wfn.org | ELCA Presiding Bishop Joins Call for Halt in Federal Budget Process

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 15, 2005

ELCA Presiding Bishop Joins Call for Halt in Federal Budget Process
05-173-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Calling the federal budget "a concrete expression
of our shared moral values and priorities," the Rev. Mark S. Hanson,
presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA),
joined with four other U.S. religious leaders and called on the U.S.
Congress to stop the federal budget reconciliation process for fiscal year
2006.
     The religious leaders made their recommendation in a Sept. 13 letter
to Congress, noting the "unprecedented devastation" caused by Hurricane
Katrina which exposed "the all too many faces of poverty living in the
wealthiest nation on the planet."
     "These faces, precious in the eyes of God, call us to remember that
sadly, racial disparities and poverty exist in almost every community in
our nation," they said.
     Those who signed the letter with Hanson were the Rev. Frank T.
Griswold, presiding bishop, Episcopal Church, New York; the Rev. Clifton
Kirkpatrick, stated clerk, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Louisville, Ky.;
the Rev. John H. Thomas, general minister and president, United Church of
Christ, Cleveland; and James Winkler, general secretary, general board of
church and society, United Methodist Church, Nashville, Tenn.
     In April the religious leaders wrote to Congress and said the
proposed 2006 federal budget asks the nation's "working poor to pay the
cost of a prosperity they may never share."  Medicaid and the Food Stamp
Program, slated for cuts by Congress, may have greater burdens placed on
them as a result of Hurricane Katrina, the religious leaders said in the
Sept. 13 letter.
     The religious leaders wrote that, as the disaster occurred on the
Gulf Coast, the U.S. Census Bureau "revealed in alarming detail" that
poverty in the United States is growing.  They cited the bureau's 2004
annual report, "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the
United States."
     The report "showed 37 million people lived in poverty in 2004, an
increase of more than 1 million people since 2003," the leaders said.
     The religious leaders noted that Congress responded appropriately by
designating funds for the initial response to Katrina and said each of
their churches mobilized,
providing prayer and financial support.
     Before the hurricane or the Census Bureau report, "neither we nor our
friends of other faiths had the resources to turn back the rising tide of
poverty in this country.  The [2006 federal budget] reconciliation bill
that is working its way through the authorizing committees will send more
people searching for food in cupboards that, quite frequently, are bare,"
the leaders wrote.
     "We commit ourselves to working for economic policies infused with
the spirit of the One who began his public ministry almost 2,000 years ago
by proclaiming that God had anointed him 'bring good news to the poor,'"
the religious leaders' letter concluded.
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     The full text of the religious leaders' letter to Congress is at
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=53266 on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news