[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 12 (Tuesday, January 30, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E64-E65]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


           SUPPORT FOR FAITH-BASED AND COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TONY P. HALL

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 30, 2001

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, today I praise President George W. 
Bush's proposal to assist faith-based and community organizations as a 
promising way of encouraging them to help battle hunger, poverty, and 
other social ills. I was pleased to meet with the President today at 
the Fishing School as he announced the legislative initiative of his 
proposal.
  Faith has been a defining characteristic of our communities' life 
throughout our nation's history, and people who serve God by serving 
those in need remain one of America's greatest strengths. This 
initiative will draw on these traditions and bring them to bear on some 
of our most difficult social problems. It also will leverage private 
funds and give a wider circle of donors a stake in the success of these 
projects.
  I am particularly encouraged that this initiative will give some 
well-deserved support to the legions of people trying to end poverty in 
our prosperous nation, and I hope it will extend to those working in 
faith-based organizations that fight hunger. In recent years, growing 
numbers of hungry people have been turning to food pantries and soup 
kitchens for help each month. Nationwide, requests for help were up 18 
percent nationwide, and three in five came from families with children. 
More than 70 percent of these pantries and kitchens are operated by 
faith-based organizations that work hard to collect donations--but have 
not been able to keep their shelves stocked. These are creative and 
resourceful projects whose dedicated employees and volunteers deserve 
support.
  To those who worry that we are in uncharted territory, I would point 
out the work American charities do overseas, coping with this month's 
terrible earthquakes in India and El Salvador, easing famine in Africa, 
Asia, and Latin America, and promoting development around the world. 
Many of these organizations are closely affiliated with religious 
groups; many of their projects grew from missionary roots. This work 
leverages private funds and achieves results that often last 
generations.
  To those who charge this initiative will open the door to taxpayer-
funded religion, I would say that every faith tradition emphasizes 
helping the poor. The Bible, for example, contains some 2,500 verses 
about caring for those in need. The `Golden Rule' is echoed in all 
religions' teachings, and is something virtually all can agree upon. 
This initiative's focus on results will ensure that Constitutional 
safeguards--both of religious freedom and for taxpayers--remain in 
place.
  This is a common-sense approach that deals with the challenges many 
Americans face head on. It deserves a chance, and I commend President 
Bush for giving it one.
  I also submit for the Record a piece that my good friend Jim Wallis 
recently wrote for the Washington Post. As editor of Sojourners 
magazine and convener of the Call to Renewal, he has been actively 
involved in having the faith community address problems like poverty 
and racism for decades.

              [From the Washington Post, January 8, 2001]

                        A Church-State Priority

       When the phone call came from Austin, I was surprised. Just 
     two days after his election was secured, President-elect Bush 
     wanted a meeting with religious leaders to discuss faith-
     based initiatives in solving poverty. He was reaching well 
     beyond his base of conservative evangelicals; would I come 
     and suggest others who should be invited?
       The subject was already on my mind. The U.S. Conference of 
     Mayors just had released its annual survey on hunger and 
     homelessness in U.S. cities. In the past year, it showed, 
     requests for emergency food increased by 17 percent. Two-
     thirds of the people requesting assistance were members of 
     families, and 32 percent of the adults requesting food were 
     employed.
       Demand for emergency shelter increased 15 percent, and of 
     those 36 percent were families with children. Thirteen 
     percent of the requests for food and nearly one-quarter of 
     the requests for housing went unmet because of lack of 
     resources.
       The leading causes of these increases? Low-paying jobs, 
     lack of affordable housing, unemployment or other employment-
     related issues, and poverty or lack of income. Just before 
     the holidays, Catholic Charities also released its annual 
     report showing a ``startling'' 22 percent increase in the use 
     of its emergency services of shelter, clothing, food and 
     medicine.
       The latest U.S. Census poverty statistics report that 
     despite this time of record prosperity, one in every six 
     American children is poor; one in three children of color. No 
     other developed country has anything approaching U.S. child 
     poverty rates.
       So it seemed appropriate, just a few days before Christmas, 
     to be in a Sunday school classroom in Austin's First Baptist 
     Church with a diverse group of religious leaders, having a 
     conversation with George W. Bush The president-elect listened 
     and asked questions for more than an hour, then stayed to 
     mingle and talk to us individually. He believes in faith-
     based organizations and the important role they can play in 
     solving social problems, and he wants to make support for 
     such efforts an important part of his administration.
       He asked us how to speak to the nation's soul. We suggested 
     starting with our children, who embody our best hopes and 
     reveal our worst failures as a society. I thanked him for 
     being willing to include people in the meeting who hadn't 
     supported his election and pledged to work with him if he 
     chose to do something significant to reduce child poverty. We 
     suggested that Bush use his inaugural address to call the 
     nation to cut the

[[Page E65]]

     child poverty rate by half in five years; a task that would 
     require both political will and creativity.
       We said that ideological warfare had allowed too many 
     children to fall between the cracks of our faulty political 
     discourse; liberal and conservative false choices about 
     whether family values or living family incomes are more 
     central to the causes and cures for poverty. I noted that 
     churches across a broad spectrum are finding remarkable unity 
     on these issues, and maybe it was time to try it on a 
     political level. Evangelical and liberal, Catholic and 
     Protestant, black and white church leaders have been 
     motivated by prosperity's contradictictions and united by the 
     biblical imperatives of compassion and justice. Around the 
     country, faith-based initiatives to overcome poverty show 
     remarkable progress. But the president-elect needs to send an 
     early signal about poor children and families being high on 
     his agenda.
       Bush asked theological questions such as, ``What is 
     justice?'' That is a key question, especially amid fears that 
     an emphasis on faith-based initiatives will be used to 
     substitute for governmental responsibilities. We told him 
     that in forging new partnerships to reduce poverty, the 
     religious community will not only be service providers but 
     prophetic interrogators. Our vocation is to ask why people 
     are poor, and not just to care for the forgotten. Shelters 
     and food banks aren't enough. We need solutions to the many 
     problems of poverty, a pragmatic approach that produces 
     results.
       Could our divided political leaders rally around the moral 
     cause of using our prosperity to finally address this 
     nation's shamefully high poverty levels, especially among 
     children? Could this divided nation find common ground if 
     politicians would collaborate across old barriers, as 
     religious leaders have begun to do?
       Since neither party has succeeded in breaking the grip of 
     persistent poverty, isn't a bipartisan effort called for? 
     Republicans preaching compassionate conservatism and family 
     values, Democrats fighting for poor working families and a 
     religious community ready to lead by example; these forces 
     could do something significant about poverty.
       It is an encouraging sign that the president-elect is 
     reaching out to begin discussions with leaders of faith-based 
     initiatives. ``I hope you surprise us,'' I told him 
     afterward. We'll see; for now, the ball is in both our 
     courts.

     

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