New York – Religious leaders are warning that the global financial crisis threatens progress made against poverty and world hunger, and urged political leaders not to ignore the poor while debating how to solve the current international financial panic.
“It’s a teachable moment to move the agenda of hunger and inequality in the world,” said Lorraine Dickerson, an anti-hunger advocate with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. “It’s a moral imperative.”
Dickerson was one of some 75 religious leaders and representatives who attended a Wednesday (Sept. 24) interfaith consultation on global hunger. The summit parallels a meeting at the United Nations to evaluate progress on a set of development goals adopted by the U.N. in 2000.
While the religious leaders maintained a sense of hope about progress that has been made in fighting poverty, they also expressed frustration about what they saw as a disproportionate amount of money being proposed to bail out U.S. financial institutions.
“The U.S. government can come up with $700 billion for the financial system, but religious communities have been working for decades to stop hunger and poverty for pennies,” said Rev. David Beckmann, the president of the Washington-based anti-hunger group Bread for the World.
World Bank figures indicate that the number of poor people in the world has dropped from 1.9 billion in 1981 to 1.4 billion in 2005. That is proof that one of the key U.N. Millennium Development Goals — halving extreme poverty from 1990 levels by the year 2015 — is a possibility, he said.
However, Beckmann added that that success is “now being undercut by higher prices, particularly of food and oil.”
The religious leaders said they must now pressure governments and remind their own religious constituents of the moral imperative to keep fighting poverty amid the worsening global economy.
“Religious leaders don’t have much political power, but we do have moral influence,” said Sister J. Lora Dambroski, the president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
Chris Herlinger
Religion News Service
Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted September 25, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Good luck in being heard.
And it should be astounding the things we are willing to spend money on (especially a counterproductive war that’s about to have cost as much as this bailout and will cost two or three times as much, or more, by the time we care for the wounded troops, etc. etc.)
But it’s an important message.
posted September 25, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Charity begins at home. Is this selfish or is this good sense? The very wealty, the ones who can’t remember how many homes and apts., condos they own should be the ones to give the most to the globally poor. For the most part I believe they do. I have seen relatives who gave so much to the African people that they had nothing left for their children or grandchildren. This is disproportionate giving. As with everything good sense should prevail. Emotion will get you in trouble everytime.
posted September 25, 2008 at 9:57 pm
At this particular time, I don’t think the government will be listening. They can’t even come to an agreement on how to get out of the financial situation we’re in. The unprovoked war in Iraq is costing millions daily, and the soldiers returning need help too, some for the rest of their lives. If there was no war going on, perhaps some of that money could get us back on track financially, and some for the poor,and the wounded soldiers.
According to the article the number of poor in the world has dropped, which is good. Understandably that number could rise again if indeed the world’s economic situation gets as messed up as ours (USA)currently is.
posted September 26, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Bono beat Beckman to the quote. I suppose if your are going to get scooped, he is a good guy to do it.
I just heard a piece on NPR about what happened to create the actual crisis. We should all be assured that no actual money was injured in the midst of the marker freeze-up. Apparently it was all fantastic amounts (in the gazillion and zadrillion range) of “electronic” money or “commercial paper”, which apparently involves no paper at all (save the trees!). With vast amounts of cashus electronicus involved, there is no likelihood that any thought will be given to those of us who can count only to a billion (pocket change according to the commentators). Those of us silly enough to think we have any influence on the actual (as compared to virtual) market are deluded, sort of like a mosquito thinking it can make one of the Rushmore heads itch.
Some would call this progress. I have a feeling we are going to learn it is actually a devolution of the market, which will soon return to a “cash for stuff” or even a “stuff/labor for stuff\labor scheme”.
The good news is that the poor pretty much cannot get any more poor. The bad news is there may be more poor people as a result of this.
Can anyone change a whozillion dollar bill for me?
posted September 28, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Lots of silliness caused by leaders in the U.S. Palin’s road to nowhere cost the U.S. taxpayers 8,000 dollars per mile. When she was asked about why didn’t she stop this, she said it couldn’t be stopped because it was too late to stop it. This doesn’t seem logical, perhaps she just thought it would be a good perk for her tourist business in Alaska, perhaps she is telling the truth, she didn’t know how to stop it. After all who would object to her Miss Alaska charm, and confident smile? All contestants know that acting can get you where you want to go, for most things, but not for politics when you can’t answer questions put to you by leading newspeople like Katie Couric.