Therefore not single persons, as formerly, but entire families are now in exile because of their confession of the Word. It is a crime not to help these. – Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis (Chapter 18)

Martin Luther’s Lectures on Genesis contain some of his most compelling teachings about who the church is called to be in the world.  Reflecting on the story of Abraham, Luther stakes out his claim that the church is called to be an agent of hospitality in an often inhospitable world. It’s an account worth reflecting on today, as we commemorate with others around the globe World Refugee Day.

An “Unparalleled” Example

Luther’s teachings on hospitality come in his lecture on the 18^th chapter of Genesis, which tells the story of Abraham playing host to three visitors. As he is cooling off in the heat of the day, Abraham sees three men approaching. Immediately,

“he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground. He said, ‘My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’ And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate” (Genesis 18:2b-8).

Abraham’s hospitality to the strangers is an “unparalleled” example of hospitality for Luther, according to Leopoldo A. Sánchez M. Yet, unique as it is, for Luther, Abraham’s example is one the church is called to follow.

Luther begins by noting especially Abraham’s earnest service of the strangers and his “generous and bounteous” attention to their needs. For Luther, this arises, in part, from Abraham’s own experience as an exile, a wanderer without a stable land. Equally important, though, for Luther, this virtue of hospitality is a basic teaching Abraham takes from the “patriarchs and from the practice of the church” (which Luther extends to include the religious heritage of Abraham.) This is so basic a practice to the church as church that Luther writes,

“At all times the church has been like some refuge of the exiles and the poor.”

There is a link between Abraham’s hospitality and the reference to hospitality in the book of Hebrews, according to Luther. There, readers are reminded, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2).

This is certainly nothing new. Hospitality is one of the most basic ethical practices of the people of God throughout scripture. In fact, Ezekiel points to inhospitality as the sin that brought down Sodom: “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy” (Ezekiel 16:49), a verse Luther cites in his lecture here.

Hospitable Treatment of “All Guests”

Luther’s interpretation of Abraham makes clear that hospitality is primarily extended properly to other people of faith, people in the “in-group” of one’s neighbors or what Luther calls “exiles..because of their confession of the word.” Here, he means Christians forced to leave their homelands because of religious persecution. Had the visitors to Abraham not been among these, Abraham would have cared for them “but he would not have fallen down to the earth in accordance with brotherly love. For he knows that God dwells in the brethren and fellow believers, who are true temples of God, and not in the enemies of the faith or in those who have no knowledge of the true religion.”

That said, there is no reason to limit hospitality only to fellow believers, or to draw firm lines between who is worthy of “refuge” and who isn’t. “Even if they had been enemies,” Luther writes, Abraham “would not have let them go but would have refreshed them first in accordance with love.” He goes on to say:

“I am not displeased with the opinion of those who say that Abraham learned from instances that had happened both to him and to his ancestors, and that he experienced rather often that angels, coming in the form of human beings, enjoyed the hospitality of human beings, as we shall hear later about Lot in Sodom (Gen. 19:1 ff.). Because of this experience they treated all guests rather respectfully and hoped for occasions on which they themselves would associate with angels.”

For a theologian who was well-known for his displeasure, even this modest allowance is worth noting.

More pointedly, Luther goes on to say:

“Indeed, we should be generous not only toward the brethren and such as are exiled because of their confession but also toward those who are strangers in the state, provided that they are not manifestly evil…Even though he is not suffering because of the Word but is in distress in other respects, he should not be disregarded by us.”

Interestingly, Luther seems also to enjoin public officials and other citizens beyond the church to extend this same sort of protection and assistance, praising Elector John Frederick’s approach to exiles:

“By God’s grace the wretched exiles now have a place under our most illustrious Prince. Here they can flee for refuge, and here they are safe. But I am afraid that someone else will come—someone who does not know Joseph (Ex. 1:8); and I fear that this will happen because of the excessive cruelty, inhospitality, and greed of human beings. The nobles, the burghers, and the peasants do not help the churches with a single obol to be able to be generous toward exiles.”

Without reading too much into this, it appears that Luther believes that hospitality is not private Christian charity but a public virtue for the community and state, inasmuch as the latter creates the opportunity for the church to be of service.

A Realistic Assessment

Luther isn’t idealistic, though. He knows that there are those “exiles” who may take advantage of hospitality for their own greedy or malicious purposes. But here, we have to remember that Luther is not a consequentialist; the morality of an action is in its practice, not in the good or bad consequence that it brings about. Hospitality is a virtue, a good in itself. Drawing on Jesus’ willingness to heal the ten lepers, despite knowing that most would not show him gratitude, Luther commends the practice of hospitality in spite of the risks:

“If we are deceived now and then, well and good. In spite of this our good will is demonstrated to God, and the kind act which is lost on an evil and ungrateful person is not lost on Christ, in whose name we are generous. Hence just as we should not intentionally and knowingly support the idleness of slothful people, so, when we have been deceived, we should not give up this eagerness to do good to others.”

Why should the church practice hospitality? Not because every stranger is an “angel” in disguise, but because that is what the church does in the name of Christ.

At a time when more than 68 million people around the world are either refugees or internally displaced because of violence or persecution, Luther’s call to practice earnest hospitality is as important as ever. While we can’t risk drawing too simple of a line between his time and ours, we also can’t risk losing sight of a virtue so central to what makes us church.

This is one of the reasons ELCA World Hunger continues to support projects that accompany refugees, migrants, and others on the move. The practice of hospitality is not merely a command that Lutherans are called to follow but rather, as Luther himself highlights, part of heritage as people of faith and as exiles ourselves. And who knows, maybe by so doing, we will entertain angels. But even if we don’t, we can still take comfort in the fact that the church will be what it is called to be: “like some refuge of the exiles and the poor.”

 

For more on Lutherans and refugees, see this earlier post.

To support refugees and other neighbors seeking refuge in the United States, join the efforts of ELCA Advocacy through this important advocacy action in honor of World Refugee Day.

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D., is the program director of hunger education for ELCA World Hunger.

 

 

St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran Church’s Lunchtime Ministry offers a warm meal, hospitality and community to neighbors in Hoboken, New Jersey. This important work is supported in part by a Domestic Hunger Grant from ELCA World Hunger. Stanley Enzweiler is the Program Manager of St. Matthew Trinity’s Lunchtime Ministry and has worked with the ministry since 2016. Below, he shares more about what this ministry means to the people of Hoboken. To apply for a Domestic Hunger Grant to support your ministry, visit ELCA.org/DomesticHungerGrants.

