[US] Poverty religious issue, Baptist congress told

from The Tennessean

Church must help nation, Lowery says

By CHELSEA HADAWAY
Staff Writer

The financial disparity between the rich and poor is an issue that must be addressed in a religious context, the Rev. Joseph Lowery said in a fervent keynote speech to the National Baptist Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress Monday night.

"Poverty is a religious issue," Lowery said in a speech marked by applause and a standing ovation.

It is the root of many evils in America, he said, and he charged the church with the mission of addressing that problem.

"The church must help America rediscover herself," Lowery said. "We must move from charity to love."

About 800 people attended the dinner.

They are among an estimated 10,000 National Baptists who are attending the 100th anniversary celebration of the congress. It was started in 1906 by the late R.H. Boyd.

A catalyst for change during the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King, Lowery has long been active in promoting change in America.

He quoted from the Bible, referring to the chapter on love, I Corinthians 13.

"If your Bible says faith, hope, and charity, you need a new translation," Lowery said. "Because love is more powerful than charity."

Charity is seasonal and love is permanent, he said. Love will see to the problems inflicted because of poverty. Love will see that a man has health insurance, love will see that the water where a man fishes is not polluted, love will do these things — not charity, Lowery said.

Lowery also spoke of the great disparity between the rich and the poor throughout the world. The last time he was in Haiti, a country heavily impoverished, he said, his friends took him up to the top of a hill and there was a gated community of great wealth.

"That disparity is frightening," he said.

Lowery also spoke of the dangers and the injustice of having so little wealth concentrated in so few hands while millions suffer from lack of so many things.