Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. - Matthew 5:9 (NRSV)

While the richest of the rich are getting tax cuts paid for in reductions in food assistance programs for seniors and other critical programs the Defense Department is getting another huge budget increase.  United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries reports:

This week the Senate is expected to wrap up debate on the FY 07 Defense appropriations bill. President Bush has proposed a $468.4 billion defense budget, an amount that exceeds defense spending during the height of the Cold War and the Vietnam War. According to a recent study by Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, DC (the Quakers), actual spending in the overall federal budget on war in FY 05 was $783 billion, and in FY 07 it will top $800 billion. This represents 42 cents for every tax dollar collected. As the nation approaches the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a tragedy which continues to reveal the tattered state of our nation's social safety net for low income people, we need a smarter military budget, not a bigger military budget. About $9 billion in cuts have been proposed for the defense budget in the Senate, including funding for some weapons systems and equipment that are either unproven or not responsive to the immediate needs of troops deployed around the world, especially troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Click here to send your senator a message opposing the Defense Department budget increase.

This morning a young woman called the church office asking for financial assistance.  The call wasn't all that unusual.  People reach out to churches all the time when they're in crisis.  Some churches have limited resources to hand out but smaller churches like mine have fewer resources.

We knew where to direct this young woman.  There are agencies that our church supports financially and with volunteers, and there are other community resources. It turned out the young woman I was talking to was a 10th grader trying to help her family find shelter.  Sadly, none of the agencies we referred her to could help.  There isn't enough funding to help everyone.  We ended our conversation when she hung up the phone crying.  I don't know where she spent the night.

The new poverty census figures came out yesterday and the numbers held steady.  Every year since President Bush took office poverty rates have increased and in the year since he promised to combat poverty in the aftermath of Katrina the best he can say is that life is not worse.  He did nothing to help anyone lift themselves out of poverty and he continues to advance an economic program that cuts from programs that could have benefited that teen-ager who asked me for help today.  Instead of help for those in poverty the president gives tax breaks to the richest of the rich in America while millions search for food and shelter.  Children walk the streets in America so that the president can reward his taskmasters with even more wealth. 

It surprises me that the president and I worship the same God and even claim the name Christian.  How could he read the Bible and walk out of worship services to campaign for economic policies that benefit the wealthiest at the expense of the least of these?  Does the president simply listen to the worlds of scripture but then dismiss them as being irrelevant to his world?  Many people do this and words from James 1:22-26 (NRSV) offer a corrective lesson the president (and the rest of us) should hear:

But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act--they will be blessed in their doing.

If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

How many orphans, widows in their distress, homeless, sick and lonely did we turn away today in America?  In a world of plenty that is a great sin against God.  God will forgive us our sins but calls on us always to be "doers of world."  Pray that the Holy Spirit softens the president's heart - and ours - so that we might do more.  No 10th grader should be trying to find shelter for her family. 

Read the comments on this post from Street Prophets   

The LORD rises to argue his case;
he stands to judge the peoples.

The LORD enters into judgement
with the elders and princes of his people:

It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

What do you mean by crushing my people,
by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord GOD of hosts.

- Isaiah 3: 13-15 (NRSV)

"The number of Americans living in poverty has risen each year Bush has been president, increasing to 37 million in 2004 from 31.6 million in 2000," reported The Washington Post this morning.  The president took notice of poverty for the first time of his tenure in the White House as poor people drowned and went hungry in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.   

Poverty forced its way to the top of President Bush's agenda in the confusing days after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans. Confronted with one of the most pressing political crises of his presidency, Bush, who in the past had faced withering criticism for speaking little about the poor, said the nation has a solemn duty to help them.

"All of us saw on television, there's . . . some deep, persistent poverty in this region," he said in a prime-time speech from New Orleans's Jackson Square, 17 days after the Aug. 29 hurricane. "That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action."

"Bush has talked little about the issue since the immediate crisis passed" and his policies before and after seem to be designed to intentionally harm those Jesus called the "least of these" in favor of economic policies that benefit the wealthiest of Americans.  This year the president opposed an increase in the minimum wage and has proposed cuts in homeless programs, children's programs and programs to feed elderly people.   

Action Alert from the United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries

Because the House leadership did not have enough votes to pass the FY 2007 budget resolution this week, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote next week on the $2.7 trillion FY07 budget reconciliation agreement.  If UCC advocates and many others are successful in convincing members of the House to increase discretionary spending above the proposed budget cap of $873 billion, some of the worst of the projected cuts in education, health care and community development programs will be avoided.  If the House keeps the budget cap intact, Labor, Health, Human Services and Education programs will once again suffer cuts in congressional appropriations in addition to the massive cuts that were forced by last year’s budget cutting agreement.

