{"id":4205,"date":"2011-03-28T21:22:02","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T04:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?p=4205"},"modified":"2015-03-10T10:03:27","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T17:03:27","slug":"godstuff-fasting-and-praying-for-a-moral-federal-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2011\/03\/28\/godstuff-fasting-and-praying-for-a-moral-federal-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"GODSTUFF: Fasting and Praying for a Moral Federal Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Faced with an unjust rule of Persian king who threatened the very lives of her Jewish people<\/a>, the Jewish heroine Queen Esther<\/a> called on the faithful to fast and pray for their rulers to have a change of heart.<\/p>\n

Taking their cue from Esther, a diverse coalition of religious leaders \u2014 from Bread for the World, World Vision<\/a>, MercyCorps<\/a>, Sojourners, the ONE Campaign<\/a> and the Alliance to End Hunger \u2014 are calling on Americans<\/a> of good faith to join them in fasting and prayer to protest proposed budget cuts that would jeopardize the poor, sick and hungry at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is humbling ourselves before God and saying, `I can\u2019t do this anymore and I need your help and I\u2019m not going to let go until you do something,\u201d\u2018 said former U.S. Ambassador Tony Hall, head of the Alliance to End Hunger and co-convener of the fasting effort known as Hunger Fast (www.hungerfast.org).<\/p>\n

Even before its official launch on Tuesday (March 29), at least 3,000 Sojourners activists had already signed on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m calling (God) in just like in Isaiah 58,\u201d Hall said. \u201cI\u2019m calling (God\u2019s) power in.\u201d He\u2019s done it before. Back in 1993, then-Congressman Hall undertook a water-only fast for 22 days to protest similar budget cuts to aid programs for poor and other vulnerable Americans.<\/p>\n

The proposed 2011 federal budget reductions include cuts to domestic spending of about $2.3 billion from affordable housing, $1.75 billion from job training, $1 billion from community health centers, $900 million from refugee programs and $390 million from low-income heating assistance. The budget cuts, announced in mid-February to combat a staggering $1.3 trillion federal deficit, also call for slashing foreign aid by about $5 billion, including $450 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.<\/p>\n

According to an analysis of the proposed budget cuts by the ONE Campaign, cuts to the Global Fund would mean that:<\/p>\n

\u2014 10.4 million bed nets to fight malaria will not be provided<\/p>\n

\u2014 6 million treatments for malaria will not be administered<\/p>\n

\u2014 3.7 million people will not be tested for HIV<\/p>\n

\u2014 58,286 HIV-positive<\/a>, pregnant women will not receive treatments to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV<\/p>\n

\u2014 414,000 people will not be provided their antiretroviral (ARV) medication<\/p>\n

\u2014 372,000 testing and treatments for tuberculosis will be halted<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen your remind Americans what\u2019s going on, what is really happening in the world and in their own country, they will respond and respond in a good way,\u201d Hall said in an interview. \u201cI think they really don\u2019t know. Hopefully we\u2019ll get this in front of them with this fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall, an evangelical, has two goals: a groundswell of Americans joining him in fasting and prayer to oppose cuts to domestic and foreign aid programs; and the prayer that at least a few Republican House members will \u201cbreak rank\u201d and speak out against the cuts precisely \u201cbecause they are evangelicals \u2026 because of their faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center<\/a> for the People & the Press found that evangelicals, more than any other group of Americans, are more likely to support cutting spending for foreign aid (unrelated to security interests) and programs for the unemployed.<\/p>\n

But Sojourners founder Jim Wallis doesn\u2019t believe the Pew results are an accurate reflection of what he sees among rank-and-file evangelicals \u2014 particularly younger evangelicals who he says are deeply engaged with global issues related to poverty, disease and other forms of suffering. Wallis, who plans to join Hall in a water-only fast, said that a generation or two ago, global poverty and relief weren\u2019t even on the radar as \u201cmoral issues\u201d for most American evangelicals.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s changing, said Adam Phillips, a young evangelical pastor who directs faith relations for the ONE Campaign, founded by U2 frontman Bono.<\/p>\n

\u201cA younger generation of evangelicals definitely gets this,\u201d said Phillips, who said young evangelicals see budgets, as Wallis does, as \u201cmoral documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now he\u2019s working with churches to plan \u201cLazarus Sunday\u201d events on April 11 to support continued funding for life-saving HIV\/AIDS drugs that have the ability to snatch a dying person from the jaws of death (a phenomenon known as the \u201cLazarus effect.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2002, only 50,000 Africans had access to life saving anti-retroviral treatments (ARVs). Today nearly 4 million Africans are on ARVs,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cThis is definitely a legacy of President George W. Bush<\/a>, but it is also a testament to the efforts of Rick and Kay Warren, World Vision, the National Association of Evangelicals<\/a> and many others. \u201cWe need a responsible budget that reflects our collective values,\u201d Phillips said, \u201cand our assistance to our poorest neighbors is part of that equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallis, who knows a thing or two about going up against forces with bigger budgets and more lobbyists than he has, is ready for a fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not only bad economics, but also bad religion,\u201d he wrote recently. \u201cAnd if the super-rich and their representatives in Congress persist in this fight against the poor, they will be picking a fight with all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This commentary originally appeared via Religion News Service.<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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