Fasting and praying for the poor

(RNS) Faced with an unjust rule of Persian king who threatened the very
lives of her Jewish people, the Jewish heroine Queen Esther called on
the faithful to fast and pray for their rulers to have a change of
heart.


Taking their cue from Esther, a diverse coalition of religious
leaders -- from Bread for the World, World Vision, MercyCorps,
Sojourners, the ONE Campaign and the Alliance to End Hunger -- are
calling on Americans of good faith to join them in fasting and prayer to
protest proposed budget cuts that would jeopardize the poor, sick and
hungry at home and abroad.


"What we're doing is humbling ourselves before God and saying, `I
can't do this anymore and I need your help and I'm not going to let go
until you do something,"' said former U.S. Ambassador Tony Hall, head of
the Alliance to End Hunger and co-convener of the fasting effort known
as Hunger Fast (www.hungerfast.org).


Even before its official launch on Tuesday (March 29), at least
3,000 Sojourners activists had already signed on.


"I'm calling (God) in just like in Isaiah 58," Hall said. "I'm
calling (God's) power in."


He's done it before. Back in 1993, then-Congressman Hall undertook a
water-only fast for 22 days to protest similar budget cuts to aid
programs for poor and other vulnerable Americans.


The proposed 2011 federal budget reductions include cuts to domestic
spending of about $2.3 billion from affordable housing, $1.75 billion
from job training, $1 billion from community health centers, $900
million from refugee programs and $390 million from low-income heating
assistance.


The budget cuts, announced in mid-February to combat a staggering
$1.3 trillion federal deficit, also call for slashing foreign aid by
about $5 billion, including $450 million to the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. According to an analysis of the proposed
budget cuts by the ONE Campaign, cuts to the Global Fund would mean
that:


-- 10.4 million bed nets to fight malaria will not be provided


-- 6 million treatments for malaria will not be administered


-- 3.7 million people will not be tested for HIV


-- 58,286 HIV-positive, pregnant women will not receive treatments
to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV


-- 414,000 people will not be provided their antiretroviral (ARV)
medication


-- 372,000 testing and treatments for tuberculosis will be halted


"When your remind Americans what's going on, what is really
happening in the world and in their own country, they will respond and
respond in a good way," Hall said in an interview. "I think they really
don't know. Hopefully we'll get this in front of them with this fast."


Hall, an evangelical, has two goals: a groundswell of Americans
joining him in fasting and prayer to oppose cuts to domestic and foreign
aid programs; and the prayer that at least a few Republican House
members will "break rank" and speak out against the cuts precisely
"because they are evangelicals ... because of their faith."


A recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the
Press found that evangelicals, more than any other group of Americans,
are more likely to support cutting spending for foreign aid (unrelated
to security interests) and programs for the unemployed.


But Sojourners founder Jim Wallis doesn't believe the Pew results
are an accurate reflection of what he sees among rank-and-file
evangelicals -- particularly younger evangelicals who he says are deeply
engaged with global issues related to poverty, disease and other forms
of suffering.


Wallis, who plans to join Hall in a water-only fast, said that a
generation or two ago, global poverty and relief weren't even on the
radar as "moral issues" for most American evangelicals.


That's changing, said Adam Phillips, a young evangelical pastor who
directs faith relations for the ONE Campaign, founded by U2 frontman
Bono. "A younger generation of evangelicals definitely gets this," said
Phillips, who said young evangelicals see budgets, as Wallis does, as
"moral documents."


Right now he's working with churches to plan "Lazarus Sunday" events
on April 11 to support continued funding for life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs
that have the ability to snatch a dying person from the jaws of death (a
phenomenon known as the "Lazarus effect.")


"In 2002, only 50,000 Africans had access to life saving
anti-retroviral treatments (ARVs). Today nearly 4 million Africans are
on ARVs," Phillips said. "This is definitely a legacy of President
George W. Bush, but it is also a testament to the efforts of Rick and
Kay Warren, World Vision, the National Association of Evangelicals and
many others.


"We need a responsible budget that reflects our collective values,"
Phillips said, "and our assistance to our poorest neighbors is part of
that equation."


Wallis, who knows a thing or two about going up against forces with
bigger budgets and more lobbyists than he has, is ready for a fight.


"It is not only bad economics, but also bad religion," he wrote
recently. "And if the super-rich and their representatives in Congress
persist in this fight against the poor, they will be picking a fight
with all of us."