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Nation’s faithful down to the wire with Super
Committee, Congress:
“Don’t cut programs that will cost lives, harm America”
By Church World Service
 Washington,
November 21, 2011 -- While members of the Congressional Super Committee all
but acknowledged their failure to reach an agreement on the federal budget,
the general secretary of the National Council of Churches and
representatives of Church World Service joined with people of faith in
cities across the United States on Sunday to warn that cuts to programs for
the most at risk families and children in the United States and abroad would
cost lives and harm America.
The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, NCC general secretary, said NCC member
communions agree on one message for U.S. political leaders: “Do not try to
solve America's budget problems by taking away from those who have least to
give.
"That's why we are part of the Faithful Budget Campaign, and why we are
taking part in Sunday's interfaith Super Vigil, asking God to move the
hearts of policy makers in order that fairness and compassion will guide
their decisions,” Kinnamon said.
As part of a nationwide Super Vigil, people of diverse faith communities
united in prayer at public rallies in cities across the country. At a rally
in Washington across the street from the White House, the crowd heard
national leaders representing Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths speak to
the moral imperative to protect the most vulnerable among us.
Church World Service (CWS) Advocacy Director Martin Shupack was among the
Washington faith leaders calling on members of the Joint Select Committee on
Deficit Reduction to not reduce the deficit by placing an undue burden on
the poor while shielding the wealthiest from additional sacrifice.
Shupack, one of four faith leaders who led the
rally in a Litany for a Faithful National Budget, said, “We live in a world
that is intensely interconnected. Loving our neighbors requires that we
promote the global common good. Yet, programs may be severely cut that
respond to HIV and AIDS, extreme poverty, food insecurity, overwhelming
debt, violence against women, natural disasters and other urgent needs.” The
rally group responded, praying “for a just and compassionate budget” for
those “who live on the margins of our world.”
“Members of Congress are listening to the top 1 percent of Americans who
take home 25 percent of all household income. They're listening to Wall
Street bankers and the Tea Party, bankrolled by billionaires, who want their
tax cuts,” Rev. Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership
for the Common Good, told the ralliers. “Like Old Testament prophets, we
stand here today to say that any political leader or system that pursues
profits and power at the expense of the common good stands under divine
judgment.
“God will not be mocked. Greed will not go unpunished. Justice for the
common man is our cry,” he said. “Let's fund not tax cuts for the wealthy
but our nation's future competitiveness. That means funding programs that
build skills and productivity.”
Rabbi Jack Moline, Director of Public Policy, The Rabbinical Assembly, told
ralliers and Congress, “When the Torah tells us that the poor will never
cease from the land, we are not to read those words as an excuse for
neglect.”
Rev. Jennifer Butler, executive director of Faith in Public Life, told the
assembly, “As a pastor I cannot stand idly by as more and more families
struggle to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. And I cannot
remain silent as misguided politicians push an immoral agenda that punishes
these people to pay for massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.”
Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, national director for Interfaith and Community
Alliances, Islamic Society of North America, said, “The federal budget
reflects the moral conscience of the American people and so it must reflect
our moral commitment to protect those who are poor and vulnerable here in
America and around the world.”
Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II, Director of Public Witness for the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) said, "We are witnessing through the Faithful
Budget Campaign growing numbers of persons of faith who declare that our
Creator has something to say about political leaders using people in poverty
as political pawns in their fight over the federal budget. . . . God's truth
will not be silenced in this federal budget debate."
In addition to the D.C. prayer rally, religious Americans gathered this
weekend for prayer demonstrations and other acts of religious activism in
Richmond, Va.; Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa., Dallas and
Midland, Texas, Phoenix, Ariz., Cincinnati, Ohio, Seattle, Wash. and
Sarasota, Fla. In Los Angeles, the Sisters of Social Service are celebrating
their 85th anniversary as a congregation featuring a Super Vigil as part of
their basic mission to respond to the social needs of society.
Following Sunday’s Washington rally, CWS’s Shupack said, “If no acceptable
agreement is reached by the Super Committee in the short time before the
deadline, Congress will now have an immediate need to vote to continue
payroll tax relief and unemployment insurance for the sake of working
Americans and the unemployed, and for the sake of an economy that needs this
money circulating.
“During the months ahead, Congress will have to make decisions that are
going to be fair and just before January 2013 when automatic deep cuts come
in,” he said. “Congress will have to find a way to fiscal health by putting
people back to work, increasing revenues and instituting only cuts that
don’t harm the poor here and abroad.”
Shupack and the Interfaith leaders presenting
at the Washington vigil are among those spearheading a Faithful Budget
Campaign in recent months.
In July, the campaign organized high-level meetings with policymakers, a
Washington fly-in of top religious leaders, daily prayer vigils near the
U.S. Capitol Building and a peaceful demonstration in the Capitol Rotunda
just days before Congress passed the debt ceiling compromise that culminated
with the arrest of CWS’s Shupack and 10 other faith leaders, including the
Rev. Michael Livingston, director of the NCC's
Poverty Initiative,
and Jordan Blevins, ecumenical peace advocate for the NCC and the Church of
The Brethren, for refusing to
stop praying for the nation’s most vulnerable.
Over the past six weeks, the Faithful Budget Campaign and its network of
religious worshipers have flooded congressional offices with telephone calls
and letters encouraging them to preserve vital funding for the most
vulnerable at home and worldwide.
Photo of Michael Kinnamon by Jessie
Palatucci of the United Church of Christ
Church World Sercice Media Contacts:
Lesley Crosson, Church World Service, (212) 870-2676,
media@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526,
jdragin@gis.net
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ
in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among
Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a
wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic
African American and Living Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in
more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.
NCC News contact: Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212
(cell), pjenks@ncccusa.org
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of
the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for
shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's
37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican,
Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace
churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local
congregations in communities across the nation.
NCC News contact:
Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell),
pjenks@ncccusa.org
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