By Bob Allen
Christian leaders from various denominations called on newly announced presidential candidate Hillary Clinton April 12 to produce a three-minute video telling Americans that if elected what she would do for the hungry and poor.
“We are praying for a president who will make ending hunger and poverty a top priority of his or her administration,” more than 100 religious leaders said in a letter from a coalition called the Circle of Protection. “Are you that leader?” they asked.
The Circle of Protection, composed of Christian leaders who are heads of denominations, agencies and organizations, earlier sent similar letters to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen Ted Cruz (R-Texas) when they formally announced as candidates in the 2016 Republican primary.
“As national leaders from all the major branches of Christianity, we care deeply about many issues facing our country, but ending hunger and poverty is a top priority,” the religious leaders wrote.
The former first lady, Democratic senator from New York and U.S. Secretary of State from January 2009 until February 2013, announced her intention to seek the presidency in a two-minute video posted on Facebook. Clinton, 67, who lost to Barack Obama in 2008, became the immediate frontrunner in the 2016 Democratic primary race.
The Circle of Protection organized in 2011 when debate in Congress about balancing the federal budget caused concern about programs that protect the poor. Leaders of the group met with President Obama in July 2011, and in 2013 penned a pastoral letter asking members of Congress to remember programs that alleviate hunger and poverty when considering sequestration, automatic spending cuts to both domestic and military spending put in place during a budget standoff between Congress and the White House in 2011.
If the candidates respond, the Circle of Protection plans to publicize videos among churches and the public, urging people of faith to consider their proposals to address poverty both at home and abroad. The group will not evaluate the presidential candidates’ policy positions, according to a press release, and will not endorse any candidate.
Signers of the letters to presidential candidates include Suzii Paynter, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; David Emmanuel Goatley, executive secretary-treasurer of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention; Virginia Holmstrom, executive director of American Baptist Women’s Ministries; and Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics.
“The calling to public service is a sacred vocation,” the religious leaders said in the letter. “We hold you, and all of the candidates for nomination and election, in our prayers.”
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