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A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*
6:00 P.M. ET November 7, 2011
The Rev. John McCullough, flanked by other religious leaders, speaks
about maintaining U.S. funding for global poverty programs during a Nov.
2 news conference outside the United Methodist Building in Washington. A
UMNS photo courtesy of Church World Service/Martin Shupack.
View in Photo Gallery
Legislation affecting how the U.S. addresses global poverty will be
under scrutiny as the U.S. Senate considers the 2012 appropriations
bill.
The bill, expected on the Senate floor the week of Nov. 14, will
affect many programs and places where United Methodists are attempting
to improve — and even save — people’s lives, says Mark Harrison, United
Methodist Board of Church and Society.
“If you’re concerned about malaria funding, if you’re concerned
about HIV funding, this is the bill you need to be spending time with,”
he noted.
During the past year, religious leaders have been speaking out about how changes to the U.S. budget for 2011 and 2012 could negatively affect the poor.
Now, for the first time, poverty-focused development assistance for
other nations is competing directly with military spending in the U.S.
government’s fiscal year 2012 budget, these leaders say.
“Basically, what the Senate has proposed is the flatlining of
defense spending and development assistance,” explained the Rev. John
McCullough, a United Methodist pastor and top executive of Church World Service.
“Any amendment that would be forthcoming would translate into a
reduction… especially of development assistance money,” he said.
That, he added, would mean a loss of “the basics” for the world’s
poor — food and water assistance, shelter, medical care and educational
support.
The Rev. John McCullough
UMNS photo courtesy of Church World Service/Martin Shupack.
View in Photo Gallery
Don’t lose ‘momentum’
Up for approval is Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriations for the
Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, which
funds many of the U.S. programs that assist families in some of the
world’s poorest countries.
McCullough was among an interfaith group of leaders who visited Congress Nov. 2
and spoke at a news conference at the United Methodist Building on
Capitol Hill to explain the importance of supporting “the budget as it
currently stands.”
“We have done tremendous good around the world,” he told United
Methodist News Service. “We can’t lose the momentum of the good that has
already been accomplished.”
Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society,
which hosted the interfaith news conference, is urging church members
to call their members of Congress this week to “support the highest
possible spending figure for poverty-related assistance
internationally.”
Winkler and McCullough are among the religious leaders
who are part of the “faithful budget campaign” lobbying on behalf of
the poor. “We all feel the budget is a moral document as it represents
where we place our priorities,” Winkler said.
He met Nov. 4 with Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., to urge the Congressman
to “stand strong” on finding ways to increase revenues by means such
as increasing taxes for wealthier Americans. Clyburn is a member of the
bipartisan “Super Committee” charged with issuing a recommendation by Nov. 23 on how to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years.
Religious coalitions of Christians, Muslims and Jews are planning a “Super Vigil”
of prayer for a fair federal budget at 3 p.m. Nov. 20 in Lafayette
Park across from the White House, calling on Congress and the Obama
administration “not to place an undue burden on the poor while
shielding the wealthiest from any additional sacrifice.”
The faithful budget campaign
also expects other vigils to take place that day nationwide outside the
district congressional offices, in public squares and at houses of
worship.
Joint attempt to overcome poverty
Ministry with the poor
is one of four areas of focus for The United Methodist Church. But, the
denomination alone cannot improve the lives of the poor, Harrison
pointed out.
“As a church, we attempt to do our share in funding programs to
help overcome poverty… but we want to make sure our government does
that, too,” he said. In other countries with United Methodist
congregations, he added, “the U.S. is one of major donors, particularly
when it comes to global health.”
Those U.S. funds have a significant impact, the Rev. David Beckmann, top executive of Bread for the World, told UMNS in an earlier interview.
“What we have seen in the past 10 years is a big increase in
support for what our government can do to help reduce poverty in Africa
and around the world,” he said.
Although the recession may have made U.S. citizens feel more
reluctant about providing such aid, “what people don’t know is all the
money the government gives to reduce poverty around the world amounts
to six-tenths of one percent of the federal budget…not much money to us
but to poor people that is a huge amount,” Beckmann explained. “In
poor countries, you can hire a teacher for a year for $600.”
Mark W. Harrison
A UMNS 2008 file photo courtesy of United Methodist Board of Church and Society.
View in Photo Gallery
Funding for federal programs such as USAID
is “strategically important” to help lift people out of poverty and
U.S. senators need to hear from members of faith communities about
preserving that assistance, McCullough stressed.
“When that funding is further diminished, the representation of the
United States as a sign of real hope and stability also is at risk,” he
said.
“Our religious institutions are engaged in extensive relief and
development efforts, and we know the need and the suffering first-hand,”
McCullough said. “We are doing our part, but we can’t do it all. We
need our country to do its part.”
The security angle of development assistance can be lost, Beckmann
pointed out, in an appropriations bill that puts food aid to farmers in
Ethiopia in direct competition with funding for cruise missiles.
However, that is where people of faith can have an impact. While the
military has plenty of political support, he said, Ethiopian farmers
have “no other constituents except Christian people, people of
conscience.”
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at http://twitter.com/umcscribe. Kathy Gilbert, UMNS young adult content reporter, also contributed to this report.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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