Everyone’s life, at some point, takes an unexpected body blow. An accident, an addiction, the loss of a job or family member. These forces come out of nowhere, and for a while, it seems like the world is against you. However, eventually someone throws you a lifeline—a good lawyer shows up, a friend makes a job offer, or time spent in the stability of everyday life heals that wound.

 

Lots of people who have come back from having their feet kicked out from under them believe that those in the worst shape—people who are homeless or living in poverty—are either lazy or helpless. “I helped myself, so why can’t you?” moralizes one person, while another shakes their head, saying, “I’ve been so fortunate, and all these poor people are just down on their luck. No one actually wants to be homeless.”

As anyone who has worked in a social service will tell you, both perspectives take it too far.  Many people in poverty have gotten the wind knocked out of them, but, unlike those in more fortunate situations, they haven’t had lifelines thrown their way. They often don’t have a stable job to begin with, or their family and friends are unable to give them a loan or a place to stay.  On the other hand, many people have simply rejected or misused the lifelines thrown to them.  And yes, some people do want to be homeless.

What I love about St. Matthew Trinity Lunchtime Ministry, a soup kitchen and drop-in center operating out of St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, is that we don’t care about that stuff. Of the 65 or so people we serve every day, some are looking for work, some are waiting on their benefits to come in, some are about to lose their housing, and some enjoy living on the streets. But we do not screen our guests based on why they are in need. We don’t ask for your fingerprints or your ID or your immigration status. Our only requirement is respect for the people and space around you. We’ll give you a warm meal, a fresh pair of socks, and a listening ear no matter what you did last year or last night. Whatever your story is, we will welcome you.

And here’s the really amazing thing. Even if you break the rules at Lunchtime Ministry and have to leave our community for a few days, we will always welcome you back. Everyone messes up a time or two, but no one is beyond forgiveness. We are one lifeline that never goes away.

Len (pictured at left), one of our longtime guests, was generous enough to share his story with us. Born in Jersey City in 1959, he attended technical school in Texas before getting deployed to California to work as a forklift driver for the U.S. Air Force. After his honorable discharge, he stayed in California until his father died, and he returned to New Jersey to take care of his mother. She died in 2011, leaving him with nowhere to go. Although he stayed at other county shelters, a few bad decisions got him kicked out of these for life.

Len came to Lunchtime Ministry as a last resort. Although we are not an overnight shelter, he is able to get a few hours of sleep on our benches or floor during our open hours. Like many of our guests, he helps out when needed by cleaning tables, taking out the garbage and posting event flyers. He also attends church services, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and Bible study. Most of all, he is known for encouraging our volunteers with one-liners such as “This is the best food in town…and I’m not just talking about the prices!”

Like many social services, we are a community effort.  We welcome volunteers from all walks of life and enjoy partnerships with numerous other social services. Our financial support comes from various sources, including ELCA World Hunger’s Domestic Hunger Grant, whose recent gift toward our food and supply costs will assist us in continuing to dish out delicious and filling meals every day.

It’s easy to list the things that make Lunchtime Ministry unique—the food donations from restaurants as diverse as Qdoba Mexican Grill and Schnackenberg’s Luncheonette, the free haircuts on Mondays, the cardboard barn in which we collect spare change for ELCA World Hunger, the “billritos” that our chef Bill makes from scratch on Wednesdays, the guitar music half an hour before we close. But when we’re asked why our program is necessary to Hoboken, there’s only one answer: respect. For many people in town, we are the one place where they can spend a peaceful morning, the one place where they have a forgiving community, the one place where they can go when they have burned all their other bridges.  In Len’s words:

“A little respect goes a long way.  A lot of respect could be eternal.”

Today’s post is by James Boline, pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Santa Monica, California, a Reconciling-in-Christ congregation of the Southwest CA Synod.

Summer is upon us. Even though we won’t reach the season’s solstice until the 21^stof June, as we flipped the page in Sundays and Seasons after the Day of Pentecost, we arrived at the section marked “Summer” starting with Holy Trinity Sunday (aka Memorial Day Weekend this year). And with that turn-of-page and turn-of-month, school’s almost out, graduates are commencing, LGBTQ Pride season revs up, “June is busting out all over,” perhaps you find yourself yearning for a “leaner liturgy” in these months of travel and transition.

At St. Paul’s in Santa Monica where it is perpetual summer, we have the luxury of taking our time in worship with a 10:00 service and a year-round outdoor coffee hour which follows. The congregation rarely murmurs (much) about services which extend 15–20 minutes beyond the one-hour mark during the school year. Thus, every summer my colleague Cantor Barbara Hoffman and I try our best to shore things up a bit in order to give our saintly sinners/sinful saints at St. Paul’s a summery break.

We start with an abbreviated/streamlined gathering rite at the font, which at St. Paul’s is located in the very heart and center of the sanctuary. For us, this summer rite is often a brief seasonal Kyrie-infused confession found in a resource called Prayers for an Inclusive Church, by Steven Shakespeare (Church Publishing, New York, 2009). Occasionally, albeit rarely, we have gathered simply with a hymn, followed by the greeting and prayer of the day. One could also consider using a responsive reading of the day’s psalm here as well, letting the service flow quickly to the “Word” section.

As we are encountered by all the readings during the service of the Word, we use “Lord, Let My Life Be Good Soil“ (ELW #512) for the gospel acclamation all summer to accentuate the growing season of ordinary time. I have written a harvest stanza to which we segue in the autumn: “Lord, Let My Life Bear Good Fruit.” With all my heart, soul, and strength, I do try and keep the summer proclamation as brief as I can, with 5–7 minutes being the goal but 8–10 (or 12, deep sigh) usually being the outcome

We have chosen to omit the Creed during the summer months, so following the hymn of the day we move immediately to the prayers and the sharing of the peace. With great delight, our assisting ministers have begun to write prayers of their own instead of or in addition to the pre-printed intercessions, and our people willingly respond when asked, “For what else shall the people of God pray?” Parish announcements follow the peace and are frequently too long, but always convey the warm welcome and hallowed hospitality of the St. Paul’s community. It’s a constant challenge to keep them — along with the homily — on the shorter side.

A spoken Eucharist can set apart the summer season and keep things moving along. Distribution of communion is continuous at St. Paul’s, having phased-out kneeling at the rail years ago. In summer, we use “Calm to the Waves”(ELW #794), “Take, O Take Me As I Am” (#814), “Jesus, We are Gathered” (#529)”and other short, repetitive songs/canticles during distribution to get folks out of the hymnal a bit as they commune. (A helpful list of such repetitive songs can be found in The Sunday Assembly (Augsburg Fortress, 2008, p. 221).

