Why government spending matters

Brothers and sisters, I have spent a long time wrestling with how to phrase and post this blog – as the conversation in Washington, DC, has gotten more and more heated around issues of our debt and deficit, and around cutting spending and not increasing taxes to do so. Action alerts have been going out from Peace Witness Ministries asking you to call on your Senators, Representatives, and the Obama Administration from a variety of angles – from a Brethren sense of mutuality, from a sense of seeking things that make for peace, from our predisposition toward service, and from the perspective of standing with those in poverty and who hunger.

All of those perspectives are extremely important, but today I want to just say it bluntly – government spending matters. It is how we take a world and economic system that is certainly not based on scripture, and seek to give everyone as equal an opportunity as possible to establish self worth, to know themselves to be the beloved children of God that they are. Government spending matters.

I want you to consider the story of Nancy – and watch her story in the youtube video below:

Nancy’s story is just one of many. Half in Ten, a coalition of poverty and hunger related groups, has been collecting these stories to give a face to these programs. When you consider what the voice of the church should be in advocating about government programs, I want you to think about people like Nancy. They are people in our churches, whom our Brethren homes serve, and who come to soup kitchens in our churches. They are your friends and neighbors, and, brothers and sisters, they are the faces and realities of the programs that are now in danger of being cut.

There are lots of reforms we need to do to government spending. It is certainly true that we need to contain the deficit, and not allow it to spiral out of control. But the voice of the church says that what we spend our money on – where we put our wealth, is a foundational statement about who we are as a people. And right now, we are choosing to invest in wars and things that make for wars, and in tax breaks so that individuals can keep more of what they have – rather than extending the table, as we talked about at Annual Conference, and meeting the needs of the broader community around us.

Church, it is time to say no more. Call your Members of Congress today, and tell them you will not stand by while they keep playing these games with programs that are life and death to those most in need amongst us.

The Church and Climate Change

There are a lot of things happening at Annual Conference this year – a lot of important conversations for our church to be having. From human sexuality, to the war in Afghanistan, to the issue of climate change – there is a lot of important business on the slate this year.

Last night I had the opportunity to co-lead a workshop with David Radcliff of New Community Project on the Query on Climate Change that will be an item of business on the floor this afternoon. It was thrilling to have a standing room only crowd in the room, and a good and robust conversation around the variety of issues surrounding climate change – is it real? what can we do? who has financial vested interests in seeing it affirmed or denied?what is actually going on?

In the midst of all of these, the one that hit home the most for me was the question – is this something the church should even be addressing? Shouldn’t we leave this to the environmentalists and scientists?

This is why, for me, talking about climate change from a faith perspective, from a position of my faith, is as much of a no-brainer as it is. Because at its root, the human struggle with climate change isn’t actually about the science – it is a reflection of our faith. Of how we live as transformed people in this world. It is, at its root, a matter of our souls. Whether or not the science is exactly right, we are living in a way that isn’t sustainable and in relationship with the rest of God’s Creation – what climate change does is put on display for us the impacts of how we have been living. And it is up to us, as the church, to lead a moral and soul searching shift in our manner of living.

And, as was noted last night, the Church of the Brethren has a message to share here. Of simple living and community. Of another way of living – with each other and with the rest of Creation around us. To some extent, we turn to the scientists and environmentalists using their God given gifts to tell us what is going on, and in what ways we can make a difference. But it is a matter of our faith and our souls that we decide to change the way we live – and live as beings created in the image of God, who declared the entirety of this Creation good.

Seeking Peace in the Community

Our day today began with prayer – and then moved into a radical bible study. Looking at 2nd Samuel 13:1-22, we considered what this text means for seeking peace in the community? What kind of example does it lay out? What is the context in which we should read it?  What does it say to us about the violence that exists within our communities today?

Our opening plenary moved to develop that question even more – as we heard from a Palestinian Christian, a woman from the Indian Dalit community, and other human rights activists about the struggles of their communities.  What does it say about us as a church that we allow these, and other, forms of discrimination to exist within our midst?

Today, from the bible study to the plenary, was a stark reminder that if we are going to be a church that seeks a Just Peace, we must address the violence that is hidden within our own walls – violence against those we label “other”, and those who are marginalized by the systems in which we exits. As the Just Peace Handbook phrased the question, “The challenge, therefore, is: what do we, as churches, peace activists, and movements, have to offer as alternative models of community? How do we encourage and ensure our communities to be open, just, and inclusive?”

For me, it starts with being willing to preach the rape of Tamar, and listen to its implications. What about you?