Talk to Encuentro 2000
by
Dr. David Beckmann
President, Bread for the World
Sister Carolee has talked about how we, as Christ's followers, are called to be in solidarity with poor people. I want to put particular emphasis on political solidarity. Through active Christian citizenship, we can win important changes for poor and hungry people. Political action is one way we can act on our faith in the world and make a difference.
I'll talk first about two current experiences that show the importance of political solidarity and, specifically, of the U.S. government. Then, I want to talk about the possibility of ending widespread hunger in our time. I think this is possible, but only if we get our government to do its part.
Es factible eliminar el hambre masivo en nuestro epoca, pero tenemos que ser ciudanos activos.
One current experience that shows the importance of politics is the persistence of hunger in this extraordinary economy. Lots of people are getting rich. In general, low- income people are facing a better job market than in the past.
At the same time, those of you who are involved in food pantries and soup kitchens have been providing more and more food to hungry people every year .But you're not seeing any decline in hunger. U.S. census data confirm that the number of people struggling with hunger hasn't declined at allover the last several years of prosperity.
How can this be? A booming economy, booming charity, but no decline in hunger.
It's no mystery. Millions of people have lost government assistance since 1996, notably food stamps. The top line on this graph shows the persistence of hunger and food insecurity; the bottom line shows the drop in food stamp participation.
If just the Food Stamp Program were as strong now as it was in 1996, in today's economy we'd have half as many hungry people in this country as we do. Most middle-income people don't even know that food stamps have been cut. But if just the Food Stamp Program were as strong now as it was in 1996, in today's economy we'd have half as many hungry people as we do.
So let me ask you to urge your members of Congress to cosponsor the Hunger Relief Act. The Hunger Relief Act would repair only a part of the damage that has been done to the Food Stamp Program. But it would increase benefits for more than a million people; Among other things, the Hunger Relief Act would restore food stamps to legal immigrants who need them, and the Hebrew prophets were quite specific about our responsibilities to immigrants.
Also urge your members of Congress to increase the minimum wage by $1 over the next two years. As people have been pushed off public assistance, many have moved into jobs that don't pay enough to feed a family. A $1 increase in the minimum wage puts food on the table of a low-income family for six months.
The Hunger Relief Act and an increase in the minimum wage are two specific changes we can win this year. They would give millions of hungry people a share in our nation's current prosperity.
Now, let me turn to a second current experience that shows the importance of political solidarity -the Jubilee 2000 campaign.
Raise your hand if you have written your member of Congress about debt cancellation for the poorest countries in this Jubilee year. Thank you for what you 'ye done. Some of you also organized offerings of letters to Congress in your parishes. Your bishops have helped a lot. Together with Christians and other people of good will around the world, you have made a hopeless cause into official international policy.
Let me tell you about the folks in Birmingham, Alabama. In January last year, Representative Spencer Bachus from Birmingham was named chair of the international subcommittee of the House Banking Committee. Spencer Bachus is a very conservative person. He was not very familiar with poor countries or their problems. But Bread for the World members in his district had been talking with him about hunger issues for several years, and they really went to work last year. Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church put out a petition after each mass one Sunday, and four people from Independent Presbyterian Church flew to Washington with that petition to see Mr. Bachus. They spoke from the heart, and Spencer Bachus was moved. He became a passionate and very effective advocate for debt cancellation.
When the House Banking Committee held its hearing on debt relief, Spencer Bachus held up an address by Pope John Paul II. He said, "I've never read much by Catholics before, but I don't know how any Christian could read this and not think we ought to write off these debts."
Spencer Bachus is a Southern Baptist. He said, "If we don't reduce this debt people in poor countries are going to be suffering for the rest of their lives. And I think we're going to be suffering a lot longer than that."
Bachus and other members of Congress helped to convince President Clinton to support debt relief, and Clinton's proposal became global policy. Our government is the world's most powerful government, so our policies often become global policies.
