by Brian Swarts 03-04-2009

The season of Lent reminds us of the renewal that came through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Lent is a time to prepare for the coming of Easter and to celebrate the gift of redemption. Lent is also a time to search for ways we can be part of God’s work of redemption and renewal in our world.

As we search for those things that need renewal here and now, we find the global economic crisis gives us a serious issue to reflect on. I believe that we have momentous opportunity in America, where the Spirit is calling us to greater leadership on global poverty and injustice in a time of turmoil. As the global economic crisis increases the number of people vulnerable to extreme poverty, hunger, and disease, it is increasingly urgent for Christians to serve as informed and effective advocates for the poor and the marginalized. While each of us is hurt by hard times, it is the people around the world living on less than $1/day, facing hunger, thirst, and illness, who bear the greatest burden of this crisis.

That’s why, during this Lenten season, we are inviting Christians around the nation to pray for those who have been hardest hit by the global crisis. In prayer, you will be joining “Micah Challenge” campaigns in numerous countries—from Great Britain to Rwanda—who have all committed to pray. Sometime over the next two months gather your family, friends, and church members together in praying our Prayer for Justice, Mercy, and Humility:

Prayer for Justice, Mercy, and Humility

Lord, hear our prayer:
Today we face the season of our redemption during a time of global crisis.
During this season teach us to understand the love that drove you to give up everything to save us all.
Give us the strength that only comes in weakness;
The renewal that only comes through death and resurrection.
Today many of us feel weakened, burdened, and overwhelmed by the challenges and uncertainties that lie ahead.
We ask that your strength be made perfect in our time of weakness.
While each of us is hurt by hard times, it is the people around the world living on less than $1/day, facing hunger, thirst, and illness, who bear the greatest burden of this crisis.
Just as your weakest hour proved to be the most generous, most life-giving moment in history,
We pray for that out of our own weakness comes a generosity of justice, mercy, and humility for those who bear burdens greater than our own.
Help us to remember that you are the God who, out of nothing, made everything.
The God who still has the power today to remake us.
So let us be remade, not overcome, by our global crisis;
Let us be purified, and not laid low, by injustice, greed, and inequality.

Let us commit ourselves to:
Act justly,
Love mercy,
And walk humbly with you, and with all those who suffer or want.

This is our moment to change the world.
Because it is at our moment of crisis where your strength and your light, revealed to the world by our faith, become a force that is stronger than fear or death.

Today, move us to become the answer to our prayers.
Give us the strength to respond, in our own time of need, to the needs of those who have the least in our world.
Lead us to be your agents of hope and renewal during this season of redemption.

For it is only in You that we have the power to change things;
It is only because of You that we have the promise of renewal;
And yet is through us that You seek to do all these things. Amen.

Ways to “Be the Answer” to This Prayer:

1. Educate your community, church, or campus about the issues facing the impoverished and marginalized in our world.
2. Advocate for the U.S. to lead other rich nations in pledging emergency aid to the most impoverished nations at the G20 meeting in April.
3. Join thousands of other Christians praying for justice in Washington, D.C., for the culmination of our Lenten campaign, at the Sojourners Mobilization to End Poverty, April 26-29.

Brian Swarts is the National Coordinator of Micah Challenge USA, a global campaign to make transforming cultures of poverty and injustice integral to the mission of every Christian and church.

by Mary Nelson 03-03-2009

Several years ago over 100 of us were arrested for blocking a Capital building entrance and protesting tax cuts for the 5 percent wealthiest people and program cuts from WIC, food stamps, college assistance, and foster care programs for the poor. That budget, we said, was IMMORAL. President Obama’s proposed budget is a direct reversal of that, adding back the taxes to the wealthiest and more adequately funding programs that were cut. Now, people of faith and others, instead of protesting, can push for Congress to adopt these priorities. God calls us to care for the widows and orphans and “let justice roll down.”

The newly made and long-term homeless need the funding of the Low Income Housing Trust Fund; those released from prison need the Second Chance Act funded so they can move forward rather than end up back in prison (America has a 67 percent recidivism rate). With extended nutritional programs for pregnant women and children, babies can THRIVE and grow into a good future. With extended assistance for higher education, our youth have greater prospects for work and the “fullness of life.”

