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Revisiting the Immigration Controversy

The controversy over immigration issues has reached a stalemate over competing values – both of which deserve respect. One is the due regard for the law and the other is compassion for the stranger. One is a matter of rules that apply to all; the other is the measure of our own character. When law and compassion work together, we represent a nobleness to which the world aspires. When they are played off against each other, then we find ourselves descending into anger and resentment. The world wonders what has become of us. It is time for us to look above the fray and seek the causes of the current immigration problem. Then we can craft responses that will prove effective.

Jubilee is Debt Justice

We are the first generation that has the ability to end hunger. The food, the tools, the transportation systems -- we have all that it takes to end extreme poverty, the poverty that kills.

We just need to exercise the will to do it.

A major first step in ending world hunger is debt cancellation. Much of the impoverished world live in countries that suffer under odious and onerous debt -- debt that the population never had say in, nor benefited from ... debt which has been paid many times over through exorbitant interest rates ... debt which international financiers attempt to turn into exploitation of natural resources and national utilities.

The time has come for debt cancellation in most of the Third World, especially in Africa and Latin America. We need to insist on the moral high ground and say no to profiteering one shady loans made to dictators who no longer are in power. It's time that the debt service poor countries pay is turned into schools, medical care and infrastructure.

Leviticus proclaimed Jubilee every seven of seven years (a Sabbath of Sabbath's) as a time when families of Israel would have their lands restored to them that had been lost through misfortune. In this way poverty would not be inherited. Debt cancellation will fulfill that same biblical principle -- poverty should not be inheritable.

Lift your voice in support of debt cancellation. Help end one of the major causes of extreme poverty. Let ours be the generation that says, "We did not let any peoples starve to death during our stewardship of the human community."

To learn more about Jubilee, go to www.jublieeusa.org.

Debt Cancellation is one mechanism toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals. To learn more about MDGs, please review this PowerPoint presentation.

MDG

Lenten Advocacy

For the first time, I attended Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Washington DC (www.advocacydays.org) this past weekend and visited congressional offices to speak up for issues I have come to believe in.

While I’ve often supported advocacy in principle and even admired some people for taking strong stances, I’ve not really embraced it as a proper church activity. Too many examples of brazen partisanship by a few have made me shy of taking up the practice. To be sure, those who know me, know I can have very well-defined opinions that sometimes feel like partisanship. But I’ve studiously tried not to let them be the focus of ministry.

I doubt this will change because my ministry focus will always be Word and Sacrament. That’s the Gospel of our Lord Jesus and I have every confidence in it. Nonetheless, I’ve discovered a new found necessity for advocacy to be part of the church’s practice and work in the world. Let me explain.

I was fortunate to sit with congressional staff from both sides of the aisle and from both houses of Congress. Their message was consistent – the staffers even agreed on issues I was addressing. It was this: fax letters, make phone calls, send emails – constituent voices shape legislator votes.

We’ve all read about lobbying scandals and big money interests. I’ve suffered from a cynicism that my little voice doesn’t count. I couldn’t be further from the facts.

When people of faith speak out on basic issues that address the well-being of others without seeking favors of their own, legislators do listen. If anything, it’s the voice of compassion and common sense that is missing in the way our government works.

This is what I heard and saw in Washington, on both sides of the aisles, in both houses. The dominant party sets up a mechanism to enact its political philosophy. This machine is very powerful. It frustrates the opposite party members and disciplines its own kind. This governing machine is as much interested in maintaining its own power as it is in doing what it thinks is best for itself and the country. The one force that is able to reckon with this machine (besides the ballot box) is constituent communication.

A member of Congress may sincerely desire to vote counter to what the governing machine says, but short of constituent advocacy upon which to base such a vote, that member really has no basis on which to justify voting differently. Mere conscience is not usually enough because conscience doesn’t get one elected – its voters and the party that do that. So the lines of accountability are clearly drawn to constituents and the affiliated party. When these two are in conflict, there is consensus that the voice of constituents has priority.

What I learned in Washington is that our elected officials expect us to do advocacy. They especially want people of faith and conscience to speak up for compassion and people first policies because it empowers them to vote for what they also believe is the right thing. When we are silent, we let the powers of self-interest and greed rule.

In the end, if we are disappointed in our government because it seems uncaring or corrupt – or whatever – then we would be right to feel disappointed in ourselves as well – especially if we’ve never taken the time to tell our legislators about the issues that move our faith and conscience.

Therefore, my Lenten journey has become one of learning how to give public witness to my faith. It’s a walk I take in the shadow of Jesus’ journey to Calvary. It is my good fortune to know that such a walk in this country will lead not to death but life for so many others – in the name of Christ.

Being a Good Neighbor

“How does this affect the poorest of the poor? is the question we need to be asking legislators.” Fr. Andrew Small, OMI, commented at a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) conference on Latin America in Miami, on November 18. His remarks encouraged lay people to engage poverty and development issues on the basis of faith and ethical commitments. He reasoned, first, that the economics are complex and challenging them is complicated. Second, that the ethical and faith commitments are the pieces missing in international trade agreements and lending practices. “The market has a logic, not an ethic – that’s our contribution. We need to say “This is not development!” when it’s not happening. They can’t argue with that.”

“Being a Good Neighbor: Overcoming Poverty, Disease, and Debt in Latin America” was co-sponsored by the Florida Council of Churches and the Center for Justice and Peace, Saint Thomas University through a Better World Fund grant. “The conference was an immense success in whom it brought together to begin building a grassroots advocacy network in South Florida,” according to the Rev. Russell Meyer, Executive Director of the Council. Participating were Fr. Small (US Conference of Catholic Bishops), Bishop Thomas Wenski (Diocese of Orlando), Eugene Nyambal (World Bank Latin American Economic Specialist for Latin America), Aldo Caliari (Center for Concern), Kristin Sundell (Jubilee USA), Romulo Torres (Jubilee Peru), Joan Faulkner (ONE Florida), Kim Steitz (ONE ELCA), Alex Baumgarten (ONE ECUSA), and Ed Cooke (UN Association Florida). “This is the first time I’ve worked with NGO’s,” Nyambal said. “They’ve always been seen as the enemy at the World Bank. But we really have much in common.”

Both MDG’s and the Catholic Campaign against Global Poverty were presented. The conference drew some 75 people from the university and local churches. After the initial presentations, they divided into three workshops to look at how to engage poverty and development issues on an ongoing basis. Most of them signed the ONE pledge and began making plans to observe the Sabbath Year 2007 for debt cancellation. All the speakers encouraged the participants to communicate regularly with their Congressional representatives.

The Council and Center hope to repeat a similar conference next year. As Bishop Wenski said in his opening reflection, “It’s time for the globalization of solidarity.”

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