A budget plan is simply a blueprint that instructs appropriators in Congress on how much money they have to spend in the coming months on government programs.  The plan currently under consideration in the House cuts domestic “discretionary” programs by $10.3 billion in fiscal year 2007 and $167 billion over five years. The plan would also reduce entitlement programs by $5.1 billion over five years.

The House plan makes the impact of the President’s budget request even worse by failing to include his proposed funding for a 2007 shortfall in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).  Current House guidelines fail to extend continuing Medicaid health care coverage for a year for poor families after they work their way off welfare.  Hundreds of thousands of low-income families and their children should not be penalized and thrown into the ranks of the uninsured simply because they secured employment and are now off public assistance.

Click http://www.ucctakeaction.org/budget2007 to send a message to your member of Congress asking him or her to preserve important social safety net programs that protect low-income people in the FY2007 budget.

Call your Representative at (800) 459-1887 and tell him or her to preserve the social safety net!

Click http://www.ucc.org/justice/pdfs/winners_losers_07.pdf to download Justice and Witness Ministries’ excellent study guide on the 2007 federal budget designed for churches.

...just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. - Matthew 25:40 (NRSV)

If you listen to the budget spin coming out of the White House you would think that President Bush is a champion of programs designed to lift people out of homelessness. 

But the facts don't support the spin.  The president's budget proposals will in fact leave more people homeless in America - at the same time tax cuts are given to the richest Americans.

The National Coalition for the Homeless reports:

On February 6th, 2006, President Bush sent his proposed $2.77 trillion FY2007 budget to Congress.  His proposals would cut $600 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a 1.8% decrease from the FY06 appropriations; and funding for Health and Human Services (HHS) discretionary programs would decline by $1.6 billion.

While the President's proposed budget does increase funding in some areas, the Homeless Assistance Grants increased by $209 million and Housing for People with AIDS (HOPWA) saw a $14 million increase, it makes these increases by making reductions in other programs for low-income people, not by finding new resources.

HUD programs that are taking the largest reductions include the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), which would loose $736 million in funding, which is a 20% decrease over FY 2006.  Section 202, housing for the elderly, takes a 26% decrease in funding ($190 million) and Section 811, housing for people with disabilities, takes a 50% cut of $118 million.  These two program cuts would significantly reduce housing assistance for some of our country's most vulnerable populations, including families, seniors and people with disabilities.

The Department of Health and Human Services Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) is being eliminated.  The Grants for the Benefits of Homeless Individuals (GBHI) lost $5 million in funding, the Mental Health Performance Partnership saw $1 million in lost funding and the PATH program saw no increase for FY 2007.

Sojourners Magazine now has a link available for those who want to write their member of Congress a note expressing opposition to the Bush budget proposals.  Please take the time to do so.    

Related Post:  "President's New Budget Morally Bankrupt"

Related Post:  The 2007 Bush Budget: Leaving Children Behind

Related Post:  President's Budget Would Cut Food For Over 420,000 Low-Income Seniors

Related Post:  Bush 2007 Budget Rejects Christians Values Of Hope And Justice

Action Alert from United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries

The Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) budget that the President sent to Congress in early February is a shameful document that once again seeks to cut $183 billion from domestic programs and entitlements over the next five years.  The price for volunteering for military service is that the President proposes cutting veterans' benefits 13%, or $10 billion.  The cost of being elderly and poor is that housing, child care, home heating fuel support, and child nutrition programs are slated to be cut 13%, or $24 billion.  For those seeking a better life through education and work, job training and education are slated for a 13% cut, $53 billion between now and 2011.

Meanwhile, rewarding wealth continues to be the value that drives this President's budget year after year.  The savings from all of these cuts are given back, and then some, to the wealthy with $285 billion in upper-income tax cuts over the next five years.  Defense contractors are also being rewarded.  The Pentagon will receive a whopping 7% increase over last year's budget.  At $439 billion, (and the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not included in this year's budget figures) the Pentagon budget has gone up 45% in the last five years under this President.

The United Church of Christ has long stood for budget principles that prioritize human need over excessive spending on war and tax cuts for the wealthy.  For background on General Synod policy, click http://www.ucc.org/synod/resolutions/gs25-5.pdf  The legislative work of the UCC and many others limited the cuts in last year's budget (FY06) to $39 billion over five years, a large sum but not nearly as much as what the President initially proposed.

