Evangelicals Push Back On Proposed Budget Cuts

By Nicole Neroulias
Religion News Service

Balancing the federal budget at the expense of the poor would be un-Christian, evangelical leaders warned Congress on Thursday (March 3) as they work to reject proposed spending cuts to domestic and foreign aid.

"The Bible says that God has a special concern for the poor," said Ron Sider, president of the group Evangelicals for Social Action. "This is one of the central biblical teachings."

The evangelical leaders, convened by the left-leaning group Faith in Public Life, face an uphill challenge in trying to win over fellow evangelicals: a recent poll found that evangelicals are more likely than Americans overall to support cutting foreign aid while also supporting increased military spending.

While increasing numbers of evangelicals consider the budget deficit to be a moral problem -- citing biblical injunctions against debt -- Christians should consider raising taxes and cutting military spending before sacrificing aid to the poor, Sider said.

Humanitarian programs make up a tiny fraction of the federal budget -- less than 10 percent of foreign spending -- but they save millions of lives and improve America's standing in the world, said Michael Gerson, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush

"This type of aid is both a moral imperative but it's also in the interests of the United States," he said, adding that evangelical leaders have "an educational task here, to convince not just Christians but others that these commitments that we make, which are relatively inexpensive, serve our values and our interests."

Shane Claiborne, founder of the Philadelphia-based social justice group The Simple Way, called defense spending the "elephant in the room" while Congress considers cutting programs that provide anti-malaria mosquito nets for African communities.

Borrowing a line from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Claiborne said a nation that spends more on the military than anti-poverty programs is "approaching spiritual doom."

Other prominent evangelicals supporting the campaign include Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary; Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good; Messiah College President Kim Phipps, and Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, a former member of the White House faith-based advisory panel.

The Washington-based progressive Christian group Sojourners has spearheaded a similar "What Would Jesus Cut?" campaign that urges cuts in military spending while investing in programs for the needy.

Comments

[kcleung8947]

05:28 PM on 04/02/2011

Yes, Jesus will be on the side of the poor and the disadvantage people. But then again, we only practice what we want to practice in the bible. If we chose to practice every bible teachings as said in the old and new testaments, we, the USA, will be a socialist country. This is absolutely not right.

[Brian Beaudry]

11:12 AM on 03/22/2011

What about the morality of imposing these taxes in the first place? Would Jesus have forced others to pay taxes under penalty of prison? Use of force to deprive others of property is stealing. It seems a bit strange to argue about the most moral way to spend money that was stolen out of the pockets of those who worked for it.

It is unfortunate that the American church has by and large left charity to the government.

[luckyone77]

12:23 AM on 03/23/2011

Jesus actually did have a teaching about taxes. He said "render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's and unto God what is God's."

What "charity" you complaining about? Subsidies to oil companies? Bank Bailouts? Weapons Systems we don't need? How about duplicative services for warrantless wiretapping? Or was it teacher salaries you were complaining about? or health care for the poor?

[Brian Beaudry]

09:30 AM on 03/23/2011

I'm quite familiar with Jesus' teachings. It should go without saying that Caesar was the one imposing taxes in that context, not Jesus.

The charity that I think the Church should be taking responsibility for is for many of the things that government was never meant to address -- contributing money and awareness to AIDS/cancer/infectious disease research, distributing food/clothing/medicine/shelter/etc. to the poor all around the world, providing job training and assistance to those who need it, educating under-served populations, helping support the unemployed, and the list could go on.

[alterego55]

03:00 PM on 03/19/2011

I wonder if Planned Parenthood is on the list of organizations that serve the poor.

[daportes]

10:35 AM on 03/23/2011

Planned parenthood "serves" the unborn

[ingaleft]

10:33 PM on 03/10/2011

Awww, shucks, no more tithing?

[Godfearing]

07:05 PM on 03/09/2011

If the mega rich do not volunteer to have their taxes increased they will be living in their Ivory Towers fighting off the looters while the rest of us will be begging for food and living in squalid slums. If people do not think that George Bush's taxing policies for his friends got us into this mess, just wait.

