[Alabama] Faith-based focus urged on state poverty

From Alabama.com

Nov. 1 seminar geared to begin attack strategy

By KAY CAMPBELL
Times Faith & Values Editor, kayc@htimes.com

Christians and politics: It's not just about abortion and gays any more, says Chuck Vedane, chairman of the Church and Society Ministry of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church.

In fact, the Bible has much, much more to say about helping the poor than it does about either of those cultural hot-button issues.

"If you read the Bible," Vedane said recently as he and Doug Seay, chairman of the Church and Society Committee for the Huntsville District, discussed the committee's work, "there is more said about poverty, about helping the widows and orphans, than about any other issue.

"You have to come to the conclusion that poverty's a pretty important issue for God."

And it's time, say Vedane, Seay, and non-Christian believers including Buddhist Linda Haynes, for people of faith to look up from their food pantries, clothes closets and Angel Trees for bigger ways to make poverty more rare in Alabama.

"All sacred texts talk about taking care of the poor, but we need systemic change to alleviate the causes of poverty," said Haynes, a leader in Huntsville's Faith Coalition on Poverty and Public Policy. "Charity is nice, but it's like a Band-Aid."

The Faith Coalition, with the Interfaith Mission Service, is organizing a Nov. 1 evening seminar on poverty and justice. Stephen Black, director of the University of Alabama Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility and former candidate for state treasurer, will be the keynote speaker.

The seminar is the start of an effort to design a faith-based strategy to attack poverty.

"A lot of people just don't know what to do beyond just doing good," said Rosemary Urban, also helping to organize the seminar. "We'll give people lesson plans to take back to their adult Sunday schools with information on how people can begin to affect poverty and justice on a deeper level."

Current tax structure, for instance, means that the poor in Alabama pay a much higher real percentage of their income in taxes than do the wealthy. And that's not fair, Vedane says

"We should have a level playing field," Vedane said.

The coalescing of these efforts just as candidates are beginning to announce for next year's elections is no coincidence.

"We think the church's position ought to be a part of the public debate," Doug Seay said.

The goal of both the United Methodist committees on Church and Society, similar committees in other denominations and of the Faith Coalition, is to begin to study what the problems are, collect solid data, and to identify positions that people of faith may want to pressure their leaders to address.

"We're trying to stimulate a dialogue here," Vedane said. "We're not going to be telling anyone what candidate to vote for."

Reliable public transportation, for instance, is one component of ensuring that the working poor can stay self-sufficient.

"Anyone who doesn't understand that public transportation is going to be a major issue in our town hasn't filled up their gas tank lately," Urban said.

Other issues that will be addressed by experts Nov. 1 include making health care affordable and updating the state constitution.

And this is just the beginning, Urban said.

"It's the people who have the power to make changes," Urban said. "And the faith community can do that - at least to open this up for discussion."