To send a message to your members of Congress, asking them to join you in declaring this budget morally bankrupt, click http://www.ucctakeaction.org/action

Related Post:  The 2007 Bush Budget: Leaving Children Behind

Related Post:  "President's Budget Would Cut Food For Over 420,000 Low-Income Seniors"

Related Post:  Bush 2007 Budget Rejects Christians Values Of Hope And Justice

This is the third post in an on-going series looking at the president's 2007 budget proposal now under consideration by Congress.

We last looked at how the president plans to cut food assistance for nearly half a million senior citizens.

The president's budget will also negatively impact children across America.  The Children's Defense Fund reports:

Four hundred thousand fewer children will receive child care assistance in 2011 than in 2005, if President Bush's Budget proposal for child care is accepted.

An estimated 19,000 children could be dropped from Head Start as a result of a funding freeze proposed by President Bush in his 2007 Budget.

Millions of children could be deprived of the health and mental health treatment they need as a result of the Medicaid cuts passed by Congress in the 2006 Budget just last (month), and now children are being asked to sacrifice even further. The resident's 2007 Budget recommends additional legislative and regulatory changes that will reduce funding in Medicaid and CHIP by $13.5 billion in five ears and increase pressure on states to reduce health care for children.

Children, including abused and neglected children, along with seniors and persons with disabilities, will all be hurt by the 30 percent cut in the Social Services Block Grant in the President's 2007 Budget. $500 million would be cut from the $1.7 billion program.

That's just the start.

Click here to download the Children's Defense Fund's analysis of the president's budget proposal. 

Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise. - Luke 3:11 (NRSV)

Last week I posted a general overview of the president's 2007 fiscal budget proposal.  As noted, the president wants to cut programs substantially for those Jesus would have termed "the least of these."

Over the course of the next few weeks I'll be noting more specifically what the president's cuts will look like.

For example, the president proposes to cut food assistance for 420,000 low-income seniors.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports:

President Bush's fiscal year 2007 budget would eliminate funding for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), terminating food assistance to 420,000 low-income seniors in an average month.

CSFP provides monthly nutritious food packages primarily to low-income seniors aged 60 and older in parts of 32 states, the District of Columbia, and two Indian reservations.  The typical food package, which is designed to supplement low-income seniors' diets with nutrient-rich foods, costs the government less than $20 per participant a month and includes items such as canned tuna fish, peanut butter, cheese, cereal, and canned fruits and vegetables.  More than a third of seniors who receive CSFP food packages, almost 150,000 people, are over age 75.

The President has proposed this cut despite U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research that found that in 2004, one in five low-income households with elderly members were "food insecure," meaning they had difficulty affording food.

For more information on hunger and America - along with ways your church can become involved with the issue - visit Bread for the World.

Read the comments on this post from Street Prophets

Everyonce and awhile I go through my e-mails and search the web for feedback regarding this site. Some of what people write is a little nutty. On the other hand, some of the e-mails are great and I learn a thing or two from people who write in.  Here is a small selection of recent e-mails:

When 1 UCC church was vandalized, you condemned conservative evangelicals for being slow to the draw in condemning that act. Well, some angry liberal who hates Southern Baptists just torched 6 of their churches in Alabama. It's your turn. How long are you gonna wait to condemn it and how many words will you use? Are you gonna condemn every single liberal religious voice out there that hesitates the least bit? Let's see how consistent you are.

- February 3, 2006

Martin Luther King was almost entirely a media-created hero. Even the idealized King would be useless against a Bin Laden, a Hitler or just anybody who's determined to be violent.

- February 9, 2006

Hi there I saw that you were encouraging Email. I want to highlight one of the founders of Evolution a man named Earnest Haeckel. He can be quoted as saying "...where faith commences, science ends...". I think it is an important quote. I'm sure glad he said it. Earnest is credited with the theory of recapitulation, the idea that we all go through the evolutionary stages as embryos, "the fish stage" may ring a bell. Haeckel likely was a brilliant man who believed that we evolved. His works on the embryonic stages we go through have been in many books. Even today the idea is still contained in some science books. During his time, his contemporaries challenged the accuracy of the drawings were. We now just take pictures; photographs do not have any opinions and are much more objective. Embryologists of today have shown that his drawings we’re wrong, this has been known for a while now. Embyos do not look like each other, especially not as Earnest depicted them. As Earnest so eloquently put it, ..."where faith commences science ends." His faith, belief in evolution, guided his drawings, his drawings are not scientific. The photos are irrefutable. I'd be happy to send you a copy of the evidence against his work in the regard to recapitulation theory. As for the rest of his work I'm sure he believed in it too. It has taken 100 years until we could photograph the evidence and it still won’t go away. That is because Evolution is not a theory, it is a hypothesis that can be loosely supported when you throw out the evidence that doesn't fit and then, find a platform that can not be challenged like the public schools and the universities. May you consider the "cleverly invented stories" that have been told and examine them, but also consider the great Christian men and women today who are scientists and find much reason to question the last 100-150 years of evolutionary indoctrination?

