Stimulating peace and justice

A colleague just passed on this response from a church in Asheville, NC to the President's economic stimulus package. The entire congregation unanimously decided to donate their tax rebates to organizations that work for peace and justice! Will you pledge your rebate to FOR?

Click read more to see their entire letter. I hope you'll read it, I found it very powerful, and great model for others.

February 28, 2008

To President George W. Bush
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
House of Representatives Leader Nancy Pelosi
House of Representatives Minority Leader John A. Boehner

We want to thank you for your hard work in response to our economic crisis. Citizens of every persuasion long for and deserve such bipartisanship. Nevertheless, we have abiding questions about the recent economic stimulus legislation.

There are varied opinions in our congregation about the effectiveness of this legislation. What we agree on, however, is that your deliberations appear to have neglected deeper questions: Whose economy is being stimulated? Which arrangements are being strengthened and which are being breached?

There exists a frightening, and escalating, pattern of economic disparity both in the U.S. and between the U.S. and the larger family of nations. This is politically dangerous, economically unstable and environmentally ruinous.

In the language of our faith, this disparity is a sin and the evidence of spiritual distress. Our Scripture, tradition and conscience are insistent at this point: loving God and doing justice are parallel commitments.

Compelled by our nation’s economic divide and the mandates of our faith, members of our congregation voted unanimously to give away all or part of our anticipated tax rebates to organizations that foster justice.

We make no claims of special expertise. Nor do we believe that our Scripture, tradition and conscience have ready-made answers. That task belongs to a wider mix of people willing to work hard, with intelligence and passion, for the sake of the common good. But of this we are certain: there must be more commonness in the good we pursue.

We do not believe that shopping is an appropriate response to our trauma—whether that of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, or the crumbling lives being chewed up in our constricting economy. There is something very wrong in this assumption. Our gluttony, literally and figuratively, is laying waste to our commonweal.

We are not ascetics. Our congregation shares potluck feasts after weekly worship. A frequent invitation at our communion table is “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). We celebrate “the fatness of the earth” (Genesis 27:28) as an element of God’s blessing.

But the Bible also speaks of “fatness” in a different way: “Violence covers [the wicked] as a garment. Their eyes swell out with fatness, their hearts overflow with follies” (Psalms 73:4-8).

Our nation has become infatuated with security. We have forgotten that the only lasting security is mutual security; that terror cannot be overcome with more terror; that clenched fists cannot unravel the legacies of enmity that inflict neighborhoods and nations alike.

We know that relinquishing our rebate checks is a modest step and that many other personal and public commitments are needed. Our vow to forego the extra income is simply a sign of our resolve to bear the cost of moving toward the beloved community.

Respectfully, and with appreciation for the burdens of your duty,

Rev. Ken Sehested, co-pastor, signed on behalf of the Circle of Mercy Congregation

Approved in congregational business meeting, 2.24.08

Click here if you would like to pledge a part of your rebate to FOR right now.