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“A Tremendous
Opportunity”
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Presiding Bishop Mark S.
Hanson wears his ONE bracelet while addressing the 2005
ELCA Synod Hunger Leaders Gathering in Fargo, North
Dakota. Photo courtesy of ELCA World Hunger |
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ELCA presiding bishop Mark
Hanson says that Christians have a “tremendous
opportunity” to end poverty, thanks to new goals set out
by 180 countries, including the United States:
“The Millennium Development Goals give us a tremendous
opportunity: a plan to save the lives of the 8
million people who die every year from poverty,” Hanson
said as he urged ELCA members to learn about and support
the ONE Lutheran Campaign and the Millennium Development
Goals. If the United States were to devote an additional
1 percent of its budget toward meeting the
needs of the world’s poorest, America would demonstrate
its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals.
With the broad goal of cutting extreme poverty in half
by 2015, the Millennium Development Goals include:
1. Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger
2. Achieving Universal Primary Education
3. Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women
4. Reducing Child Mortality
5. Improving Maternal Health
6. Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases
7. Ensuring Environmental Sustainability
8. Creating a Global Partnership for Development
“Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the
right of the lowly and the destitute” (Psalm 82:3).
Annie Lynsen, 26, works at the ELCA
Washington Office.
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Last December I was arrested for blocking the entrance
to one of the United States Capitol buildings with 110
others while we prayed on our knees.
What pressed me to civil
disobedience?
Congress put forth a budget
resolution that cut $50 billion out of already reduced
programs such as scholarships, foster care, Medicaid,
and others. At the same time, Congress added $60 billion
in additional tax cuts — primarily benefiting the
wealthy.
I sent emails, gave testimony to the importance
of these programs, and cheered the strong letter from
the ELCA bishops to the President and Congress that
protested the cuts and their impact. It was time
to take the next step of advocacy in partnership with
other Christians.
It is because I love both the God of justice and my
country that I took this act of advocacy on behalf of
the poor. In my experience, advocating on
behalf of others is also personally fulfilling.
There are many ways to be advocates. One can advocate
individually through voting for candidates who reflect
our concerns (voting is both a precious right and a
moral obligation), regularly communicating biblical
values to our government representatives, personally
participating in programs of justice and compassion, and
sharing information and encouraging others to
participate in advocacy.
Most advocacy, however, happens in groups. We can join
groups both locally and nationally. Groups such as Bread
for the World focus on hunger and provides important
information and action steps. The ELCA Washington Office
focuses on several issues each year and urges people to
join its Advocacy Network to be informed about the
issues and take both individual and collective steps for
action.
Finally, advocacy is sometimes messy stuff. We may
agree, for example, that people who work full-time
should be able to support their families. Where we often
disagree is how to make that happen (get people off
welfare, raise the minimum wage, support businesses so
that more jobs are available, provide income supports,
and so on). However, we should not shy away from tackling the
tough issues just because we
might disagree. Rather, we need to hear each other’s
experiences, seek out information and understanding,
discern how our faith speaks to the issue, and then move
into action.
We do not, as Christians and Lutherans, have the option
of doing nothing — of ignoring the issues of our time,
of standing on the sidelines. “You are either part of
the solution or part of the problem,” the old adage
goes. The Book of Revelation (3:15) condemns complacency
and says, “How I wish that you were either hot or cold."
I find that being part of the action for justice gives
life meaning.
Mary Nelson, PhD, 65, is the
founding president and CEO
emeritus of Bethel New Life in Chicago. She is the
daughter of a Lutheran pastor.
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This life-giving Spirit fills us with
the energy to do the work to which she has called and prepared us. She
provides us with the courage we need to face our fears and to
critically assess our action. We can love in truth and action, despite
our fears, because of the creative, redeeming, and sustaining work of
God.
The ELCA has committed itself to
supporting the ONE campaign. This campaign seeks to put an end to
extreme poverty and hunger, to combat HIV/AIDS and other illnesses, to
ensure environmental sustainability, and to promote gender equality
and empower women in our world’s developing countries, among other
things. The partners of the ONE campaign hope to move our nation’s
leaders toward designating 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget to the
concerns mentioned above.
Our church’s commitment to social and environmental justice — spurred
on by the Holy Spirit — is a call to love in truth and action.
Responding to this call may be as simple as signing the declaration
on the Web site or contributing money to the campaign. At the
same time, responding to this call may require more courage than that,
courage to examine our own need for trans-formation. The Spirit calls
us to this work of loving courageously and creating justice, not only
for the sake of those who experience poverty, illness, and other forms
of injustice, but for our own sake. We too are broken by our privilege
and our greed, and we are in need of healing. We need the gifts that
following the Spirit can bring to our lives. Exploring the call to
justice is not a matter of giving only, but giving and receiving.
Receiving the gifts of the Spirit and of our sisters and brothers “in
need” is often more difficult because, through it, we are transformed.
God already loves us and now calls us into a relationship with God
through our sisters and brothers whom we can see. Let us open our eyes
and be transformed. Amen.
Sarah Stadler-Ammon is a soon-to-be master of divinity graduate of
the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She is awaiting her first
call as a pastor in the ELCA. |
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Coffee Talk
Are you involved in
advocacy of any kind? How did you begin? How was your
life touched by that experience? Do you have other
comments to add?
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