- February 8, 2006

Republicans have cut college funding and doubled Army enlistment bonuses to ensure only the poorest will suffer the burden of arrogant Republican foreign policies.

- February 7, 2006

I just finished listening to the interview and it sounded great. Welton, myself and the entire staff really do appreciate your work and determination to make sure religion is used properly in American life. Jon Niven Deputy Press Secretary, The Interfaith Alliance

- February 7, 2006

Good to hear you are feeling better and great to see you back on your blog. I just recently read Bono's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 2 and was wondering if you have read it yet. I know you are probably busy with your new appointment, settling in and playing with the twins. I thought I would send along the speech in case you haven't read it.

- February 5, 2006

The fact that Christians, believers in god could support abortion shows just how phony most Christians are, I guess if you're involved in a convoluted belief in an imaginary god you can justify anything. Christians worship a god that murders children....it's in the bible many times, so I guess that's ok,,,,,what a f-------- joke. Take your bible and throw it in the garbage, it's MADE UP NONSENSE, A FABRICATION OF ANCIENT STORIES MEANT TO SCARE PEOPLE INTO COMPLIANCE, HA HA HA HA ! A JOKE!

- January 28, 2005

Much to my dismay, my own congregation chose to leave the UCC this year. It was one of the oldest, largest, and most properous within the State of Illinois, and generally felt that the UCC had departed from the founding faith. Most members are conservative in religion or at least mainline and also in politics. From my travels, that appears to be the case in most UCC congregations. Within the leadership of the denomination, there seems to be less and less toleration for such positions. We really were a "community church" and mainline in orientation. The congregation continues to grow rapidly, and intolerance within the UCC was restraining it.

- December 27, 2005

I came across your site while looking for discussion on being a Christian and being pro-choice. I found this entry and its comments

http://chuckcurrie.blogs.com/chuck_currie/2004/11/can_christians_.html

particularly helpful. I'm from a fairly fundamentalist background, and I'm just now finding out that I can make my faith my own -- and not what someone tells me I should think/believe. I'm now starting to articulate where I stand, and the resources and discussion I've found through your site have been very helpful. Thanks so much! I'm bookmarking your site so I continue reading (and maybe participating in?) the discussions you generate.

- December 25, 2005

Im not sure why Archbishop Burke is the lightening rod, he is only holding fast to the unending teachings of the magisterium of our mother church. His stand is just what an archbishop is to do and I applaud him.

- December 23, 2005

What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? - Isaiah 3:15

Congress just gave final approval to the 2006 federal budget - a document that religious leaders across the country called "immoral" for slashing taxes for the wealthiest Americans and paying for the tax cuts with deep cuts in anti-poverty and health care programs.

Now the president's 2007 budget proposal is out.

The new budget contains even deeper cuts in social service spending and makes permanent tax cuts for the richest of the rich.  The "least of these" that Jesus said we must protect keep getting left behind in Bush's America.

The Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, said in advance of the budget release:

"It's as if the President wasn't listening to his own State of the Union Message.  He acknowledged that many U.S. citizens `have felt excluded by the promise of our country,' and he promised to `work for the day when all Americans are protected by justice, equal in hope, and rich in opportunity.'"

Edgar said the words "rang hollow" in light of cuts for benefits programs in the 2006 budget, and the prospect of deeper cuts in 2007.

"It was encouraging that more members of the House - Republicans and Democrats - voted against these cuts this week after voting for them in December," Edgar said.  "I hope that's an indication that an ancient message from Scripture is getting through to them: those who remove hope and opportunity from the poor are acting in opposition to God's law."

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reports:

An Administration's budget is a statement of its priorities.  This budget's priorities are clear: it features cuts in numerous domestic programs that serve low- and middle-income families alongside continued -- and substantially expanded -- tax cuts of very large size that concentrate their benefits on people high on the income scale.

Click here for their full preliminary analysis of the road the president intends to lead America down.

This will be a long and difficult year for people of faith opposed to abandoning children, the poor, sick, and elderly to the wind.  But what choice do we have?  God is calling us to a difficult task.

Related Post: The Religious Right Abandons The Poor