All things considered, summer flies by all-too-quickly and maybe worship oughtn’t parallel that notion.  In the final analysis, a few extra minutes of basking in the beauty of holiness and soaking up the Sonlight may well bring a welcome Gospel infusion to our ordinary, mid-Pentecost lives. However you may lean into summer, a leaner liturgy might serve you and your community well for these illusive weeks.

Fabric squares for Ordinary Time by Jeanette Paulson, Adorn This House, Duluth MN

Fabric on processional cross from Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania

 

 

By John Johnson,Program Director for Domestic Policy

 

Not everything is broken in Washington DC. Last Friday, Senate leaders released their long-awaited version of the farm bill and there is good news for farmers, hungry people, people of faith and frankly the whole country. The Senate’s version of the farm bill renewal is a good bill that addresses many ELCA priorities by maintaining strong support for anti-hunger programs.  It is a model of how legislation in Washington with bi-partisan leadership ought to move in Congress.

Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)—the chair and ranking member respectively of the Senate Agriculture Committee—are fulfilling their early commitment to work together on the farm bill. Their press-release statements quote each other positively, a relief in this fiercely partisan climate. A bill that affects every person and every community in the United States and beyond deserves no less.

Hunger advocates, farmers, environmentalists, international aid stakeholders, businesses and law makers now begin pouring over the 1000-page bill in preparation for a planned “mark-up” of the bill on June 13. At this time committee members will amend and tweak the legislation before voting to move it to the Senate floor. That’s the easy part. What lies ahead gets complicated very quickly.

The House bill (H.R. 2) contains language that would restructure the program in ways that would increase food insecurity. The Senate bill contrasts starkly with the House version by making technological investments in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) and making it easier for states to manage the complex requirements for work and job training while receiving benefits. It also includes restored funding for conservation programs, maintains our commitment to international food aid, includes funding for research and development and protects the farm “safety net.”

The House bill passed out of the House Agriculture Committee on a party-line vote with no cooperation between Democrats and Republicans last month. It failed on the floor to get enough support to pass out of the House and was dramatically pulled and tabled. It is expected to return to the House floor around June 22. That bill’s fate is uncertain, and it is unknown now if leaders in the House will be able to muster the votes needed to send it to a conference with the Senate.

The Senate draft now puts pressure on the House, but as of this writing, several scenarios exist.  Ideally, both chambers should pass their respective bills, meet in conference to iron out differences, vote again on the compromise of the two versions, and send it to the President to sign into law. It all must happen before the current farm bill expires at the end of September. If the School House Rock episode of, “I’m Just A Bill” comes to mind, that’s the way the legislative process is supposed work.

The differences in the bill, however, could become a mountain too steep to climb for some members. If managed poorly, ideological gridlock could create a stalemate in both chambers as the deadline looms closer and stakeholders become more impatient. If the deadline is not met, it’s very likely that lawmakers could toss up their hands and let the outcome of the 2018 mid-term elections drive what happens in a lame-duck session after the November 6 elections. This outcome leaves farmers in the lurch and states with more uncertainty that neither can afford. While unlikely, some have floated the idea of a short-term extension, but this also creates uncertainty and chaos.

As Lutherans, we are reminded of the holy commitment we have to each other in our common life when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” As we find in the Large Catechism, “When you say and ask for daily bread, you ask for everything that is necessary in order to have and enjoy daily bread and, on the contrary, against everything that interferes with enjoying it. You must therefore expand and extend your thoughts to include not just the oven or the flour bin, but also the broad fields and the whole land that produce and provide our daily bread and all kinds of sustenance for us.”

Now Lutherans need to get to work. We need to call our lawmakers at 202-224-3121 with a simple message: work together, do no harm, don’t put farmers and hungry people in peril and do it sooner than later. Our voices will be critical in the coming weeks and they make a difference. Time and again when we lift our voices in the thoughtful ways that Lutherans approach issues like the farm bill, we become a catalyst that lawmakers can’t ignore. It is time do that Gospel work of advocacy now more than ever.

Interested advocates can follow the Senate’s hearing on the farm bill on Wednesday, June 13 starting at 9:30 a.m. EST by clicking on this link.

On Monday, April 30, 2018, I was asked to accompany Bayron, a man seeking asylum in the US, to his Immigration Court hearing at the Rodino Federal Building, Newark, NJ. Bayron came to the US in 2016 across the Mexico/US border in Texas on foot with a toddler, fleeing violence in Honduras, widely known as one of the homes of the infamous gang, MS-13.  The menace of MS-13 is regularly invoked as a warrant to deport not just gang members, but any undocumented immigrant.  Bayron has no criminal record, yet he is but one of the hundreds of thousands of deportees that, largely based on public discourse about MS-13, have been rounded up by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Before entering the federal building, we prayed.  Once inside the guard announced, “It’s time to play airport.”  Of course, TSA agents do not carry weapons or wear body armor. By this, they meant that shoes and jackets have to come off, belts, watches, and cell phones need to be deposited into a plastic basket which will be x-rayed, and pockets needed to be emptied.  Then you proceed through a metal detector only to be met by another armed guard on the other side who greets you with a pat down.  Then you put your shoes and other clothing items back on in a chair flanked by two armed guards. Granted, the guards were jovial, but as kind as their intent could have been, it did not outweigh the fire power, controls, and “official” nature of this encounter.

Bayron was shaken up.  He didn’t know if he would be deported, given an ankle monitor, or asked to come back in a week only to face the same terrors all over again.  The building, what and who it represents, is terrifying.  There is no way around that.

After clearing the check-in, and some more prayers, we proceeded to the elevator at the back of the foyer and ascended into the center of a building that some say is the hall of heroes and others the belly of the beast.  Upon reaching the correct floor, a Spanish speaking guard escorted us to the waiting area and asked that we turn our cell phones off in his presence because electronic device use is prohibited in this area.  Upon entering the waiting area, its casino-esque décor was apparent – there were no windows in the room.  And, while there were no slot machines, the whole affair felt more like a game of chance with people’s lives hanging in the balance rather than a judicial affair with lady justice’s scales shaping the outcomes of the proceedings.  This room, absent cell phones, computers, visitors, windows, and even attorneys is a little black box.  It is meant to be as invisible as the population that it serves.  You can’t care about what happens there if you can’t go there, see there, or be there.  Its lack of transparency to the public is essentially due to the same reason a person gets “draped” during surgery:  You don’t want to see it, because if you did, you probably wouldn’t go through with the procedure.

Most of the people in the room were brown or black.  There were a few babies there with their parents.  The youngest baby, in what I think was her father’s arms, was crying and the parents were attempting to sooth the child.  Were the baby’s tears the only thing preventing her parents from crying?

