wfn.org | Religious groups herald passage of debt-relief bill

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Nov. 3, 2000 News media contact: Joretta Purdue·(202) 546-8722·Washington
10-30-71B{504}

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Religious and other nongovernmental agencies are
praising the passage of a $435 million package that would grant debt relief
to some of the world's most poverty-ridden countries.

Democrat and Republican lawmakers joined in approving the full amount of the
U.S. portion of a plan made earlier by the G-7 countries -- a group,
including the United States, that addresses world economic conditions -- to
provide international debt relief to 30 nations. 

The measure, a part of the Foreign Operations Spending Bill, passed Oct. 25
and has been forwarded to the White House for the president's signature,
which is expected after the Nov. 7 election.

"We are very pleased with the decision by Congress to approve debt relief
for the world's poorest countries," said Mark Harrison, staff member of the
United Methodist Board of Church and Society. He praised Bishop William B.
Oden of Dallas for advocating the bill in letters to the Texas members of
Congress on behalf of the five United Methodist bishops in the state.

Harrison also credited the Clinton administration with playing a key role in
getting the effort approved, and said that Gov. George W. Bush's favorable
mention of it in one of the televised presidential debates "really helped
too."

"This is an initiative that the religious community has shaped and placed
squarely in the public arena," said the Rev. Bob Edgar, staff head of the
National Council of Churches in Christ (NCC) and a United Methodist
clergyman. "Two years ago, when we first broached this issue with
legislators, they were dubious that it had a chance of passage."

Debt cancellation is one of five priorities for NCC and Church World Service
legislative advocacy this year, he said

"Not since Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement has the
grass-roots action of churches and people of good will so influenced our
nation's leaders," commented the Rev. David Beckman, president of Bread for
the World, a Christian citizens' movement against hunger.

Beckman, a clergyman of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, welcomed
passage of the bill as an "historic step toward ending hunger." He praised
the authors of 250,000 letters that Bread for the World forwarded to
Congress, as well as all the others who advocated the measure.

He said support of the full relief amount by Congress and the Clinton
administration will help lift the burden of debt that has trapped many poor
countries in poverty.

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United Methodist News Service
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