinnings,” wrote Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, the institute’s founder, and pollster George Gallup of the Gallup Organization, in a joint analysis of the study that was released Jan. 30.

Of those surveyed, more than half say their religious beliefs greatly affect their feelings about the future, and more than one-third say they affect their relationships at work and how involved they are in volunteer activities.

Fourteen percent of those surveyed said they consider a decline in society _ ethically, morally, or religiously _ to be among the top problems facing America today.

Other findings show that 79 percent of people believe that there are clear guidelines about what is good or evil that apply to everyone.

Seventy-two percent say that their faith is what gives their life meaning, but a smaller percentage, 65 percent, consider themselves spiritually committed.

The Gallup Organization compiled the results from a survey of 1,004 adults during February and early March of 2006 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Commissioned by the institute, the study was partially funded by The Templeton Foundation.

_ Melissa Stee

Quote of the Day: Centenarian’s Great-Nephew John Stewart Jr.

(RNS) “She has served the good Lord, she has served the church, she has served us. What better legacy can she leave?”

_ John Stewart Jr., a great-nephew of the late Emma Faust Tillman, who died Jan. 28 at age 114 in East Hartford, Conn., and was at that time the oldest person in the world. He was quoted by The New York Times. Known as the “mother” of the Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church in Hartford, she was a choir member for more than seven decades.

KRE/CM END RNS