The nation is at a political and moral crossroads with the fate of its most vulnerable communities hanging in the balance, according to Vashti McKenzie, president and general secretary of the National Council of Churches.
McKenzie participated in a recent vigil with other faith leaders urging Congress to enact policies that protect and nurture at-risk families and immigrants. Held on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, the gathering also warned that policies and laws benefitting the rich at the expense of the poor will set the U.S. on a perilous, downward trajectory.
Vashti McKenzie
“This is a defining moment for America,” McKenzie said. “It will either be a hallelujah chorus or a living hell. We stand at a precipice gazing into an uncertain season filled with fear and despair.”
McKenzie joined the chorus of voices denouncing proposed spending plans in Congress that would provide tax cuts for the wealthy and higher military spending while slashing $4 trillion from social safety net programs, including $880 million from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, $330 million from child nutrition and education programs and $230 million from the SNAP food assistance program.
The vigil was the third in an ongoing series of weekly demonstrations sponsored by an interfaith coalition whose members include the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Sojourners, the Episcopal Church, the Interfaith Alliance and the National Council of Jewish Women.
Speakers also denounced the Trump administration’s order to close the U.S. Department of Education and its ongoing effort to separate immigrant families through widespread deportations.
“Families across this nation are struggling to hold on to the thin thread of hope, a thread that is slowly being pulled from their grasp by forces that seem relentless, indifferent, unforgiving and hard hearted,” McKenzie said. “These cuts are not mere numbers on the page. They represent the destruction of hope, the erosion of human dignity and the decimation of American families. We must stay loud, stay relentless, and stay unified.”
Leslie Copeland-Tune
Congress, meanwhile, must be reminded that investing in children is a not a luxury but a necessity, said Leslie Copeland-Tune, senior associate general secretary and advocacy director for the National Council of the Churches of Christ.
“We are here because we know that the lives and livelihoods of our children and children’s children and those of our families, our grandparents, our parents, our elders and those we care about are hanging in the balance as the administration continues with a power grab to take from the poorest and most vulnerable among us and give it to the ultra-wealthy.”
Legislators also need a refresher course in civics to reacquaint them with the fact they are charged with preventing the executive branch from wielding absolute power, she said. “We are here because we want them to act like there are three branches of government. We want them to understand that our children deserve better, our seniors deserve better, our veterans deserve better. We all deserve better than this.”
Legislators also must understand a society’s character is measured by how it treats its children, said Sandy Ovalle, senior director of campaigns and mobilizing at Sojourners.
The closures of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of Education and cuts to social services like Medicaid are clearly detrimental to children and families, she said. “The U.S. isn’t doing right by children today, and that is a shame. Our leaders are mistreating or ignoring those in the most vulnerable circumstances. Congress must intervene and refuse to accept the attacks.”
Jonah Pesner
Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, opened with a prayer that kindness would prevail in the congressional budget process so that the 42 million Americans who rely on supplemental food programs do not go hungry.
“We all assembled here today have heard the call and are committed to being a blessing to the rest of the world and most importantly to the 42 million people — and the one in five children — who are counting [on] us to be the blessing of a budget of justice and mercy and compassion,” he prayed.
The witness of compassion must also be extended to immigrants, Pesner added.
“I am a rabbi in the tradition of the people who are commanded 36 different times to love the stranger because we were enslaved in Egypt, and to love the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the poor and the most vulnerable. This interfaith multiracial array is the alternate vision of what a just, fair and equitable democracy with a budget of witness and truth and justice.”
Jeanne Lewis
Advocating for migrants, the poor and for children is to emulate the life of Christ, said Jeanné Lewis, CEO at Faith in Public Life.
“The child Jesus survived because members of his community and strangers offered their resources, their space, their time and their safety to care for him when he needed it,” she said. “One way we demonstrate our collective responsibility for our children is that we pay taxes and we entrust our elected members of Congress to steward those resources for the common good.”
Following Christ’s example should also play out on the policy level, Lewis said. “We know that instead of cutting Medicaid, it should be expanded. States should receive more federal support for health care, for newborns and mothers. Health care should be expanded in rural areas of the country because this is how we care for our children.”
Maggie Siddiqi
The actions of Congress and the White House have darkened what is usually a joyful holy month of Ramadan, said Maggie Siddiqi, a Muslim and senior fellow at Interfaith Alliance.
“This year is different as many in our communities are afraid of the draconian policies coming from this administration,” she explained. “Federal agents are showing up at our children’s schools and houses of worship, invoking fear in our children’s hearts wherever they go. Fathers and mothers are being disappeared from our midst.”
All this in addition to slandering Muslims and immigrants as terrorists and spreading hate toward transgender children, she said. “How cruel is it to demonize and incite hate against any child, particularly using the highest office of the land.”
Related articles:
Trump administration accuses Habitat for Humanity of fraud
Among Christian ministries, two opposing views of Trump’s sudden, chaotic aid cuts
To revitalize the church in America, look to the working poor | Opinion by Nathaniel Manderson