Faithful Budget for FY 2014 demonstrates how federal budget choices can and must reflect America’s shared values
(May 1, 2013) – A prominent coalition of America’s major national religious organization and leaders unveiled the “
Faithful Budget for FY 2014” an expression of the faith community’s budget priorities that stands in stark contrast to the partisan budget proposals currently under consideration. The document is a set of comprehensive and compassionate budget principles that promotes values shared by diverse faiths: protection of the common good, the value of each individual and lifting the burden on those living at the economic margins of society.
“As the prophets have taught us, our community is like one body, and when one part of it aches, the entire community awakens in a fever,” said
Dr. Sayyid Syeed, National Director for Interfaith & Community Alliances, Islamic Society of North America. “Now is the time to awaken to the pain of those who are poor and vulnerable among us, both here in America and around the world. As people of faith, we are committed to ensuring that our nation’s federal budget reflects the moral conscience of the American people by providing protection to those in our community that need it most.”
“The Faithful Budget reflects our vision of a responsible fiscal plan that focuses on justice and economic opportunity for all,” said
Sr. Simone Campbell, SSS, Executive Director, Network, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby. “While ensuring adequate resources through a fair tax system, it prioritizes human security and care for Creation while it supports measures to address the moral scandal of rising inequality. We call on Congress to adopt its core principles, which exemplify the values and compassion of our faith traditions and nation as a whole.”
Joining with the release of Faithful Budget for FY2014, Sister Simone and Rev. Chuck Currie of the United Church of Christ in Portland, Oregon, published an op-ed in The Hill’s
Congress Blog today, detailing why President Obama’s latest budget “…falls short of the moral vision many faith leaders have for this country and the president’s own ideals as he embodied in his second Inaugural Address.”
With the latest release, the faith community calls on Congress and President Obama to atone for their budgets’ more shortfalls by restoring economic opportunity, ensuring adequate resources for shared priorities, meeting critical human needs at home and abroad, accepting intergenerational responsibility, using the gifts of creation sustainably and responsibly, providing access to health care for all, and recognizing a robust role for government.
“The Faithful Budget recognizes that our lives here in America are inextricably bound together with the lives of all others around the world,” said
Rev. John L. McCullough, President and CEO, Church World Service. “God’s abundant provision means that there is enough for all, if we act with justice and compassion. As a people, we can be compassionate neighbors creating security and prosperity for ourselves and for all by helping to end hunger and extreme poverty throughout the world.”
The Faithful Budget for FY 2014 Preamble, which has been endorsed by 44 religious denominations and organizations, calls on Congress and President Obama “to craft a federal budget that fulfills our shared duty to each other in all segments of society, to those who are struggling to overcome poverty or are especially vulnerable, and to future generations through our collective responsibility as stewards of Creation.”
Faithful Budget for FY 2014 builds on the Faithful Budget for FY 2013 released in March 0f 2012 and the Faithful Budget Campaign, an effort launched by the religious community in May 2011 to lift up faithful voices on behalf of the nation’s most vulnerable in order to encourage the administration and Congress to maintain a robust commitment to domestic and international poverty assistance programs.
“Our Jewish tradition commands us to ‘do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God’ (Micah 6:8),” said
Rabbi David Saperstein, Director and Counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “Is justice a father working full-time who still cannot support his family on a minimum wage salary? Is mercy a mother who is forced to choose between feeding her children and paying for their medicine? Are we walking humbly as we pass thousands sleeping outdoors each night? We can do better. We must do better. This Faithful Budget is a call to recognize the inherent dignity of each and every human being, a call to honor the spark of the divine that is present in every one of us, a call to action.”
Additional details about the Faithful Budget Campaign can be found at
www.faithfulbudget.org. The Faithful Budget for FY2014 was spearheaded by some of the nation’s most recognizable Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other faith-based organizations united by shared beliefs to lift up the nation’s most vulnerable and demonstrate that America is a better nation when we follow our faiths’ imperatives to promote the general welfare of all individuals. A full list of the faith-based organizations that endorsed the preamble-principles of the Faithful Budget are included below.
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American Friends Service Committee
Arkansas Interfaith Alliance Bread for the World
Center of Concern
Center on Conscience and War
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada
Christian Connections for International Health
Christian Reformed Church Office of Social Justice
Church of the Brethren
Church World Service
Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach
Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism
Conference of Major Superiors of Men
Council of Churches of Rhode Island
Delaware Ecumenical Council of Children
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Faithful Reform in Health Care
Florida Council of Churches
Franciscan Action Network
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Institute Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
Interfaith Worker Justice – New Mexico
Islamic Society of North America
Jesuit Conference
Jubilee USA Network
Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Office, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, United States Province
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Mennonite Central Committee US
Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network
Minnesota Council of Churches
Muslim Public Affairs Council
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund
National Council of Churches of Christ, USA
NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
North Carolina Council of Churches
Pax Christi USA
Pennsylvania Council of Churches
Presbyterian Church (USA), Office of Public Witness
Progressive National Baptist Convention
Unitarian Universalist Association
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
