Ryan P. Cumming<\/p>\n
\u200bMay 21, 2015<\/p>\n
In this series of posts, we will take a closer look at some of the areas of work ELCA World Hunger supports domestically and internationally.\u00a0 Previously, we looked at relief <\/a>and education<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em>This week, our focus is on “advocacy.” <\/em><\/p>\n The Work We Do: Advocacy<\/p>\n What Is Advocacy?<\/strong><\/p>\n Speak up!<\/p>\n Advocacy is a public witness to the gospel of Christ where the church speaks with and on behalf of others in need.\u00a0 It is the work the church does when it speaks up and out, lending its voice to support, to vindicate, and to challenge.\u00a0 One of the most visible forms of advocacy is public policy advocacy.\u00a0 This includes listening to the experiences of community members, lifting up these experiences during conversations with policymakers, and educating Lutherans about current priorities in government.\u00a0 It also includes working for change in public policy based on priorities drawn from ELCA social statements, Lutheran ministries, programs and projects around the world. Our public policy advocacy colleagues at the state, national and international levels are often in deep conversation with Lutherans in the ELCA and with our ecumenical partners about the impact of policies on hunger.<\/p>\n Advocacy doesn’t just happen in the halls of government, though.\u00a0 Any time we bring our voices to bear on issues of justice, we are advocating in the spirit of the church’s calling to be advocates of justice and mercy (ELCA, “Church in Society,” [1991], p. 6.)\u00a0 This can be something as seemingly small as writing a letter to the editor of a local newspaper to inform readers of the realities of hunger and poverty.\u00a0 Or, it can be correcting colleagues at work or friends at school whose prejudices disparage people facing hunger.\u00a0 Speaking up, being advocates, is central to the work we do together.<\/p>\n Many Lutherans do this often.\u00a0 When misinformation and xenophobia galvanized opposition to unaccompanied children crossing the border from Mexico this summer, Bishop Michael Rinehart<\/a> (Gulf Coast Synod) used his blog to speak the truth and give voice to the realities many of these children face.\u00a0 In September 2014, hundreds of ELCA members joined others in the People’s Climate March<\/a> in New York to bring attention to issues related to climate change.\u00a0 There are countless other examples.<\/p>\n ELCA World Hunger supports staff dedicated to public policy advocacy.\u00a0 The Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC) in New York City is an office of the ELCA, but it also represents the Lutheran World Federation.\u00a0 The staff of LOWC advocate for peace, human rights, justice and better standards of living for all people.\u00a0 It monitors the United Nations on behalf of the ELCA and on behalf of the 72 million Christians represented by the LWF.\u00a0 Our ELCA Advocacy staff in Washington, DC, advocates with US policymakers on issues ranging from the Farm Bill to the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act.\u00a0 And our eleven State Public Policy Offices (SPPOs) across the country are voices for change on issues like minimum wage, school breakfasts, and access to clean water.<\/p>\n Roots of Advocacy<\/strong><\/p>\n Biblically, many people trace the roots of public policy advocacy to the Prophets.\u00a0 When Amos cries out for “justice in the gate” (5:15), he’s demanding just and fair court practices. \u00a0And even modern-day political rhetoric hardly approaches the vitriol expressed by the prophet Isaiah: “How the faithful city has become a whore!\u00a0 She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her \u2013 but now murderers!…Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves!” (1:21-23a).<\/p>\n There are some limits to applying the prophets to public policy in the here-and-now, most notably the fact that we in the US don’t live in a theocracy, so purely religious arguments have little traction in the public square. But this is precisely where Lutheran theology steps in, providing a path for bringing faith to bear on public life in a way that doesn’t demand that a government be Christian in order to be good.<\/p>\n We have a name for this theology: two kingdoms.\u00a0 (I know, I know.\u00a0 Commence groaning.)\u00a0 The common name might not be the best to describe what is going on in this theology.\u00a0 A better phrase might be “God’s two ways of governing.”\u00a0 On the one hand, God “governs” the world through the gospel.\u00a0 This is the foundation of God’s reign in the perfect kingdom.\u00a0 Here, mercy, love and forgiveness are the guiding principles.<\/p>\n Of course, with sin, this doesn’t always work in the “real world.”\u00a0 Here, today, people suffer.\u00a0 People cheat.\u00a0 Greed runs rampant. \u00a0Is there no grace to be found in our daily lives?\u00a0 Is our faith merely a matter of waiting for Heaven?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 Sin hasn’t left us to our own devices apart from God.\u00a0 Indeed, God graciously provides for us in another way as we await the fullness of God’s perfect reign.