The governments of the world agreed to write off $90 billion in poor-country debt. Even more importantly, they directed the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to work in a more poverty-focused, democratic way in the poorest countries. The World Bank and IMF are now telling poor-country governments that debt relief will depend on public discussion of strategies to reduce poverty.
The struggle is far from over, of course. In Bolivia, for example, the Catholic Church recently convened meetings across the country to give people from low-income communities a chance to say what policies they think would reduce poverty. Now we, as citizens of the world's most powerful nation, need to make sure that the World Bank and IMP really pay attention to what poor people in Bolivia and other countries are saying.
We must also insist that Congress appropriate the U.S. funding that's needed to keep the debt relief initiative moving forward --$435 million this year. Congress authorized debt relief last year. Virtually nobody in Washington is opposed to it anymore. Senator Jesse Helms has given it his blessing. But Congress is playing budget politics with debt relief for the poorest countries. They have appropriated only one-sixth of what the President requested for debt relief-- in this Jubilee year. If the U.S. falls into arrears on this one, other governments will pull their money off the table too. Poor communities and churches in poor countries are already devoting precious time and money to making the debt relief initiative work, and it's just wrong to pull the rug out from under them.
So when you write your senators and representative about the Hunger Relief Act and the minimum wage, also tell them to approve funding for debt relief- before they come home to run for reelection.
Make a note of this. Either today or when you get home from this conference, write your letters. If just half the people in this room actually write Congress, we will have a significantly better chance to win these changes for hungry people this year.
The Jubilee campaign shows that religiously motivated people can win significant changes in U.S. politics.
Bread for the World is convinced that it's possible to end widespread hunger in our time. It would take a much bigger shift in U.S. politics, but not an impossible shift.
Most people think that world hunger is a hopeless problem. But in fact, there are fewer hungry people in the world today than 25 years ago. This graph shows the gradual decline of undernourished people in the developing countries --despite the population explosion during this period. Most of the decline was in East Asia, which is represented by the declining area at the bottom of this graph.
And among the industrialized countries, the United States is the only nation that still puts up with widespread hunger within its borders. The rate of child poverty in the U.S. is twice the average for the other industrialized countries.
Bread for the World Institute recently released a report called A Program to End Hunger. It shows that the United States could cut hunger in half domestically within two years and do our part to cut hunger in half worldwide within two decades.
Domestically, we could cut hunger in half by fully restoring the Food Stamp Program. To end hunger, we'd want to go beyond food stamps. We should establish a package of policies to assure a livable income for all families. It would include the minimum wage, Earned Income Tax Credit, health insurance, and good schools for all children. We also need campaign finance reform and voter registration, so that poor people have a bigger say in U.S. politics.
These are ambitious changes, but they are possible --especially if the churches do a better job in teaching the justice dimension of Christian faith. We don't have to put up with millions of hungry children in this richly blessed land.
To help reduce world hunger, the industrialized countries should fully implement debt relief and further reform the IMF and the World Trade Organization. We should also increase poverty-focused development assistance, especially for agriculture, health and girls' education in Africa. The best way to reduce hunger is to reduce poverty and powerlessness. So if we can get the nations of the world to mobilize against hunger, we'll achieve progress against poverty and injustice generally.
The financial cost to cut hunger in half in this country --and do our part to cut hunger in half worldwide --would be about $6 billion a year. That amounts to only 6 cents per American per day. So what we need to achieve dramatic progress is a modest, but lasting shift in U.S. political priorities. You and I can help make this happen through persistent acts of political solidarity: Voting. Contributing time and money to campaigns. Letters to Congress. Grassroots organizing. Praying for an end to needless hunger.
We don't have to be super-saints. Jesus Christ is for us and with us. Despite the limits of our faith, God will do great things with us.
God is in solidarity with us and the whole human family. That's what the death and resurrection of Jesus are about. So I am sure that God wants to end hunger. And God has given Christians in this country at this time an opportunity to help make it happen -- through political solidarity.
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Encuentro 2000
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202) 541-3413