[Vikingdave]

02:58 AM on 03/17/2011

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. - Napoleon.

[ztck5356]

08:15 PM on 03/08/2011

But....this is the party of "Faith, Freedom, and Family Values." Don't they already know this?

[Nomccain]

02:54 PM on 03/08/2011

If they are truly Christians, the should push back. When a party such as the right wing Republicans choose cuts to those programs that benefit the poor, elderly, infirmed, unemployed, and disabled, while they grant huge tax breaks for the rich, they should be called on the carpet for it. Moreover, the real programs where huge waste and corruption exists such as foriegn aid, the bloated military, subsidies for oil companies and wall street welfare SHOULD be the targets for this bunch of thugs. (Republicans) Jesus would certainly not be pleased with the Republican agenda so why should the so called "Christians"?

[Harriet Warnock-Graham]

12:12 PM on 03/09/2011

Jim Wallis has been pushing back more effectively than most people for YEARS. He is the face of social justice evangelicals. (Yes, they do exist)

[groland]

12:25 PM on 03/08/2011

I would ask all the Evangelicals on the right, what does Jesus say about war? How much do we spend on war and arms? Do you wish to balance the budget, guess where Jesus would start!

[Kenz300]

12:10 PM on 03/08/2011

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost us in lives and money.

Republicans are quick to go to war but don't want to be taxed to pay for it.

They want to cut programs for average Americans struggling to get by but vote
for tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.

[Louie69]

10:50 PM on 03/08/2011

Amen. It really is that simple.

#244

[iflew]

01:03 PM on 03/07/2011

Correct.
Not only is the basic purchase, and loan becoming a problem.
Some lenders are wrongfully foreclosing on properties for which they have no loans. Some have been mortgage free for years. These lenders are sloppy in their foreclosure work which is all streamlined to favor the lender. It's a much more difficult situation for the owners to get the property returned to them.

[patman77]

06:05 PM on 03/06/2011

how about taxing the churches. they are mostly politcal organizations that provide little to the poor but much to the true believers that work for or are related to them.

[me again]

06:36 PM on 03/06/2011

Agreed, they are not taxed specifically so they will stay out of politics.

[bbertaud]

11:26 AM on 03/07/2011

Excellent idea

[iskra]

02:27 PM on 03/06/2011

The day evangelicals stop supporting the Republican party based on one hot button issue of abortion at the price of all the other immoral stand the party takes, is the day they've woken up. 

[groland]

12:27 PM on 03/08/2011

Truth is the Republicans have no intention of doing anything about abortion at the national level. They have been in power long enough and have doe nothing. If they actually did something to appease the right on abortion, they would lose this as a wedge issue to inflame the base. The Pro-lifers have been played all along!

[Harriet Warnock-Graham]

12:16 PM on 03/09/2011

JIm Wallis doesn't support the Republican Party. It would be good for secular Progressives to know who their religious allies are. Jim Wallis has been leading the charge for social justice since long before a lot current Progressives were born.

[Craig2]

10:44 PM on 03/05/2011

"a recent poll found that evangelicals are more likely than Americans overall to support cutting foreign aid while also supporting increased military spending." As usual Evangelical Christians are just a bit delusional.

[LapelPinPolitics]

06:37 PM on 03/05/2011

You are preaching to the wrong group...The only language this group understand is cash in hand.

[Rocket448]

02:37 AM on 03/05/2011

There's no rational need to bring God into the social programs discussion, and it reflects badly on the politics of preparing a budget that somebody waves the God flag and plumps for programs that help those Americans who can't make it on their own. I'm astonished that these same people are all for increasing the defense budget, too. Where does God fit into that?

[dbishop76]

02:59 PM on 03/05/2011

You read this part, right "Shane Claiborne, founder of the Philadelphia-based social justice group The Simple Way, called defense spending the "elephant in the room" while Congress considers cutting programs that provide anti-malaria mosquito nets for African communities."