Newsline: Advocacy office urges federal budget to care for those in poverty

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl

Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

Advocacy office urges federal budget to care for those in poverty

(March 1, 2011) Elgin, IL -- The most recent Action Alert from the

Church of the Brethren's office for advocacy and peace witness

ministries calls on the federal government to adopt a budget that reflects

>care for those in poverty and in need.

"These past few weeks in Washington, D.C., and around the country, the

conversation has been about numbers and not about people," the alert

>says, in part.

"...But there is something vital missing from the conversation--and it is

a voice with which the Church of the Brethren has always spoken. In a

word--mutuality.... The concept that we are to live in such a way that we

are partners with one another and with the entirety of Creation is a

concept which Brethren have embraced for, well, more than 300 years."

The alert invites church members to take action on the federal budget.

"Tell Congress and President Obama that as a person of faith, you will

not stand by while they seek to control spending on the backs of those

living in poverty in the United States and around the world," the alert

>says.

Criticizing the budget proposals from both President Obama and

Congress, the alert says: "The spending cuts currently being debated are

the ones we can afford the least--they are the ones that provide those

living in poverty with an opportunity to have some place to live,

something to eat, educational opportunities, and the chance to turn their

lives around. They are the foreign aid programs that build wells, schools,

and infrastructure, building relationships with countries through

diplomacy rather than bombs. They are the programs that we, as people

of faith, want in a budget that claims to speak for our values."

>At a webpage at

https://secure2.convio.net/cob/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=121

visitors may send a letter calling for a "budget of mutuality," citing

Genesis 4:9 in which Cain asks God, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Also cited in the alert are the following Church of the Brethren policy

>statements:

A 2000 Annual Conference statement "Caring for the Poor" 
www.cobannualconference.org/ac_statements/2000Poor.html<http://www.cobannualconference.org/ac_statements/2000Poor.html

A 2006 Conference statement "A Call to Reduce Global Poverty and Hunger" 
www.cobannualconference.org/ac_statements/2006GlobalPovertyHunger.pdf<http://www.cobannualconference.org/ac_statements/2006GlobalPovertyHunger.pdf

>A 1970 Conference "Statement on War"

www.cobannualconference.org/ac_statements/70War.htm#IX<http://www.cobannualconference.org/ac_statements/70War.htm#IX

>Find the Action Alert at

http://cob.convio.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=9861.0&dlv_id=0 .

>Sign up to receive Action Alerts at

www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=signup2<http://www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=signup2

For more information about the church's witness ministries go to

www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=witness_action_alerts<http://www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=witness_action_alerts

or contact Jordan Blevins, advocacy officer, at  
jblevins@brethren.org<mailto:jblevins@brethren.org

>or 202-481-6943.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed

to continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living

out its faith in community. The denomination is based in the

Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic

Peace Churches. It celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts

some 123,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and

has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican

>Republic, Haiti, and India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

>Director of News Services

>Church of the Brethren

>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120

>800-323-8039 ext. 260

>cobnews@brethren.org