Why Focus on Poverty?

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor."—Luke 4:18

Throughout the Bible, God shows a special concern for those in poverty and acts in history to lift them up. As Christians, we are called to share God's concerns. In a time when political and social issues threaten to divide the church, many people of faith are coming together to affirm that dignity and justice for those who live in poverty is a deeply held religious commitment on which we are all firmly united.

Our neighborhoods, nation, and world cry out for a response to the poverty that fractures the common good and abandons those Jesus called "the least of these." In America, low-income families are often stuck between liberal and conservative arguments, but neither political party has made the needs of poor families a top priority. Our nation—individuals, communities, religious leaders, and political leaders at the local, state, and national level—must make overcoming poverty a nonpartisan issue and a bipartisan cause.

The current political landscape provides us real opportunity to overcome poverty. Our struggling economy threatens to make poverty a reality for mainstream America, not just those in the margins. Economic recovery packages that focus on the poor have proven the most effective at lifting the economy as a whole. And we have commitments from both President Obama and members of Congress to work to reduce poverty in half over the next ten years.

To achieve sustainable solutions, we need a moral renewal of our priorities and a commitment to advancing the common good. We can overcome poverty, but only if we act together, and only if all sectors of society do what they do best. Our policy plan involves commitments from and recommendations for all members of our nation. We must all be held accountable to our goals.

Our Goals

Overcoming poverty requires vision and commitment. We believe our society should make two fundamental commitments to those in poverty:

1. Reduce the number of Americans living in poverty in half in the next ten years. (1/2 in 10)
2. Provide leadership to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals, a set of international goals for reducing extreme global poverty.

Our Domestic Strategy: Ending Poverty in the United States

We are not committed to any particular ideological method or partisan agenda to achieve these policy goals; however, we are committed to achieving them by supporting methods that work. We pray that political leaders will adopt our vision by supporting policies that foster both social and personal responsibility. Addressing poverty requires understanding the interlocking nature of root causes and consequences; therefore, we identify the following broad categories as a framework upon which to develop more specific policies and programs to cut domestic poverty in half in ten years. 

Social and Government Responsibility

Health Care. Health care is a human right, not a commodity available only to those who can afford it. All who work and those unable to work should be assured of quality health care. There are a variety of ways to achieve this goal and we have a moral obligation to achieve it.

Hunger. Federal nutrition programs provide about 20 times as much food to needy people as all the charitable programs in the country combined. These federal programs need to be strengthened.

Education. New ways of improving our education system should focus on parental involvement, support teachers, emphasize neighborhood schools, provide accountability to the community, offer and test a variety of options, and eliminate racial and economic disparities to ensure a quality education for all.

Housing. All sectors of society—public, private, non-profit, faith-based, organized labor, foundations, and individuals—must advocate for policies and resources to provide decent housing to all people in ways that develop mixed-income communities.

Tax Policy. Low-income people can benefit from targeted tax policies that are pro-work and pro-family. The bipartisan Earned Income Tax Credit should be expanded, with accelerated marriage penalty relief, and the Dependent Care Tax Credit should be made available to every parent.

Immigration. We need immigration policies that are both compassionate and just. It is important to make our borders secure and enforce our nation's laws, but we should do so in humane and realistic ways.

Violence. Violence correlates with the lack of hope and opportunity prevalent in the lives of so many poor youth in urban and rural areas. While we must have safe streets, it is important that we also provide the most effective mental health, drug, and other treatments to prevent people from becoming criminals and get troubled young offenders back on the right track.

Personal and Community Responsibility

Marriage and Family. There must be commitments to education and action on reducing teen pregnancy, strengthening marriage and family formation, in-home parenting coaching and support, encouraging responsible fatherhood, preventing domestic violence, and preventing the abuse and neglect of children.

Asset Creation. The wealth gap is even greater than the income gap, especially among minority families. Families should be assisted in asset and wealth creation that provides security and freedom.

Job Training. In an increasingly complex marketplace, the will to work must be accompanied by desirable skills. Needed training includes basic education and spiritual formation about a work ethic along with the specific knowledge and skills needed to compete for employment.

Government and Religious Partnership. Government and religious partnerships should be entered into with a respect for the law, and safeguards to prevent use of direct government funding for spiritual activities should be in place. Efforts of religious groups can be strengthened if given greater resources and respect, but faith-based service providers should not be expected to replace the role of government in addressing social needs.