The anxiety in the room was palpable.  Will I have to leave my children behind?  My partner? Family? – today?  These were the questions on people’s faces amidst the somber quiet of insecurity and perhaps terror. In an otherwise starkly adorned waiting area, two portraits gazed upon those who had been caught up in ICE’s dragnet.  The official presidential portrait of Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions stared smilingly back at those whose heads hung low.  While President Trump’s Deportation and Removal totals are not yet complied, Presidents’ past have all increasingly ramped up deportations.  President Obama – 3,805,552 deportations.  President George W. Bush – 10,328,850.  President Clinton – 12,290,905.  President George H.W. Bush – 4,161,683.  President Reagan – 8,276,853.  Were we, as Christians, to take these staggering totals as seriously as we take Jesus’ words from Matthew 25:40, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these…you did it to me,” we might be moved to affix these deportation totals to presidential portraits with their deportation tallies placed at the bottom of the photo like the ID# at the bottom of a mugshot.

While the details of this affair are horrifying, they pale in comparison to the circumstances asylees are running from.  That is, it is preferable to endure the horror of being rounded up like an animal in the US than suffer violence back home.

By the grace of God, we were able to procure Bayron an attorney who happened to have a case that same day, at the same time, in the same building.  The attorney, from Catholic Charities, whisked us into a small conference room where he rifled through Bayron’s paperwork and attempted to speak Spanish, which he wasn’t fluent in.  After many failed attempts at communication, a colleague called a friend who spoke Spanish who then proceeded to translate the conversation over the phone.  The guards can speak Spanish, but the attorneys can’t?

The attorney was confounded by Bayron’s disjointed paperwork; he packed in a hurry.  Somewhat flabbergasted and pressed for time, he turned to our group and asked, “How long have you know Bayron?”  We said, “About an hour and a half.”

The attorney sort of chuckled to himself and, watching the clock, pressed on with his questions and sorting.  We knew Bayron for about an hour and a half.  In a roundabout dash of phone calls through networks of colleagues three clergy ended up showing up to accompany Bayron.  That is more than I thought were going to be there. And, when you honestly think about it, considering the 215,000 deportations in 2017, the staggering number of people who need assistance is debilitating.  What can any individual do in the face of so much need?

I get it. And, honestly, that is why I wrote this piece.  I don’t know that I can make a difference on my own. I can’t.  But if enough people know what is going on, then maybe We can.  Every day people are denied due process in little black boxes like this one in Newark, NJ.  Yet, Bayron got a one year stay of deportation.  This is a provisional win.  But, without the attorney from Catholic Charities, the massive networks of activists, and a few willing clergy, Bayron may have been deported that day.  I can’t say that I did it, or that any one thing prevented him from being deported, but what I can say is this:  Bayron knew someone and that someone knew other people who would fight for him to stay.  I am writing this to tell you that that someone can be you.  And, in such a xenophobic context, victory is not always halting a deportation.  Sometimes victory, if we will have any at all, could simply be saying no as loud as you can with as many people as possible.

Bio

Carmine Pernini is the pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Rahway, NJ, a member of the NJ Synod’s Anti-Racism Team, a Coordinator for the Union County Interfaith Coordinating Council, a member of Faith in NJ’s Clergy Caucus, and on the Steering Committee of the NJ Clergy Coalition for Justice.  He is married to Rev. Kathryn Irwin, of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Nutley, NJ, and they have three children and one on the way. 

 

 

Each summer, the churchwide organization of the ELCA hosts interns for ten weeks. Interns help the ministries of the ELCA with a variety of projects and learn more about working within the church along the way. This year, ELCA World Hunger is happy to welcome Jasmine Bolden, Hannah Norem and Petra Ricekrtsen to the team!

Jasmine Bolden, Hunger Education Intern

Hello! My name is Jasmine Bolden, and I will be the ELCA World Hunger intern for hunger education this summer! Originally from the Eastside of St. Paul, Minnesota, I was exposed to the injustices of the world at a very young age, which helped push me in the direction of the Lutheran church, as well as piquing my interest in social justice. Recently, I graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., with a degree in Social Studies Education. As requirements for receiving my Bachelors of Arts degree, I was able to not only take courses on what has led and continues to lead to social injustices, but I was also able to work hands-on with those in my community who have experienced marginalization and exclusion.

I have participated in multiple practicums throughout the Twin Cities Area and volunteered at the schools near St. Olaf. One opportunity that has greatly impacted me and helped lead me to my position here at the ELCA, however, was Breakthrough Twin Cities. At Breakthrough, I was able to teach English to a group of underprivileged and under-resourced middle school students within the Twin Cities area for the summers of 2016 and 2017. As a teaching fellow, I learned much about myself and those in the world around me, and through listening to my students, I saw how education is so much more than school.  I was able to realize more deeply the inequities present not only near me but throughout the world, while I was also able to see hope for the future.

As I continue to grow throughout this summer with the ELCA, I look forward to taking what I learn and implementing it as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Thailand this Fall. I know that this summer the ELCA is where I am supposed to be, and I look forward to growing and learning with those around me and those within the community.

Hannah Norem, Fundraising Intern

My name is Hannah Norem, and I am honored to be the ELCA World Hunger intern for fundraising this summer. A lifelong member of Messiah Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas, I was born and raised in Houston and just graduated from Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with a degree in government/international affairs, religion and French. After this internship, I will be going to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to attend Wake Forest University in a 5-year joint degree program between the School of Divinity and the School of Law with the end goal of earning a Master’s in Divinity (MDiv) and Juris Doctor (JD).

I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with the ELCA World Hunger team because I have always been interested in working at the intersection of religion and justice. Advocating alongside neighbors experiencing marginalization because of my deeply rooted faith is a skill I have strengthened in college, so advancing the initiatives that ELCA World Hunger has put forth to serve others is something I am interested in. A special part of this internship that I am thrilled about is the ability to spread the message of ELCA World Hunger at the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering. Since my middle-school and high school years as a day camp counselor at my home church, I have loved working with young people, and to be able to go to my hometown and work with young people is a unique opportunity that I am blessed with this summer.

When not at work, I enjoy reading a good book, trying out local coffee shops, and attempting to finish the “easy” sudoku puzzle in under a minute (with varying degrees of success). I am excited to bolster the mission of ELCA World Hunger until all are fed!

