A group of prominent evangelical Christian leaders-including heads of some of the nation's most conservative colleges and other institutions-have asked President Bush to pay more attention to poverty issues in his second term.
The group of 76 academics, activists and other leaders sent the letter to Bush Jan. 17, marking the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. It asked Bush to invest political capital in improving economic conditions for the poor in the United States and around the world.
The letter noted that overcoming poverty is as important an issue to Christian voters as are issues often cited by other evangelical leaders and media outlets as crucial to evangelicals.
“Precisely the commitment to moral values (including the sanctity of human life) that shapes all our political activity compels us to insist that as a nation we must do more to end starvation and hunger and strengthen the capacity of poor people to create wealth and care for their families,” the letter read.
It praised Bush's commitment to increasing the ability of religious charities to receive government funding, as well as his attempts to expand American support for aid to spur economic development and fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa. It also commended Bush's “moral leadership in the fight against human trafficking” and his efforts to end humanitarian crises in Sudan.
However, the leaders added, “both at home and abroad, the number of people in poverty remains unacceptably high.” Despite Bush's commitment to ending poverty and other injustices, they asserted, some of the proposals he heralded lacked funding.
“[A]dequate funds to meet these goals are not being given, and the U.S. ranks absolutely last (as a percentage of GNP) among all developed nations in its governmental assistance to overcome global poverty,” the letter said. “Our nation has fallen far short of the increases in health and development assistance that you proposed. The richest nation in history can and must grasp the opportunity to lead.”
The leaders said poverty and lack of health insurance-even for hard-working families-in the United States is morally unacceptable.
“Tragically, millions of Americans today work full time and still fall below the poverty level. The moral values that shape our lives tell us this is wrong,” the letter read.
The leaders challenged Bush to use his inaugural address or his State of the Union speech-scheduled for Feb. 2-to declare “that it is the policy of your administration to make the necessary improvements in the next four years so that all Americans who work full time responsibly will be able to escape poverty and enjoy health insurance.”
The letter's signers include several progressive evangelicals, such as Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action and Jim Wallis of Sojourners, who have been highly critical of Bush's economic policies.
But it also includes many evangelical leaders who have stayed out of politics or spoken out frequently in favor of Bush policies-such as Christianity Today editor David Neff, Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals and Salvation Army head Todd Bassett.
Several Baptist college presidents signed the letter. They were Paul Ames of Wayland Baptist University in Texas, David Black of Eastern University in Pennsylvania, Jerry Cain of Judson College in Illinois, Doug Hodo of Houston Baptist University in Texas and Pat Taylor of Southwest Baptist University in Missouri.
Associated Baptist Press