[US] Religious Leaders to Urge Rice for Anti-Poverty Ahead of WTO

From The Christian Post

With the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings less than two weeks away, Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders will meet today in Washington with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to urge the United States to take a leadership role at the meetings in Hong Kong.

Leaders from Christian anti-poverty advocacy groups, denominational leaders and others will call on Rice to continue her push for anti-poverty efforts, ensuring fairer trade by ending farm subsidies, and to take action on Capitol Hill so that Congress lives up to recent development aid pledges, which have so far come up short.

In mid-November, during a visit to Asia, Rice pressed Asia-Pacific countries to push strongly for a trade deal that could raise millions out of poverty at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea

“As the administration plans its FY2007 budget, our message to the administration is to be bold,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, who will be attending the meeting on Thursday. “The administration needs to be doing more on Capitol hill to fight for its promises to reduce global poverty.”

In a preview statement issued by Bread for the World before the meeting, the faith leaders commended the Bush administration efforts such as the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) initiative in 2002. The program focuses on providing aid to committed countries that invest in their people, promote just policies, and make good plans for economic development.

In July, at the G8 Summit in Scotland, world leaders pledged to increase their annual developmental aid by millions. However the faith leaders have been disappointed with the results.

“Congress has failed to fully fund the president's requests to ensure his commitments to the world's poorest people.”

In 2002, when President Bush launched the MCA as a government corporation he said faith and conscience drove the project.

"We fight against poverty because faith requires it and conscience demands it," he stated.

The leaders are scheduled to hold a joint press conference at the state department with Secretary Rice following the meeting.

Faith leaders attending the meeting will be: the Rev. David Beckmann, President,
Bread for the World; Rabbi Frederick Mark Dobb, Adat Shalom
Reconstructionist Congregation; Bishop Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop,
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America; Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim Chaplin,
Georgetown University; the Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the
General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (USA); Imam Mohamed HagMagid,
Executive Director and Imam, All Dulles Area Muslim Society; Cardinal
Theodore E. McCarrick, Catholic Archbishop of Washington; Bishop Roy I.
Sano, Executive Secretary, United Methodist Council of Bishops; Bishop
Monroe R. Saunders Jr., Presiding Bishop, The United Church of Jesus Christ,
Apostolic; Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, Secretary General, Islamic Society of North
America; Dr. H. Eric Schockman, President, MAZON: A Jewish Response to
Hunger; Dr. Daniel Vestal, Coordinator, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and
Rabbi Jeffrey A. Wohlberg, Adas Israel Congregation.