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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3442 notes).

Note 3434 by UMNS on Feb. 18, 1997 at 09:01 Eastern (4310 characters).

SEARCH:   Campaign, finance, reform, United Methodist, NCC

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CONTACT:  Joretta Purdue                          80(10-71B){3434}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722           Feb. 14, 1997

Religious, political officials
call for campaign finance reform

     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- United Methodists were among a group of
religious leaders who launched a campaign calling for campaign
finance reform here Feb. 13.
     An open letter, which originated with the National Council of
Churches of Christ (NCC), urged Congress to enact reform
legislation.
     "As religious leaders we believe in government's role in
seeking justice for all people in building the common good," it
says. "Justice cannot be achieved unless the rules governing the
democratic process are just and fair to all."
     United Methodists who signed include Bishop Melvin G.
Talbert, president of the NCCC; retired Bishop William Boyd Grove,
ecumenical officer of the denomination; the Rev. Bruce W. Robbins,
general secretary of the Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns; and the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett,
general secretary of the Board of Church and Society.
     Non-NCC faith groups were represented among the signers by
the presidents of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and
the Unitarian Universalist Association.
     Others included Nancy Chupp, legislative director of Church
Women United, and the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., president of the
National Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
     "Our support for current campaign finance reform comes from
seeing it as an important step in public moral correction," said
the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, NCCC general secretary, at a press
conference announcing the campaign, Feb. 13 in Washington.
     "We are very concerned about widespread disillusionment with
public life, and especially with political life," she said.
     Speaking in the same venue, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said,
"We know that the rules that govern the democratic process are not
just and fair to all. In fact, they're unjust; they're unfair and
some even corrupt. This system needs to be repaired."
     He warned that incumbents are not willingly going to change
an institution that ensures the re-election of 95 or more percent
of the incumbents. 
     Said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.), "Unless we do something
like the McCain-Feingold bill, which will strongly encourage
people to limit how much they raise and spend and will ban soft
money, then the same things that we're concerned about today that
may be illegal will continue through a legal system."
     The third senator who spoke was Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.).
     "I think the way in which money has come to dominate politics
has become the ethical issue of our time," he declared.
     Sometimes the debate is less between Republicans and
Democrats and more between those who are in office and those who
are out, Wellstone said. The system favors incumbents, he added. 
     He expressed the hope that people will turn up the heat for
campaign finance reform across the country to force their
legislators to act on the issue.
     Also speaking on behalf of campaign finance reform were
Bishop McKinley Young of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations and Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism.
     Young, who recently has completed four years as presiding
bishop of the AME Church in South Africa, spoke of seeing people
of all ages stand in line for days to cast the first votes of
their lifetimes. He contrasted that with the apathy and decreased
participation evidenced in recent elections in the United States.
     People in the United States "see the golden rule at work --
'those who have the gold buy and sell the control of those who
rule,'" Young said.
     Saperstein said, "The effects of present practices are
pernicious, for they reduce voter access to elected officials,
erode moral standards in government agencies and institutions, and
breed distrust and alienation."
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