wfn.org | [ENS[ Federal spending a moral matter, Griswold tells panel

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Federal spending a moral matter, Griswold tells panel

By John Johnson

ENS 012605-1

[ENS, Washington D.C.] - "The federal budget is ... a moral document," said
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold to an audience at the Center for American
Progress in Washington, D.C., on January 25. Anticipating President Bush's
2006 budget, scheduled to be presented to Congress, Griswold told the
gathering that "rhetoric is one thing, but the budget is concrete and
reveals the truth of our commitments," particularly with regard to the moral
imperative of health care access in the United States.

"Compassion is not an abstraction," explained Griswold, who was invited to
the Center for American Progress to participate in a panel discussion on
national priorities centered on health care and the federal budget. "Jesus
tells us, 'be compassionate just as the heavenly Father is compassionate ...
It is clear to me as we read Scripture that God's concern is for the orphan,
the widow, the poor, and the marginalized."

Joining Griswold were Center for American Progress president John Podesta;
Dr. Ann Neale, a senior research scholar at Georgetown University; and Dr.
Laurie Zoloth, professor of medical ethics and the humanities at
Northwestern University.

"The conversation leads to common cause and can lead us to action for the
common good," Griswold said, commenting on the importance of having a values
conversation centered on the issue of health care. "My travels around the
Anglican Communion have shown me how important it is to extend our concerns
about health care worldwide. In some parts of the world malaria kills
regularly more people than the recent tsunamis. Our federal budget can be an
instrument of compassion both at home and abroad."

"There are today vast inequities in the delivery and accessibility of health
care both in the United States and around the world," said Maureen Shea,
director of the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations.
"President Bush will present to Congress a budget for the next fiscal year
very soon. As the budget process is carried out, we will look at it through
the moral lens of health care, looking to see if there are adequate funds to
help insure those of low-income, the working poor and their children, to
help fight AIDS both at home and abroad, to protect against malaria, and to
do the research necessary to understand why one racial or ethnic group, or
one gender suffers more than another from particular diseases.

"Failure to adequately fund these programs will not reflect our national
commitment to justice," Shea commented.

"We will do our part" as churches and other non-profit institutions,
Griswold added, but "we can't do it alone."

The Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington works
with a number of health care organizations such as the National Coalition on
Health Care, the Universal Health Care Action Network, and Families USA to
bring together the wealth of the nation's resources to identify and propose
solutions to the health care crisis. Numerous General Conventions have
passed resolutions in support of access to health care that is just,
equitable and available to all.

The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational
institute whose mission statement says it is dedicated to "promoting a
strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all." Further
information about the Center for American Progress can be found online at:
http://www.americanprogress.org.

-- John Johnson is a domestic policy analyst in the Episcopal Church Office
of Government Relations in Washington, D.C.

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