Petra Rickertsen, Network Engagement Intern

Grateful for the opportunities which led me to the ELCA, I am elated to serve with ELCA World Hunger as the network engagement intern this summer! Attending California Lutheran University and serving our Southwest California Synod Hunger Team have been great outlets for my desire to accompany people in their mission to live out their purpose. Friends and co-workers know me to be working on several projects at once, whether it be initiating a hunger-focused project with Cal Lutheran’s Lord of Life Student Ministries, participating in an Interfaith Allies gathering, or helping a friend with a filming project. But they also know I’m never too busy to be found on a camping trip with good buddies. I also intern with a fitness and education-based nonprofit local to Thousand Oaks, California, called Fit 4 The Cause  as Advancement Intern, helping them fulfill their mission of making healthy lifestyles an option for people who would like some extra support in their fitness endeavors and who hail from low-income backgrounds.

In my breathing and being time, I will often pull out my guitar, pop open a book, dance around a park, or hang in my hammock, generally milking as much of the California sunshine that I can. I spent last fall continuing my Business Administration, Management and Theology and Christian Leadership studies in Paris. There, I also traveled to both experience new settings and visit distant relatives with new friends. I look forward to the coming Fall semester where I will be blessed to learn from the people of Europe again, this time through Cal Lutheran’s traveling Oxford program. Thereafter, I anticipate graduating from the university next May.

After five summers of helping make camp an open, loving environment for youth through Lutheran Retreats, Camps, and Conferences, I feel more prepared than ever to learn how the ELCA does the same in God’s great world. Thank you for taking the time to get to know me, and have a lovely day!

 

By The Rev. Dr. Clint Schnekloth of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church  in Fayetteville, Arkansas 

 

Prescott, Helena, Conway, Yellville, Ponca, Bull Shoals, Benton, Springdale, Beebe, Monticello, Little Rock, and Fayetteville.

That’s just a few of the communities represented this weekend at the Arkansas Citizens First Congress (CFC) Legislative Convention. This convention gathers representatives from dozens of organizations across the state. It is intentionally racially and economically diverse, and centers the progressive Southern voice.

The Congress follows a very democratic process. Organizations participate in caucuses and vote up issues they believe CFC should advocate for at the state level. Once the priorities are selected, the whole organization votes, and then those become the priorities staff members advocate for at the state house during the next legislative session.

A researcher with the Institute for Southern Studies is interviewing here all weekend, because the Institute, among many others, sees the new Southern progressive community exposing injustice, strengthening democracy and building community for change in the South.

This isn’t necessarily the story the rest of the country tells about the South, but it is our story. This is the new South, and the South you never knew, but should have. There are emerging populations in our state, and all across the South, who are strengthening the progressive perspective. For example, 40,000 Latino youth will turn 18 this year in Arkansas, and we hope they will vote.

The Arkansas Poor People’s Campaign (APPC) is another organization, pursuing a shorter-term and focused campaign strategy to effect change in many of the directions CFC pursues as well. Where CFC takes the long and lobbying approach, the APPC is attempting to re-center the moral narrative in our nation, lifting up the voices of the poor and especially the voices of those affected by racism, poverty, militarism and ecological degradation.

Through all of this, one slowly emerging voice is that of the progressive faith community. Because the noise of voices of faith on the right has been so very loud, it seems Southern progressive people of faith have had to walk slowly, disambiguating themselves from misunderstandings and misuses of the faith in order to clearly proclaim the way they see their progressive moral commitments as aligned with the way of Jesus.

But it is happening, more and more, and it is beautiful. I believe we are seeing through the Poor People’s Campaign, and many other initiatives in our state and in the South, what the PPC is calling “a new unsettling force.” A different story is going to be told about the South than has been told. It’s a new civic imagination, a world in which many women are elected to public office, young Latinos increasingly gain voice and votes, rural and urban progressives work across the geographical lines that frequently divide us, and we all grow spirituality as our increasing awareness of intersectionality contributes not to fracture or division, but maturity and moral vision.

But it is happening, more and more, and it is beautiful. I believe we are seeing through the Poor People’s Campaign, and many other initiatives in our state and in the South, what the PPC is calling “a new unsettling force.” A different story is going to be told about the South than has been told. It’s a new civic imagination, a world in which many women are elected to public office, young Latinos increasingly gain voice and votes, rural and urban progressives work across the geographical lines that frequently divide us, and we all grow spirituality as our increasing awareness of intersectionality contributes not to fracture or division, but maturity and moral vision.

 

 

ELCA Advocacy Office, Washington, D.C.

The Rev. Amy Reumann, director                                                              ELCA.org/advocacy

June 21, PRAY.FAST.ACT.: On Thursday, June 21, we join with The Episcopal Church in our monthly commitment to #PrayFastAct. This month our focus is on disaster preparedness. The United States and its territories are facing extreme weather patterns more frequently. In the past year, fires, floods and hurricanes have displaced millions of people, destroyed homes and other structures and led to deaths. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands continues to face many challenges in the wake of Hurricane Maria, including infrastructure damage, a plummeting economy, loss of jobs, closure of schools, cuts in peoples’ pensions and other factors that have contributed to a mental health crisis. ELCA congregations and organizations are among many groups that work tirelessly to help Americans when disaster strikes, but their efforts are often hampered by bureaucracy, which delays getting valuable assistance to those who most need it. The federal government must work to streamline the process for getting aid to those who need it and invest in disaster preparedness to minimize the effects of emergencies and major disasters.

HUMAN RIGHTS: The House of Representatives has passed the National Defense Authorization Act. The bill includes an amendment that imposes new financial and visa sanctions on Myanmar military officials. The amendment also limits U.S. military-to-military assistance to the Myanmar military until it makes progress on human rights and perpetrators of the current crisis are held accountable.

MIGRATION AND AMMPARO: A Health and Human Services (HHS) official testified that the department does not know the whereabouts of approximately 1,400 children who had been in their custody. The children were released to sponsors and the HHS could not contact them in follow-up calls. HHS has the child-welfare expertise to screen children for trafficking. It is important to provide the department the resources needed to follow up with sponsors. Interested advocates can learn more by reading “Explaining policies separating children and families” on the ELCA Advocacy blog.

CREATION CARE: ELCA Advocacy participated in the international meeting to prepare for the December U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP24). This meeting, held in Bonn, Germany, May 1-May 10 was designed to produce a strong foundation for the development of a robust rulebook for implementation of the Paris Agreement at COP24. An additional meeting to build on this work will be held in September in Bangkok. Critical issues discussed included climate finance and raising the commitments of parties to the Paris Agreement in reducing greenhouse gases to minimize the global temperature increase to less than two degrees Celsius. The first Talanoa Dialogue was successfully held at this meeting. The dialogue is a means of facilitating the negotiations and involves sharing ideas, skills and experiences through storytelling in which participants build trust and advance knowledge through empathy and understanding. Interested advocates can learn more about the Bonn meeting and the Talanoa Dialogue process on the ELCA Advocacy blog.