\u00a0 Here, God has established other structures and principles to help us live meaningful lives now: justice, peace, equity.<\/p>\n Human communities may not be perfect communities of love and mercy.\u00a0 But they can be communities of justice and peace, and this can give us a taste of what perfect justice and perfect peace might be like in God’s full reign.\u00a0 They can be communities in which the dignity of each person is protected and in which every person has an equal shot at a life lived without fear, without hunger, without oppression.<\/p>\n In baptism, Lutherans are called to build this kind of community \u2013 “to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.”\u00a0 Doing so is so central to who we are as the people of God that, according to the bible, we cannot be an authentic worshipping community without being a justice-seeking community:<\/p>\n In Isaiah’s words:<\/p>\n Yet day after day they seek me<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and delight to know my ways,<\/em><\/p>\n as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;<\/em><\/p>\n they ask of me righteous judgments,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0they delight to draw near to God.<\/em><\/p>\n ‘Why do we fast, but you do not\u00a0see?<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’<\/em><\/p>\n Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and oppress all your workers.<\/em><\/p>\n Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and to strike with a wicked fist.<\/em><\/p>\n Such fasting as you do today<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0will not make your voice heard on high.<\/em><\/p>\n Is such the fast that I choose,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a day to humble oneself?<\/em><\/p>\n Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?<\/em><\/p>\n Will you call this a fast,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a day acceptable to the Lord?<\/em><\/p>\n Is not this the fast that I choose:<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to loose the bonds of injustice,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to undo the thongs of the yoke,<\/em><\/p>\n to let the oppressed go free,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and to break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:2-6)<\/em><\/p>\n Or again, from Micah:<\/p>\n “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?<\/em> (Micah 6:8)<\/p>\n Advocacy \u2013 being voices of justice in an unjust world, voices of peace in the midst of conflict, and voices of solidarity amid marginalization \u2013 is central to who we are as church and central to our work to end hunger.\u00a0 As Lutherans, we believe God has ordained that we have governments, churches, families, and communities not so that some profit while others hunger but so that all may be fed.\u00a0 Our work as policy advocates and public advocates in other areas of our life is a key part of our role in God’s establishment of a world worth living in and, if the health outcomes of hunger are any indication, a world that is possible to live in.<\/p>\n Examples of Advocacy<\/strong><\/p>\n In December 2014, ELCA Advocacy urged followers to support the ABLE Act<\/a>, which passed in the US House of Representatives by a 404-17 vote. The ABLE Act would allow people with disabilities to set up savings accounts for housing, transportation, educational opportunities, and other expenses without jeopardizing their eligibility for Medicaid and Social Security benefits. The act was signed into law by President Barack Obama in January 2015.<\/p>\n Also in December 2014, the Secure Choice Savings Program Act<\/a> was approved by the General Assembly of Illinois, with support from Lutheran Advocacy-Illinois<\/a>.\u00a0 This act will give millions of private sector workers in Illinois the opportunity to save their own money for retirement by expanding access to employment-based retirement savings accounts, a benefit more than 2.5 million workers do not have.\u00a0 With food insecurity affecting nearly 15% of seniors<\/a> in Illinois, this act could be a significant step in reducing hunger among retirees.<\/p>\n The Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry in New Jersey is currently in the midst of working toward passage of a state-wide earned sick days bill<\/a> in the Assembly. The bill has passed the Assembly Labor and Budget committees and is awaiting a full floor vote. It is a model earned-sick-days law that covers nearly all 1.2 million workers in the state who lack earned sick days. The majority of those who will benefit are low-wage workers earning less than $10 an hour.\u00a0 The bill allows workers to use earned sick days to care for themselves as well as all immediate family members when sick and to use earned sick days to deal with, relocate or find safe accommodations due to circumstances resulting from being a victim of domestic or sexual violence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Learn more about ELCA Advocacy at the ELCA Advocacy blog: http:\/\/www.elca.org\/blogs\/advocacy<\/a><\/p>\n