Rev. John L. McCullough joins Marie Dennis, President of Pax Christie International, in welcoming participants to the 2012 Ecumenical Advocacy Days. The advocates are on Capitol Hill today (Mar. 26) lobbying for a budget that addresses critical human needs. Photo: Martin Shupack/CWS
WASHINGTON, DC -— Church World Service is among supporters of the “Faithful Budget” proposal unveiled March 22 for congressional consideration. The proposal contains a set of comprehensive and compassionate budget principles that will protect the common good, value each individual and help lift the burden on the poor.
CWS executive director and CEO the Rev. John L. McCullough, who will welcome more than 700 people from churches throughout the U.S. to Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) when they gather outside Washington, D.C. (March 23 – 26) to discuss budget priorities, joined in urging Congress to enact a budget that “robustly funds critical human needs, environmental protection, and humanitarian and poverty-focused international assistance programs,” all of which ensure human security in its broadest sense.
“U.S. aid each year helps feeds 46.5 million of the world’s most vulnerable children, women and men, provides school lunches for 5 million children, saves three million lives each year through immunization programs, assists and resettles refugees, and provides safe drinking water, in addition to many other vital lifelines for those in need,” Rev. McCullough said.
Participants in EAD, the largest annual gathering of faith-based advocates in the U.S., will deliver the Faithful Budget Preamble-Principles to their lawmakers on Capitol Hill on March 26, as a culmination to the conference.
The Faithful Budget Preamble-Principles, endorsed by 37 religious bodies, including Church World Service, and the Priorities for a Faithful Budget in its entirety can be read at: http://faithfulbudget.org/
The Faithful Budget lays out ideas for restoring economic opportunity, ensuring adequate resources for the country’s fiscal needs, fostering true security, reducing poverty and hardship, taking responsibility for future generations, caring for the environment, improving access to health care and recognizing the robust role of government in combating poverty.
“Drafted by Jews, Christians, Muslims and other faith leaders, the Faithful Budget embraces our role as a united nation to take care of the most vulnerable among us, while making balanced investments in our future,” said the Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “By following our sacred imperative to ‘love our neighbor as ourselves,’ we not only can pass a budget that makes sense, but pass a budget that begins to create a more just society and a healthier world.”
Included in the Faithful Budget Preamble is a call to Congress and the President to enact a budget that “enhances the well-being of all Americans and to make a good faith increase in funding for the impoverished and the vulnerable here and abroad in fiscal year 2013.”
“For too long, our nation’s political leaders have fallen into a trap of starting with an arbitrary top-line budget number and then working within its parameters to fund the programs on which we all rely. Rather than follow Washington’s example, the Faithful Budget focuses on our national needs and priorities,” said Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby.
“We hope our Faithful Budget model can serve as a model that Congress and the Obama Administration can use to help build a more perfect union.”
Among the religious officials who presented the Faithful Budget and lobbying congressional leaders yesterday were:Rev. Geoffrey Black, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ; Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Bishop Neil Irons, Executive Secretary of the United Methodist Church Council of Bishops; Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director, NETWORK; Dr. Sayyid Syeed, National Director of the Islamic Society of North America; Rev. Michael Livingston, Past President of the National Council of Churches as well as the former Executive Director of the International Council of Community Churches; Rev. Peg Chemberlin, Executive Director of Minnesota Council of Churches and the immediate Past President of the National Council of Churches;Rabbi David Saperstein, Executive Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Rev. David Beckman, President of the Bread for the World; and Douglas G. Grace, Director of Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice.
Following the unveiling of the Priorities for a Faithful Budget, the religious officials, among whom are some of the presiding religious officials of the country’s largest denominations, were scheduled to meet with the offices of House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to present the Faithful Budget in-person for congressional consideration.
“Regardless of if you are Republican or Democrat, a Christian, Jew, Muslim or a follower of another faith, the Faithful Budget embraces the reality that we live together in a community, not agreeing on everything, but sharing in the common purpose of bettering our nation,” said Dr. Sayyid Syeed, National Director of the Islamic Society of North America. “The Faithful Budget seeks to transcend Washington’s current political climate and find common ground.”
On Monday, March 26, hundreds of faith advocates from around the country, participating in the annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days national gathering, will meet with and deliver the Priorities for a Faithful Budget Preamble and Principles to their own senators and representatives. Ecumenical Advocacy Days is a movement of the ecumenical Christian community and over 50 recognized partners and allies to strengthen Christian voices and to mobilize for advocacy on a wide variety of U.S. domestic and international policy issues.
The Faithful Budget was spearheaded by some of the nation’s most recognizable Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other faith-based organizations. A full list of the faith-based organizations that endorsed the preamble-principles of the Faithful Budget is included below.
“Whether guided by the words of Isaiah, Luke or Muhammad, the values included in the Faithful Budget are inherent in all of our faiths,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, Executive Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “During this time of great need in this country, it is essential that we lift our collective voices to speak to the social and ecological challenges our nation faces. The Faithful Budget begins that effort.”
The Faithful Budget is a continuation of the Faithful Budget Campaign, an effort launched by the religious community in May 2011 to lift up faithful voices on behalf of the nation’s most vulnerable in order to encourage the administration and Congress to maintain a robust commitment to domestic and international poverty assistance programs.
In July, the campaign organized high-level meetings with policymakers, a Washington fly-in of top religious leaders, and daily prayer vigils near the U.S. Capitol Building. The Faithful Budget Campaign also orchestrated a prayerful gathering in the Capitol Rotunda that culminated with the arrest of 11 faith leaders for refusing to stop praying on behalf of the nation’s most vulnerable.
In November, the Faithful Budget Campaign held a Super Prayer Vigil outside of the White House and around the country that called on members of the failed Congressional “Super Committee” to reject efforts to reduce the deficit by placing an undue burden on the poor while shielding the wealthiest from additional sacrifice.
Additional details about the Faithful Budget Campaign can be found at www.faithfulbudget.org.
Christian, Jewish and Muslim institutions and other faith-based organizations united by shared beliefs to lift up the nation’s most vulnerable are mobilizing across the country to impact the national budget dialogue by demonstrating that America is a better nation when we follow our faiths’ imperatives to promote the general welfare of all individuals.
Faith-based Organizations Endorsing the Preamble-Principles of the Faithful Budget:
American Friends Service Committee; Arkansas Interfaith Alliance; Bread for the WorldCenter of Concern; Center on Conscience and War; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada; Christian Reformed Church Office of Social Justice; Church of the Brethren; Church World Service; Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach; Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism; Conference of Major Superiors of Men; Evangelical Lutheran Church in American; Faithful Reform in Health Care; Franciscan Action Network; Friends Committee on National Legislation; Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Institute Leadership Team Islamic Society of North America; Jesuit Conference; Jubilee USA Network; Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Office, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, United States Province; Leadership Conference of Women Religious; Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; Mennonite Central Committee U.S.; Minnesota Council of Churches; Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity; Muslim Public Affairs Council ; Sisters of the Good Shepherd: The National Advocacy Center; National Council of Churches of Christ, USA; NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; Pax Christi USA; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), Office of Public Witness; Progressive National Baptist Convention; Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations; United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries; United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society.