ELCA Advocacy and The Lutheran World Federation are organizing concurrent Talanoa Dialogue sessions to be held as an affiliate event during the Global Climate Action Summit in September in California. Session 1 covers just transition (transitioning to energy sources derived from renewable energy in a manner that creates resilient communities while leaving no one behind). Session 2 addresses the livelihood of people dealing with disasters caused by the increased intensity and frequency of severe weather patterns and storms. Invited participants include representatives from vulnerable regions in the world that are most endangered by climate change.

 

Lutheran Office for World Community, United Nations, New York, N.Y.

Dennis Frado, director

CHALLENGES FACING MIGRANTS: Marking the start of the May negotiations toward a U.N. Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the ELCA and The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) offered an event on May 14, “Grassroots Perspectives on Migrants’ Lived Realities in Different Contexts.” The presenters discussed the challenges migrants face during their journey, as well as when they return to their home countries.

Silvia Raquec Cum (photo, third from right) is program director of Asociación Pop No’j (“weaving knowledge and wisdom” in the Mayan K’iche’ language), a non-profit Guatemalan organization. She reported on the causes of migration from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and the politics of detention and deportation. Asociación Pop No’j works on the return and reintegration of child and adolescent migrants back to their communities of origin.

Katrine Ringhus (far right), advocacy director with LWF–World Service in Colombia, reported on work on the nation’s border with Venezuela and on the Pacific coast. LWF offers risk management and human rights assistance to people contending with illegal access routes, inadequate shelter, malnutrition, endemic disease, trafficking, extortion and violence.

Rados Djurović (second from left) is executive director of the Asylum Protection Center in Belgrade, Serbia, a non-profit serving asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. He outlined the legal, psychological and integration and inclusion support offered to migrants while advocating for improving the system and fighting prejudice and xenophobia.

The panel was made possible by a grant from ELCA Global Mission. Also participating were the Rev. Cindy Halmarson (far left), ELCA Global Mission area director for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa;  and Alaide Vilchis Ibarra (second from the right), ELCA Advocacy program director for migration policy, who also provided interpretation. The compact under negotiation is expected to be adopted at a U.N. conference in December.

California

Mark Carlson, Lutheran Office of Public Policy                                                                  loppca.org

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: May 31 concluded consideration of legislation, and activity has intensified on the 2018-19 state budget, due on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk June 15. The bill process cycles again until final adjournment of the two-year session at the end of August. Faith advocates, who had worked together to support increasing the CalWORKS/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families support to 50 percent of the federal poverty level, part of an effort to tackle child poverty, were amazed to see diverse senators speaking in support with an unexpected final vote of 39-0! Perhaps a more challenging task is continuing work to reach the two-thirds threshold to enact a very small fee on water bills to support safe and affordable water in disadvantaged communities.

STATE UPDATE: California has been blessed with a revenue surplus of about $9 billion, much of that a result of volatile personal income taxes on capital gains. Besides the CalWORKS proposal, Gov. Brown, a fiscal moderate, will be challenged by legislative proposals, supported by LOPP-CA, for income-eligible Medicaid coverage of 19- to 25-year-olds and people 65 and older, regardless of immigration status (#Health4All),  expansion of census outreach efforts, and continued rebuilding of deep cuts to child care during the recession (#SpringforKids #BillionforBabies).

SYNOD ASSEMBLIES: LOPP-CA Director Mark Carlson participated in the Pacifica Synod Assembly in Palm Desert, and the Sierra Pacific Synod Assembly in Sacramento. Mark was blessed to take Bishop Medardo Gomez and his wife, Abelina, of El Salvador to the Capitol for lunch during the final hectic deadline day, meeting staff, a state senator and the Spanish-speaking advocate for the California Environmental Justice Alliance. They participated in the LOPP-CA synod breakfast with guest speaker Eric Guerra, a Sacramento City Council member brought to the U.S. without documents at preschool-age.

Colorado

Peter Severson, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry–Colorado                                                  lam-co.org

LEGISLATIVE ADJORN: The Colorado General Assembly adjourned on May 9, having acted on 721 bills during the session. Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-Colorado took a “support” position on 12 bills, of which six were passed and sent to the governor. We also took an “oppose” position on three bills, all of which were defeated.

HUNGER: We supported SB 13, which would expand an existing program that subsidizes children on reduced-price lunch from grades K-5. This bill would expand the subsidy through middle school and passed with bipartisan support.

FAMILY-SUSTAINING INCOME AND LABOR: Our flagship bill was HB 1001, to create a paid family and medical leave program in Colorado. It passed the House but failed in the Senate. We also supported a bill to provide federal disability benefit application assistance (failed) and one to support economic resilience in rural areas (passed).

HOUSING: We supported a successful bill, SB 10, to require landlords to provide a lease copy to tenants and receipts for rent paid in cash or money order. We also supported several bills that did not pass: SB 120, to give tenants time to cure unpaid rent, and HB 1432, to prohibit source-of-income discrimination in housing.

HEALTH CARE: We opposed a bill to put up roadblocks to health care access for Medicaid recipients, SB 214. The bill was defeated on a bipartisan vote.

CIVIL RIGHTSWe supported the successful reauthorization of the Colorado Civil Rights Division, as well as a referred measure that would ask voters to abolish an exception to the ban on slavery in the Colorado Constitution.

Minnesota

Tammy Walhof, Lutheran Advocacy–Minnesota                                                tammy@lcppm.org

SYNOD ASSEMBLIES: Kendrick Hall represented Lutheran Advocacy-MN at the Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly. He was also one of three young adult keynote speakers for almost 500 voting members and guests at the Saint Paul Area Synod Assembly. After his keynote, traffic at our display picked up considerably! 

Director Tammy Walhof had the opportunity to speak individually to almost 200 people at the Northeastern Minnesota Synod Assembly and spoke briefly at one of the plenary sessions.

LEGISLATIVE SESSION: Bills presented with little time for consideration made for a chaotic end to the session. “Trust me” from House leaders was met with skepticism, given tricks after negotiations last year.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING: HUGE WIN! With our champion lawmakers, hardworking team and advocates like you, Homes for All secured $90 million in affordable housing! Additionally, coalition partners secured $30 million for mental health crisis centers. We could not have done it without you! Thanks for acting on the alerts shared (by the hundreds) at synod assemblies and on Facebook – and for sharing them broadly in your networks!

CLEAN ENERGY: Clean energy policy was largely protected. (See details from partner Fresh Energy: fresh-energy.org/2018legislativeupdate/.)