Such priorities for investing in people and our future create not only a moral budget, but also make good financial sense. It costs $25,000 a year to keep someone in prison; why not spend one-third of that on training and work opportunities? It costs over $1,000 a day for hospital perinatal care; why not spend so much less to keep babies healthy and thriving? A college education creates life-long larger future earnings; why not make that possible for all youth who aspire to that?

Finally, it will take all of us, motivated by our faith and sense of justice, to push Congress to enact such a budget. We need to start now, participate in the Mobilization to End Poverty in late April, and get our congressional delegates to experience firsthand in our communities the opportunity to make a future for children, for our communities.

Mary Nelson is president emeritus of Bethel New Life, a faith-based community development corporation on the West Side of Chicago. She is also a board member of Sojourners.

by April Joy Damian 02-27-2009

Growing up Catholic in San Francisco, I was fortunate to be raised with a passion for social justice rooted in my faith. Contrary to the present-day association of Christianity with political and social conservatism, I view my faith as radical. One of my former Ethnic Studies professors called Jesus a revolutionary; Jesus challenged the status quo as he ate with prostitutes and tax collectors, touched and healed lepers and the sick on the Sabbath, and showed a genuine love and favor for the marginalized of society. My commitment to address the issues facing marginalized groups of today’s society, whether that be the educationally disadvantaged or the medically underserved, is rooted in scripture’s teaching of “serving the least of these.”

After graduating from college, I moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as a Truman Fellow and Program Analyst with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran Health Administration. Before moving to the east coast, I defined Washington as the center of policy and power. However, as I became better acquainted with the city, I soon realized that minutes away from all the government buildings, embassies, and lobbyists are communities burdened with high rates of illiteracy and unemployment. Hence, in reality, there are two D.C.s. The country continues to face the dilemma of an increasing gap between the haves and have-nots, even within the nation’s capital.

Nevertheless, as I stated in my graduation speech, the knowledge and understanding of social divisions must be matched with practical solutions on the ground. In addition to working in downtown D.C., I decided to volunteer as a GED science instructor at Academy of Hope. The program gives volunteer instructors complete autonomy over the curriculum. Given that all of my students were working class people of color, I decided to approach the class from a public health perspective. For example, I tied the respiratory system with the health disparities of smoking, lung cancer, and asthma in the African-American population. I modeled the class after Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of education, which Freire describes in Pedagogy of the Oppressed. This allowed my students to take ownership of their education by not only understanding the physiological consequences of smoking, but how to address this health issue within their own families and communities. The experience of facilitating the learning of students ranging in both age (23 to 67) and in country of origin (Ethiopia, Haiti) and observing them teach each other was challenging, moving, and humbling, all at the same time.

I am coming to The Mobilization to End Poverty because I recognize how poverty serves as a barrier to basic human rights, including quality education and health care. I am currently in the process of applying to medical school, and hope to improve the health conditions of the urban underserved through research and policy advocacy.

After living in the Bay Area and in Washington, D.C., I have witnessed how poverty has served as a root cause for inequalities in health care access and health outcomes. For example, the greater prevalence of liquor stores over groceries with fresh produce in low-income neighborhoods contributes to the disproportionate rates of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity among the poor.

I am excited to be meeting with other people of faith who share my interest in the intersection of poverty and health care (a workshop topic at The Mobilization) and drawing solutions for addressing these challenges from a moral standpoint. I am also looking forward to seeing Jeffrey Sachs, as his work has inspired me to continue to look at poverty and health beyond the domestic level. The United States not only has a responsibility to tend to the basic needs of its citizens, and thus to lead by example – as world leader, it also has a responsibility to use its position of power to support policies and interventions that effectively reduce extreme global poverty, thereby uplifting the human spirit worldwide.

April Joy Damian is a Community Leaders Scholarship recipient for The Mobilization to End Poverty. She is a layleader at St. Patrick Catholic Church in San Francisco.