Neighborhoods. There should be more support for community-based policing, after-school programs, and Community Development Block Grant funding.

Racial Justice. We need a more honest discussion about policies that foster or ignore racial inequality. We need reconciliation with one another and greater respect for basic human rights.

Our Global Strategy: Working Together

In order to overcome the monumental challenge posed by global poverty, our country's leadership needs firm benchmarks. The United Nations already set benchmarks in 2000—the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—and it is time for the United States to fully commit its resources and willpower to achieving these targets.

The MDGs, signed by more than 189 world leaders in 2000, commit to lifting half of those living on less than $1 a day out of abject poverty by the year 2015.  Due to this global effort we have seen some encouraging advances in the last 9 years, but bold leadership from world leaders and people of faith is needed if we are to keep our promises to the poor.

The eight goals of the plan seek to address the different dimensions of extreme poverty:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Specific areas have achieved important successes that give us hope: over 1.6 billion people have obtained access to safe drinking water since 1990; the production of bednets that help prevent malaria has more than tripled in the past three years; and the percentage of young children in developing schools has steadily risen. Furthermore, the goals have taught us lessons about the importance of setting benchmarks, empowering developing nations to help themselves, and trying varied approaches to resolving these complex problems.

Churches around the United States have been leading the push for U.S. involvement in the MDGs. The faith community can rightfully claim some credit for recent expansions in the fights against fatal diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS.  Between now and 2015 we have a unique moment when the MDGs of world leaders echo the biblical prophets and the teachings of Jesus concerning the poor.

The Mobilization will empower Christians to act together at this momentous time in history and show our politicians that Americans want bold leadership on global poverty.

For more information about the MDGs and the details of each goal, please visit: www.un.org/millenniumgoals.

Our Commitment

Overcoming poverty will require the public and private sectors, and civil society—including faith communities—to partner in creative ways that transform public ethics and generate the moral and political will to support policies benefiting the common good, not merely private interests. We embrace these poverty goals in the spirit of shared responsibility and invite God's help as we commit to:

• Personal renewal and action, grounding ourselves in prayer and in the word of God, and living under the call of Jesus to bring good news to the poor.
• Congregational renewal and engagement, serving and working alongside the poor in our cities and communities in the name of Christ and challenging local leaders and institutions to honor their needs.
• Societal renewal through the advocacy of voice and witness, holding our national political leaders accountable to seeking the common good for our nation and the world, for all our citizens and, especially, the most vulnerable.

Just the Facts: The Truth of Poverty

Domestic poverty

• Faulty poverty measure. The current outdated poverty measure is based on patterns of consumption from the 1950s and does not account for the rising costs of energy, housing, and health care.
• Work doesn't work. 9.6 million working families, and a total of 21 million children are considered low-income (earning less than 200 percent of the poverty income threshold).
• Rising numbers. The number of low-income working families increased by 350,000 between 2002 and 2006.
• The growing income gap. In 2005, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans saw their incomes increase by 14 percent, but the average income of the bottom 90 percent dropped 0.6 percent.
• A lack of opportunity. Only 1 in 10 children from low-income communities will graduate from college.
• What safety net? 36 percent of workers 55 and older have less than $25,000 saved for retirement.

Global poverty

• $1 challenge. More than 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day and more than 2 billion live on less than $2 a day.
• Check your assumptions. Americans believe that their government spends 24 percent of the federal budget on aid to poor countries, but the actual figure is less than 1 percent.
• Daily disasters. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria—all treatable diseases—claim the lives of over 8,000 people every day in Africa due to lack of access to health care.
• The water walk. Women in developing countries travel an average of almost four miles each day to collect water.
• The poor pay more. People living in the poorest slums can pay as much as ten times more for water than those in high-income areas of their own cities.
• Gender disparity. According to the U.N., the majority of people in poverty are women, who globally earn roughly half as much as men.
• Daily bread. Food prices have risen 83 percent since 2005, disproportionately affecting those in poverty who spend a higher percentage of their income on food.
• No school for you. In 2005, a conservative estimate stated that 72 million children around the world of elementary school age were not enrolled in school.
• The global wealth gap. The richest 20 percent of the world's population receives 75 percent of the world's income, while the poorest 40 percent receive only 5 percent of the world's income.

For information about sources, please e-mail sojourners@sojo.net.