Improving Minnesota’s renewable energy was not passed. Your efforts with us in the Faith & Clean Energy Campaign have helped move the issue forward. The Faith & Clean Energy letter with many of you among 1,200 signers was delivered (with prayer) to the office of Sen. Osmek (Energy chair) the morning after the session ended. That work needs to continue through the fall and into next session, when we intend to win that change!

 

 

 

 

New Mexico

Ruth Hoffman, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry–New Mexico                                         lutheranadvocacynm.org

2018 LEGISLATIVE INTERIM BEGINS: Since the Legislature meets for relatively short sessions, a good deal of legislative work is done during the “interim,” which occurs between May and December. At the first meeting of the Legislative Health & Human Services Committee, LAM-NM Director Ruth Hoffman urged the committee to study public-benefit programs to facilitate understanding and alleviate misunderstandings regarding the programs. LAM-NM will be monitoring, attending, and providing testimony to several interim committees that deal with issues relating to the LAM-NM Advocacy Agenda.

 

Ohio

Nick Bates, Hunger Network Ohio                                                            Nick@HungerNetOhio.com

Faith Leaders across Ohio continue to speak out on the federal farm bill. Pastor Bob Swanson of First Lutheran in Dayton, Ohio, spoke at a news conference (see photo at left) on proposed cuts to SNAP. First Lutheran is an inner-city congregation that serves breakfast every Sunday. “But that is one meal. SNAP ensures more than one meal. It ensures sustenance,” said Swanson. We were very pleased to work collaboratively with the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, ecumenical partners in the United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church, along with Faith in Public Life.

UPDATED GUIDEBOOKS!: The Hunger Network has ordered additional copies of our Advocacy Guidebook for the faith community. The last guidebooks were distributed during the United Methodist Women’s conference held in Columbus in mid-May where the Hunger Network was honored to speak during the advocacy workshop alongside our Texas partner, Texas Impact.

STATEHOUSE UPDATE: As of May 31, the Ohio House of Representatives remains without a speaker and unable to do the work of the people. The former House speaker, Cliff Rosenberger, R-Wilmington, resigned in April as a result of an FBI investigation raising legal and ethical concerns around his behavior and gifts from lobbyists. Legislation on the environment, payday lending and funding bills remains stalled as a result. We pray that ego and hubris may be put aside, and the work of the people may move forward again. We remind the Legislature that they are servants of the community, and the servant must be willing to humble themselves at the feet of their neighbor and wash their feet.

 

Pennsylvania

Tracey DePasquale, Lutheran Advocacy – Pennsylvania                             lutheranadvocacypa.org

LUTHERAN DAY AT THE CAPITOL More than 120 people attended Lutheran Day at the Capitol on May 21. Highlights included worship, workshops, recognition of Advocacy Honorees from Pennsylvania synods, an inspiring address by keynote speaker Dr. Richard Alley and legislative visits.

CHILD NUTRITION SUMMIT: Several LAMPa advocates joined Tracey DePasquale at the first statewide child nutrition summit, held in State College. In addition to learning about best practices in addressing child hunger, we were able to share the work of ELCA World Hunger and connect Lutheran hunger ministries and school staff – including some Lutheran teachers who are now going to seek hunger grants for  programs they are starting.

SCHOOL BREAKFAST MINI-GRANTS ANNOUNCED: Gov. Tom Wolf recently announced $900,000 in grants to help 200 schools make breakfast available to all students and expand options for the children.

Child nutrition advocates joined First Lady Frances Wolf  (fourth from the left in the photo at right) as she announced the awarding of mini-grants to improve school breakfast participation in 200 schools. LAMPa has been working for years to expand school breakfast participation in Pennsylvania. Improving education from preschool through higher education has been a priority for the governor and first lady since day one.

SYNOD ASSEMBLIES: LAMPa provided a display and information at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod Assembly, May 4-5. The Rev. Patricia A. Davenport was elected bishop. Davenport is the first African-descent woman to be elected a bishop in the ELCA.

 

Virginia

Neil Caldwell, Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy’s more than four-year struggle to expand health care access finally came to a successful conclusion on May 30 as the General Assembly approved a state budget that includes Medicaid expansion. After much wrangling, the Legislature agreed to accept the federal money available to cover nearly 400,000 low-income Virginians who do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford to buy insurance. Congress’ failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, as well as large gains by Democrats in last year’s election, helped spur several state Republican lawmakers to change their positions after years of opposition. This has been the Virginia Interfaith Center’s top legislative priority since 2014. “I am so proud of the work the faith community has done to support expanding health care in Virginia,” said Executive Director Kim Bobo. “Although we recognize the economic benefits, we have focused on the moral dimensions of helping our neighbors.” Virginia becomes the 33^rd state, plus the District of Columbia, to expand Medicaid. On another key issue that the center has advocated for at least three years, on May 21 Gov. Ralph Northam signed into law an increase in the state’s felony threshold level from a national low of $200 to $500. It was the first increase since 1982. While the Virginia Interfaith Center wants the threshold raised to $1,000 or more, it agrees that this is a long overdue first step in that process.

 

Washington

Paul Benz, Faith Action Network                                                                                             fanwa.org

REGIONAL SPRING SUMMITS: Each year, FAN holds our four regional summits in Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, and Vancouver, where we gather advocates to hear about the good social-justice work they are doing, share what FAN did this past legislative session and what we’re working on in D.C. and for state initiatives. The last summit will be on June 10 in the Seattle area. Click here to download a flyer.

Last year at the Seattle Summit, advocates gathered into issue working groups to discuss priorities and strategize for the legislative session ahead.

STATE INITIATIVES: Advocates have until July 1 to gather the signatures required to put statewide initiatives on the ballot. This year, FAN is supporting:

• 1631 – which would establish a price on our state’s highest emitters of CO2’s and a board to implement, monitor, and govern this new and innovative approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions produced in our state. Click here for more information.
• 1639 – which involves gun responsibility. It would raise the age to purchase assault-style weapons, enhance background checks, extend wait times for those purchases, and establish a formal and confidential school-safety system. Click here for more information.
• 1644 – which would amend state law to allow the government to remedy discrimination against historically disadvantaged groups, including military veterans, in the areas of employment, education and contracting. A governor’s commission on diversity, equity and inclusion would be established as well.

CONGRESSIONAL ISSUES: FAN is working with the ELCA Washington Office, other D.C. faith groups and our in-state partners on three congressional issues:

• The farm bill: specifically trying to move three Republican delegation members to oppose it.
• Sentencing reform: FAN is opposing the House First Step Act and supporting the Senate Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act.
• Immigration: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and immigration reform.

