Faith groups want more aid for poor nations

from the San Francisco Chronicle

Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Religion Writer

An array of Bay Area religious leaders banded together Wednesday to announce plans to lobby Congress to increase foreign aid to poor countries for at least the next seven years.

The unprecedented lobbying effort was paired with a call to the Bay Area's myriad faith communities to join in what the religious leaders see as the defining issue facing the globe today.

"It's inconsistent and hypocritical to say our gospel is for all peoples of all nations, but ... we're not committed to the welfare of those people," said Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco George Niederauer.

The University of San Francisco, a Jesuit university, hosted the gathering Wednesday of interfaith leaders. Representatives from Jewish, Muslim and Wiccan groups attended, as did leaders from a slew of Christian denominations.

Organizers focused their attention on those living in the world's most extreme poverty, the roughly 2.6 billion people who live on less than $2 per day. They include roughly 1.1 billion people who fight for survival on less than a dollar a day.

The interfaith coalition wants the U.S. government to increase its foreign aid spending up to a total of 0.7 percent of the gross domestic product by 2015. Doing so would reach goals established in 2000 by the U.N. Millennium Summit. Currently, the United States spends $35.8 billion, or 0.2 percent of its GDP, on foreign aid. The group is calling for a 5 percent annual increase - which would still leave it at roughly 0.28 percent of the GDP by 2015, far short of its goal.

Several of those gathered at the luncheon said the anti-poverty initiative requires a rethinking of the nation's values. A video shown during the event featured economist Jeffrey Sachs, who said the Pentagon's daily budget of $1.5 billion is enough to provide five years of malaria protection for all of Africa.

George A. Wesolek, director of public policy for the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, said it is embarrassing that the richest country in the history of the world would spend so little on foreign aid to help the poor.

"That's a scandal," he said.

The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, the Episcopal Bishop of California, said poverty abroad is far greater than what is seen in the United States. But addressing global poverty should not be at the expense of anti-poverty efforts in the Bay Area - such as in the Bayview, Hunters Point and the city of Richmond.

"The theological underpinning is that you believe that God is abundant enough that we don't have to choose between working locally and working globally," said Andrus, who leads roughly 27,000 members and 80 congregations in six Bay Area counties. "You can do both."

Andrus, Niederauer and University of San Francisco President Stephen Privett will travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs.

Helping arrange the meeting is Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a member of Temple Emanu-El, the Bay Area's most influential synagogue, which has played a leading role in raising awareness about foreign aid spending for the poor.

The group wants passage of Senate Bill 2433, which has already drawn support from some social conservatives as well as liberals. The bill would require development of a comprehensive strategy to ease extreme poverty worldwide. Niederauer said that reaching out to politicians is a way to remind them that they need to represent their constituencies - and not an effort to become involved with any particular candidates or parties.