wfn.org | Hunger Summit speakers urge church to mobilize

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 14, 2002    News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202) 546-87227Washington
10-21-71BP{222}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this story. 

By Joretta Purdue*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - If the mostly United Methodist participants at the
Hunger Summit were not fired up before they heard evangelist Tony Campolo
speak on bread and justice, they may well have been afterward.

"Evangelism is not recruiting people for heaven; it's for changing the world
into what it ought to be," declared Campolo, a clergyman of the American
Baptist Church, in the closing address of the May 9-10 event. 

The Hunger Summit focused on creating a movement to end hunger in the United
States. Sponsors said the meeting might have been the first to bring
together the staff and resources of a church board, a theological school and
a nondenominational hunger organization. The event was jointly produced by
the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, the denomination's social
action and advocacy agency; the Society of St. Andrew, a nonprofit hunger
relief organization; and United Methodist-related Wesley Theological
Seminary.

Campolo cited the prophecy that begins in Isaiah 65:17 with predictions of
joy replacing sorrow, children not dying in infancy but living to an old
age, and people having food and housing by their own labor rather than being
exploited by others.

"Repentance and commitment (to God) should be part of our everyday lives,"
he said. He said that the second coming of Christ should not be seen as a
threat, but he also noted that Jesus' only description of judgment day is
given in the context of how people treat the poor and hungry.

Campolo spoke of the Jewish belief in the Sabbath that called for rest every
seventh day for laborers and servants as well as the wealthy. Every field
was to be allowed to rest without a crop for one year out of seven. But,
Campolo said, the people did not observe the Jubilee, which called for the
cancellation of all debts and the return of land to original owners each
50th year.

"One of the things we have to recognize," he said, "is that it's hard to
preach good news to the poor without preaching bad news to the rich."

Campolo said he admires the United Methodist Church for doing that. "You
stand up for people who will never attend your church and aggravate those
who do," he said. 

He urged United Methodists to ask for specific amounts when raising money.
U.S. Christians who cannot deliver a dollar a day to the hungry people of
the world should not claim to be Christian, he said.

He also criticized the denomination for spending "too much time talking
about things that Jesus didn't talk about" - like homosexuality, which Jesus
did not mention.

"You've got to get (people) to do something so they will change," he advised
hunger workers. "Getting people to give is the kindest, most loving thing
you can do for the giver." 

He challenged the church to question "the powers and principalities" about
justice. "Every time we kill a terrorist, we create two or three more," he
declared. Malaria is eliminated not simply by killing mosquitoes, but by
destroying the pools of stagnant water that are breeding areas for
mosquitoes, he said.

The United States is "spending so much on international warfare that we've
forgotten there are people in need," Campolo said. "'Justice' is referred to
in Scripture more often than the word 'love.'" 

Mainline churches should recruit young people to spend a year working with
inner-city poor people, he said. A model already in use has teams spending
their mornings in study, afternoons in fieldwork and evenings going door to
door, praying for people.

"There are hungry people in the United States today, and there shouldn't
be," declared the Rev. Ken Horne in the keynote speech on "Connecting
Justice and Mercy." Horne is a United Methodist clergyman and director of
the Society of St. Andrew, which operates volunteer gleaning and hunger
education programs. 

About 90 billion pounds of food are thrown away each year in this country,
he said.  In 2001, the society salvaged 46.4 million pounds and
redistributed the food to hungry people. Of that quantity, hand-gleaned
produce accounted for 20 million pounds - double the amount of the previous
year. The rest was received in bulk from growers and other sources. Cost of
transportation of the salvaged foods averages 3.9 cents a pound.

Horne believes the United States has the resources to eliminate hunger. What
is lacking, he said, is the political and moral will to do it.

"There are hungry and homeless people in the United States because that is
the way we want it as a country," he declared. "We exist in a culture whose
main religion is materialism."

Horne challenged the church to provide the will for change. The moral
leadership must come from the church, he said, because it is the only
organization that has as its bottom line is "the welfare of the least and
the lost."

"The deck is stacked against these folks, and they have no voice," Horne
said. People who are down on their luck cannot make a living on minimum
wage, even with two jobs, he added. They need a helping hand.

He urged various church agencies and institutions and hunger groups to talk
to one another as a way of being more effective. He also warned Christians
to avoid being co-opted by political parties and their agendas.

"What is comfortable to do is not always what poor people really need," he
said. Christians need to do ministry with poor people, not for poor people,
he explained. United Methodists have a tradition stemming from John Wesley,
the denomination's founder, and they also have the geographic spread to
eliminate hunger in the United States, he said. He urged against creating
another organization or program but encouraged a movement within the
denomination.

The Rev. David Beckman, head of Bread for the World, a grass-roots Christian
anti-hunger organization, affirmed that advocacy does work.  

Shifting Congress' priorities slightly would make a big difference in
fighting hunger, he said. He noted some success on the part of anti-hunger
advocates in the food stamp legislation that is part of a recently passed
agriculture bill, and he urged more efforts in helping Congress make the
pending revision of the welfare bill truly helpful in moving people out of
poverty rather than just off the welfare rolls.

Hunger Summit participants also heard from other speakers:
7	The Rev. David McAlister-Wilson, with Wesley Theological Seminary,
said, "We at Wesley think of hunger as a leadership issue."
7	The Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, director of the Washington office
of the National Council of Churches, reminded participants that they are
"called to serve others."
7	Bishop Donald Ott, representing the Council of Bishops Initiative on
Children and Poverty, reminded United Methodists that churches are to be
places of justice and mercy.
# # #
*Purdue is news director of United Methodist News Service's Washington
office.

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United Methodist News Service
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