STAFF CHANGES: Sadly, next month FAN will be saying goodbye to our ELCA seminary intern organizer, Sarah Derick, and our wonderful communications and development specialist, Erin Parks. Sarah is going back to Chicago to finish up her Master of Divinity degree, and Erin is going to Vanderbilt Divinity School to work on her master’s degree. We are now in the interview process for an ELCA Hunger Fellow and a new administration and development coordinator.

Wisconsin

Cindy Crane, Lutheran Office for Public Policy in Wisconsin                                              loppw.org

SYNOD ASSEMBLIES:

(Photo at left) The Rev. Eleanor Russey and Mary Lou Blomquist of the Northern Great Lakes Synod ELCA World Hunger Committee with a resolution they initiated on the farm bill. Their committee will offer resources with assistance from LOPPW.

Advisory Council Member Deb Martin managed a table in the East Central Synod Assembly. She surprised LOPPW by telling us afterward that she got a resolution passed encouraging people to sign up for LOPPW’s and ELCA Advocacy’s action alerts and becoming more aware of advocacy.

The director managed a table and led a workshop on the draft of the women and justice social statement at the South-Central Synod Assembly after meeting with the Rev. Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld, who was a co-author of the draft and is now bishop elect.

MORE ON THE FARM BILL: LOPPW sent out two action alerts that mirrored our D.C. office’s alerts on the bill. LOPPW was also part of a webinar on the farm bill organized by the Wisconsin Council of Churches.

STRATEGIZING FOR FUTURE LOPPW met with Lutheran Social Services to discuss ways of working together on issues related to children and refugees.

HUNGER FELLOW: The director worked with Nancy Sifuentes on the interview process.

CHURCHWIDE ORGANIZATION: The director was part of a conference call of relators to directors for evangelical mission and is assigned one director to relate to.  The director also was part of a conference call with Lutheran Social Services (LSS) and Lutheran Disaster Relief (LDR) to discuss LOPPW supporting efforts of an LSS representative working with LDR in Wisconsin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By The Rev. Donna Simon, St. Mark Hope and Peace Lutheran Church

 

Natalie is married and has three children. She works at Popeye’s, hoping for full time but subject to the scheduling whims of management. Natalie was in the gifted program all through school, but when she got pregnant at eighteen, her college plans were put on hold. She still hopes to go one day.

DeSean lives with his fiancé and their two children in a small apartment on the east side of Kansas City. He works at Burger King, like his mom before him. He is also a local and now national spokesperson for the Fight for 15, the movement seeking a living wage and union representation for persons working at the bottom of the wage scale in America.

These are rough portraits of two of the hundreds of workers I have come to know since our congregation started hosting Stand Up KC, Kansas City’s branch of the Fight for 15. These workers are some of the smartest, funniest, hardest-working people I know, and they are struggling—struggling to feed their kids, to pay the light bill, and to hold up their heads in a country which denigrates and even vilifies poor people, most of whom are working hard and falling further behind as wages stagnate decade after decade¹.

When Rev. William Barber shared his vision for a new Poor People’s Campaign, continuing the work started by Martin Luther King shortly before King’s death, the workers and allies of Stand Up KC were early adopters. We knew that this campaign would do what the Fight for 15 has done: put the people being cast to the economic margins of our country at the center of a narrative of justice and equity. And it has. Our workers have told their stories in Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Washington, DC. Over one hundred workers and allies from Stand Up KC have taken arrest so far in our state capital to protest its systematic dismantling of policies which protect working people and the preemption of properly instituted wage hikes in St. Louis and Kansas City.

I put my body in a street in Jefferson City because I am tired of living in a country which tacitly accepts the concept of the “working poor,” a concept which violates the stated values of our nation and the values we profess as people of faith. People who work hard in the richest country in the world should not be poor.

The Poor People’s Campaign follows Dr. King’s blueprint in allowing poor people to tell their own stories, thus also following Jesus in giving people agency in their own healing. “Stand up, take your mat and walk,” Jesus said to a man who had suffered for thirty years [John 5:8]). “Speak out against the four evils of racism, economic exploitation, militarism, and environmental degradation,” says the Poor People’s Campaign. It seems obvious to me that the second command follows closely upon the first.

 

¹Sixty-three percent of persons 18-64 in the U.S. who are eligible to work are employed, most of them full time. The rest are disabled, in school, looking for work, and not working for a variety of reasons. Source:  Economic Policy Institute

 

 

By The Rev. Dr. Stephen P. Bouman, Executive Director, ELCA Domestic Mission Unit 

 

“Did you know that currently 53 cents of every federal discretionary dollar goes to military spending and only 15 cents is spent on anti-poverty programs?…Instead of waging a war on poverty we have been waging a war on the poor, at home and abroad for the benefit of the few.”  

– “A Moral Agenda,” Poor People’s Campaign

This week’s focus of the Poor People’s Campaign is about the resources dedicated to military strength and its relationship to mitigating poverty. In a sermon preached at Riverside Church in Manhattan in 1967, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made clear the connection between the war on poverty and the war in Vietnam.

      “There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything on a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.” ¹

An early lesson in street level community organizing is if you want to know the root causes of issues and challenges faced by local and regional communities, there is one simple axiom: “Follow the money.” Budgets are a primal form of values clarification: whether national, state, city, congregation or family, the decisions you and I make every day about how we will use our resources reflect our values.

One of the things I find so heartening about the 2018 Poor People’s Campaign is that grassroots leaders and people of faith are willing to take to the streets to engage the architects of our budgets in a moral conversation to connect the dots between various issues. They “follow the money” to paint a picture of why poverty is so pervasive and implacable.

Former President Jimmy Carter updates and pushes the connections King made in his sermon between military spending and poverty in his new book “Faith: A Journey For All.” He reminds us that in 2017, “there were 240,000 American troops openly stationed in at least 172 foreign countries, plus more than 37,000 others in places classified as secret. Meanwhile, as we spend millions on these outposts, our own “infrastructure gap” is the largest of the 50 richest nations.” ²

He also follows the money as he considers that the U.S. has the highest level of incarceration to support a booming prison-building and maintenance industry. Additionally, our nation is the only one that has refused to ratify the international Convention on the Rights of the Child, primarily because this treaty prohibits execution for crimes committed by children.

We can also connect the dots and follow the money around immigration issues as we witness the militarization of our southern border.

This communal conversation about the common good and the well-being of every child of God is a superb way for the Body of Christ to accompany civil society with the Gospel. It is a way that we can put legs on our baptismal covenant “to work for justice in all the world.”

 

 

¹Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam.” April 4, 1967. Riverside Church, New York.

² President Jimmy Carter, “Faith: A Journey for All.” Simon & Schuster, 2018.