Churches Form Circle of Protection Around Hungry People

We got through 2011 without major cuts in national programs focused on hungry and poor people. Powerful political forces made a major push to cut these programs in the name of deficit reduction, but church leaders and faith groups rallied to form a circle of protection around hungry and poor people.

Remarkably, Congress and President Obama passed legislation in 2011 that reduced federal deficits without making deep cuts to programs that help families in need. Here's a look at what the faith community helped achieve:

Funding for domestic safety-net programs. At a time when one in five U.S. households with children struggles to put food on the table, lawmakers were considering dangerous cuts to programs that help families make ends meet. However, Congress and President Obama agreed to shield the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) from substantial cuts. Lawmakers also protected funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps).

Funding for international aid programs. The House of Representatives voted to eliminate food aid rations for 14 million of the world's neediest people and make deep cuts in programs that help African farmers produce more food. But the final legislation that passed both houses of Congress made no significant cuts to international aid programs that help save lives and reduce poverty. Due in part to the advocacy of people of faith, lawmakers actually increased funding for several vital programs--for example, funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria increased by more than 40 percent.

Unemployment insurance. Shortly before Christmas, Congress extended unemployment benefits for two additional months and did not raise payroll taxes. There are now four people seeking work for every open job, and unemployment insurance is keeping millions of families out of poverty.

Also in 2011, Congress and the president agreed on the Budget Control Act, which mandates across-the-board spending cuts of $2 trillion over 10 years. Happily, the Budget Control Act exempts some of the main programs on which hungry and poor people depend from automatic across-the-board cuts.

These achievements wouldn't have been possible without the faith community's commitment to hungry and poor people. Bread for the World members and other people of faith and conscience wrote personal letters and emails, made personal phone calls, and visited their members of Congress to ask them not to balance the budget on the backs of vulnerable people.

As Congress gets started on its 2012 work, Bread for the World is calling on people of faith and congregations across the country to expand the circle of protection. Powerful interests are mobilizing to protect programs and tax advantages that benefit them. So we will need a surge of faith-grounded advocacy to maintain funding for poverty-focused programs -- and to pass legislation to make assistance programs more efficient and effective.

Isaiah 58:10 tells us, "If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday." In today's difficult economic and political environment, the God who loves us invites us to form a circle of protection around the many people in our country and worldwide who are having trouble feeding their children.

Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation's decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, is a Lutheran minister, economist, and World Food Prize laureate.

 

Comments

[GHarry]

01:16 PM on 01/19/2012

How dare the "faith community" take credit for these political accomplishments, which were accomplished mainly by secular groups. Unfortunately, the "faith community" is responsible for so many negative political actions -- such as denying family planning services to people in America and around the world -- that its bad acts greatly overshadow its good acts, at least on the floor of Congress. For them to claim credit for the progressive political actions cited above is simply ludicrous.

[skeptic406]

10:31 AM on 01/20/2012

How little you know about the longstanding ministry of mainline Christian denominations. Lutheran Disaster Relief, among many others, are still working in the Gulf areas, long after TVs cameras are gone. Lutheran World Relief runs the largest refugee camp in the world in Dadaab under the auspices of the UN. The faith community has been working for years to urge congress and the president to protect our citizens from exploitation by the powerful.

I am curious though. Can you name the secular groups that you credit with convincing congress?

[njterry7]

01:59 AM on 01/19/2012

Churches that "get" involved in politics should pay taxes. If they want to feed the poor let them use their money and not the taxpayers. I believe in God but I see too many times, everybody wants to give as along as its somebody elses money. try and go to some of these churches and it will be "you do don't work you don't eat" and that is the right way. thats a pretty messed up paragraph but works for me

[GHarry]

01:21 PM on 01/19/2012

Your ideas are pretty messed up in general. But you're right about one thing: They should pay their fair share in taxes, and nothing in the Constitution prohibits that. The First Amendment merely prohibits "the establishment" of a religion, it doesn't weigh in on taxation. What's more, by granting lavish tax breaks to churches, the government is actually "establishing" those groups by subsidizing them -- which is expressly prohibited! Funny how powerful special interest groups can twist the words of the Constitution to enrich themselves.

[phyrro]

01:35 AM on 01/19/2012

David Beckman states: "Remarkably, Congress and President Obama passed legislation in 2011 that reduced federal deficits without making deep cuts to programs that help families in need". Obama had to fight tooth and nail against the fundementalist christian tea party republicans to get this passed. The praise is to Obama alone.

Obama/Colbert 2012.

[ScribL]

12:24 AM on 01/19/2012

What an awesome organixatio. For every negative story I read about Christians it's organizations like this that restore my faith in the Word and what it means at a practical level.

[phyrro]

01:39 AM on 01/19/2012

Had to go to wiki (which is now back on line) to look up "organixati­o". No results but it sounds like an interesting word. Am I missing something or is this just a typo.

[BurtonDesque]

10:29 PM on 01/18/2012

Churches have historically preyed on the poor. They might sometimes help the poor, but, overall, they treat them as just another source of income and followers.

[ScribL]

12:25 AM on 01/19/2012

You couldn't be more wrong but entitled to your opinion.

[phyrro]

01:50 AM on 01/19/2012

A true religion would not build monumental churches at the expense of the poor. The many churches of Europe which are truly architectural wonders were built for the supposed glory of their God who declaimed that such edifices should be built at all. They are architectural wonders that we shall (even as non believers) adore but the money should have gone to the poor and needy. We can live without those edifices as today we can live without the millions spent on megachurches and their quack religious con men.

[BurtonDesque]

03:26 AM on 01/19/2012

I'll remember that the next time I see a richly dressed shaman begging for cash from the poor.

[Cindbird]

10:18 PM on 01/18/2012

Interfaith Alliance has also been joining in with groups like Bread for the World. This movement of a Circle of Protection is an interfaith effort, not just a Christian effort. No matter what your personal faith tradition, please become part of this movement. Compassion for our neighbors is the Universal Faith.