[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 178 (Friday, November 10, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2161-E2162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      INDIVIDUALISM AND COMPASSION

                                 ______


                          HON. KAREN McCARTHY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 10, 1995

  Ms. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to 
share with my colleagues a most thoughtful and insightful article by 
Dr. Wallace B. Smith, president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am proud to say that the church is 
headquartered in Independence, MO--the heart of my congressional 
district. Under the stewardship of Dr. Smith, who has served as 
president for 20 years, the church has carried 

[[Page E 2162]]
out its mission of spreading peace and harmony throughout our community 
and the world. The church's temple, an architectural wonder, rises like 
a beacon and serves as an eternal reminder of the powerful spiritual 
presence we are so fortunate to have in our community. The compassion 
and concern the members of the church have for mankind is perhaps best 
illustrated in the following article, which I commend to the attention 
of my colleagues and ask that it be inserted into the Congressional 
Record.

                  [From The Saints Herald, Feb. 1995]

                      Individualism and Compassion

                         (By Wallace B. Smith)

       The rhetoric of some politicians these days seems to be 
     echoing a deep-felt mood among many citizens that ought to be 
     troubling for followers of Jesus Christ.
       The mood is not unique to any specific people, race, ethnic 
     group, or nationality, although it was manifested rather 
     widely in the United States during and subsequent to the 
     November 1994 elections. Much was said about a seeming desire 
     for change on the part of the electorate, and change was 
     certainly reflected in the election results. There was a 
     desire, it was said, to make government more responsive to 
     the people--if necessary, by replacing the current political 
     office holders with new, albeit untested, ones.
       This desire has now been accomplished and has been 
     interpreted by some as mandating a change in the social 
     agenda as well. Indeed, the conservative philosophy of less 
     dependence on government, more individual initiative, and 
     increased self-reliance has been on the rise. Unfortunately, 
     such seemingly desirable societal traits can also be viewed 
     as ``code words'' that encourage the needs of the poor to be 
     ignored, individual freedom to become license, the self 
     systematically exalted, and injustice against the weak and 
     the powerless fostered.
       These latter qualities, which are manifestations of the sin 
     of self-centeredness, are the very characteristics Jesus 
     consistently pointed out to his disciples as those to be 
     guarded against. That is why such traits, when they begin to 
     be a reflective of the mood of a nation or a people, should 
     give followers of Jesus Christ cause for concern.
       Whether we who live in the United States of America are 
     experiencing such a mood just now is a question that needs to 
     be explored in light of some pertinent information. A 
     publication from Bread for the World recently called 
     attention to the Personal Responsibility Act being advocated 
     by some U.S. congressional leaders. This act lumps the Women, 
     Infants and Children (WIC) program; food stamps; and school 
     lunches in with other general welfare reforms in such a way 
     that they are reduced three times as much as they were in the 
     early 1980s.
       At the same time, according to Bread for the World, these 
     congressional leaders are calling on the religious community 
     to assume more responsibility to assist people in need. If 
     the approximately 350,000 churches in the United States were 
     all to assist equally in this task, each would need to give 
     $170,000 to make up the $60 billion in funding it is said the 
     passage of the Personal Responsibility Act would save the 
     government over a four-year period. Such a response is a 
     practical impossibility.
       Even more at risk are programs that help hungry people 
     worldwide. All foreign aid represents only about 1 percent of 
     the U.S. federal budget, and only about one-third of that 
     goes to programs focused on reducing poverty and promoting 
     sustainable development. Yet foreign aid will probably be cut 
     another 25 percent in the coming year, and the poor and the 
     hungry will be affected the most.
       It is important to realize these are not just partisan 
     political issues. Members of Congress from both political 
     parties feel tremendous pressure to be responsive to their 
     constituents. These are people, many of them staunch 
     churchgoers, who are telling their governmental 
     representatives to cut programs that assist poor people, 
     homeless people, people without sufficient food and basic 
     necessities.
       Why would they do that?
       Perhaps some truly believe that the moral values that link 
     personal responsibility with social change are presently 
     missing among a large number of society's poor and 
     disadvantaged. But, as Jim Wallis points out in Sojourners, 
     ``to call for self-improvement and a return to family values 
     while ignoring the pernicious effects of poverty, racism, and 
     sexism is to continue blaming the victim'' (September-October 
     1994, page 16).
       Perhaps what is needed most in this time of societal 
     discontent is a willingness to take more responsibility for 
     our own lives, to live more simply, but also to be more 
     willing to take action on behalf of those whom Jesus calls to 
     our attention as most worthy of our concern. For, as we are 
     reminded in Matthew 25: ``When the Son of man shall come in 
     his glory . . . then shall the King say unto them on his 
     right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
     kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 
     For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, 
     and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; 
     naked, and ye clothed me; . . . Verily I say unto you, 
     inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my 
     brethren, ye have done it unto me.''

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