From the Salmon

I know that much of what I write about current politics or about the church in the US is fairly critical. Admittedly, I often use this forum to explore or even vent my frustrations. But I hope that in the midst of my sometimes angry analysis, I’ve been able to offer a more constructive vision from time to time.

Part of that involves recognizing positive contributions by people who I have criticized in the past.

Before I left for the weekend, I wrote a series of posts that were pretty critical of Pastor Ted Haggard, the pastor of Colorado Springs’ New Life Church and President of the National Association of Evangelicals. And I still stand by my statements regarding Haggard’s small-group model, his ”free-market theology” and his uncritical endorsement of President Bush. But I was pleased to read the following in an email sent by Jim Wallis of Sojourners, describing an evening a week or so ago when religious leaders set aside differences in politics and religious views in order to focus on the overwhelming challenges of global poverty:

The massive reality of global hunger and poverty has revealed our own spiritual poverty and is bringing us together. The religious leaders gathered at Washington’s National Cathedral also have different political views. But maybe soon overcoming poverty could become a bipartisan issue and a nonpartisan cause. That same day, I received a powerfully persuasive message from evangelical leader Rick Warren, who urged his entire e-mail list to join the 800,000 people who have signed on to the ONE campaign to overcome poverty, alongside sponsors such as World Vision, Bread for the World, Sojourners, and U2’s Bono.

The next day, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was in Washington, D.C., to meet with President George W. Bush, primarily to discuss the goals for the upcoming G8 meeting for heads of state planned for Gleneagles, Scotland, in early July. During his packed one-day schedule, Blair asked to meet with a small group of religious leaders to discuss the issues involved in the G8 Summit, especially with regard to Africa — which he has described as “the fundamental moral challenge of our time.” Some of the same people from the night before gathered again for the hour-long meeting with the British leader whose country will be hosting the crucial international gathering in just three weeks.

We noted the diversity of religious leaders and traditions sitting around the table, including Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, Ted Haggard of the National Association of Evangelicals, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Bishop John Chane of the Episcopal Church, and Bob Edgar of the National Council of Churches. From the Southern Baptist leader to the Muslim imam, we each expressed a real hope that something very new and powerful might come out of our common resolve.

We spoke of how for the first time the world has the knowledge, information, technology, and resources to substantially end extreme poverty as we know it, but that what is still lacking is the moral and political will to do so. And we agreed that to generate such moral will is part of the job of the religious community.

In the past, I’ve criticized not only Haggard, but also Rick Warren and Hybels’ Willow Creek. So let me say that I’m greatly encouraged to see these three influential men take prominent positions as Christians and as Americans in advocating for policies that may lead to substantial reductions in extreme global poverty. For Pastor Ted to join forces with the likes of Rev. Edgar is a positive step in bringing together Christians on the right and on the left. For Warren (whose list of “non-negotiables” in the 2004 election didn’t include a reference to global poverty) to be encouraging his vast list of followers to become engaged in this cause is significant.

In a previous post, I wrote that global poverty is not a liberal issue or a conservative issue. It’s a human issue. But it’s also an issue that the political leaders in the US have been reluctant to make a priority. So to have religious leaders from a broad spectrum of faiths and political ideology working together to build the moral will to tackle this issue is huge.

How huge? It’s hard to know if the meeting Wallis describes is at all responsible, but that same week, the Bush administration finally agreed to months of pressure from Tony Blair and others to pursue large-scale debt relief for impoverished nations at the upcoming G8 meeting.

While this is a commendable, important step, it’s only a start.

Haggard, Hybels, Warren, Wallis and others can be important voices in motivating Christians in the US to take interest in the efforts to reduce extreme poverty. But we can, too. If we start to tell our congresspeople that this is important to us, they might find the political will to act. If we show our support for campaigns like the ONE campaign, it serves as a symbol for the growing number of people concerned about poverty. If we talk to friends, family, fellow Christians and countrymen about this, it might amplify our individual voices.

But this is more than just a problem to be solved by governments. There is a real need for healing, for reconciliation, for renewal, for changed hearts and changed lives in countries burdened by corruption, by civil war, by disease and starvation. As I’ve written previously, the churches in Africa are longing to be partners in healing. We just need to find a willingness in our churches to join them.

Perhaps what we’re seeing is the beginning of that movement. If so, that’s certainly worthy of praise.