Press Release - August 29, 2011
Concerned Religious Leaders of Wisconsin
Concerned Religious Leaders of Wisconsin Raise Questions on the Morality of the State Budget
An interfaith group of clergy and lay religious leaders, calling themselves Concerned Religious Leaders of Wisconsin, have raised serious questions about the morality and ethics of the recently passed state budget. In a document and study guide called “A Religious Witness to the breach in the Social Covenant for the Common Good between the People and the State of Wisconsin, January through June 2011” (which can be found at http://concernedreligiousleaders.blogspot.com/2011/08/religious-witness-to-breach-in-social.html) the group hopes to raise awareness among Wisconsin’s elected officials, congregations, and communities regarding the inequities and injustices inherent in the recently passed biennium budget.
On August 18, 2011, clergy and lay leaders delivered copies of the Religious Witness to the Governor, and the majority and minority leaders in both the Senate and the Assembly. With the new addition of the study guide, Concerned Religious Leaders of Wisconsin is encouraging clergy and congregations around the state to educate themselves about the budget, the disturbing process surrounding its creation and passage, and the devastating effects the budget cuts to schools, health care, and social services will have on the poor, the young, and the elderly.
Attached to this release are the statements by members of the steering committee of the Concerned Religious Leaders of Wisconsin at the August 18th launch of this project.
Therefore, the Religious Witness calls upon our government to return to the days when civility and bi-partisan cooperation were the hallmarks of the Legislature; when lawmakers worked together to promote the common good; and when all Wisconsinites, rich and poor, paid their fair share to insure that our state had the best education, health care, infrastructure, and social services possible. The Religious Witness is a vehicle for educating congregations and communities about the teachings of various faith traditions on the imperative to provide for the poor, the young, the old, and the disenfranchised. And it is a call to be ever-vigilant in watching over the actions of elected officials, to call them to account and to ensure that the needs of the people are always uppermost in their considerations.
Concerned Religious Leaders of Wisconsin represents more than sixty clergy and lay religious leaders from across the state. This multi-faith group has gathered together over the last seven months to express concerns to elected officials and to educate congregations and religious communities about the religious and moral objections to the direction the state is taking, to express objections to the recently passed biennium budget, and to raise the voices of people of faith about the assault on public unions, the threats to education, health care, and social services, and the general breakdown in compassion, civil discourse, and concern for the public good from our state government.
Concerned Religious Leaders of Wisconsin Press Conference to Launch “A Religious Witness to the breach in the Social Covenant for the Common Good between the People and the State of Wisconsin, January through June 2011”
August 18, 2011
Statement of Rabbi Jonathan Biatch
Good afternoon. I am Rabbi Jonathan Biatch, a citizen of Wisconsin, and a religious leader of Temple Beth El, a Madison area Reform Jewish congregation. My colleagues and I gather here today representing over 60 concerned religious leaders in the state of Wisconsin, both clergy and laity, who feel that we must speak out publicly in reaction to the newly passed biennial budget of our state.
As leaders of faith communities, we are intimately in touch with people directly affected by the budget cuts in human services and education, as well as those who live in fear of how their lives will be affected during the next two years. As you will hear, we see and feel each day the anguish of people in our communities who have lost income, seen their work hours reduced, or who have been dismissed from their jobs entirely; and those whose life circumstances have compelled them to seek public assistance, which now will be reduced. And we cannot stand by silently while people suffer.
We have composed a statement expressing our perspective on the current budget. We call our statement “A Religious Witness to the breach in the Social Covenant for the Common Good between the People and the State of Wisconsin, January through June 2011.” Our statement sets forth the scriptural mandates of our religious traditions which enjoin us to care for the least among us, and contrasts them with the facts of the new budget, which enacts an unprecedented amount of inequality in the tax obligations of individuals and corporations, and created devastating reductions in state aid to people who need it the most.
The statement also speaks to the divisive language and confrontational tone that we heard during the course of the budget debate. This, too, is evidence of a breach in the established, traditional social contract, which has been, for many years, one of spirited debate leading to negotiated and widely accepted agreements.
Through this statement, we call upon our elected officials to work together in the spirit of cooperation and compromise, which is necessary to good governance. Our statement asks our government leaders to act for the common good of all the people of Wisconsin, and not for the benefit of any person, party or organization, whether in Wisconsin or outside of our state.
It is our plan this afternoon to visit the office of Governor Walker, and the majority and minority leaders of each house of our legislature, to let them know of the viewpoints of Concerned Religious Leaders of Wisconsin. Before we do so, I’d like to put forth a few points of clarification:
Our efforts are not of a partisan nature. Our concerns transcend partisan political considerations.
Further, our work is not political. We speak the language of our religious traditions, which teach us to help those in need and correct the injustices of the society in which we live. This is the language not of politics but rather of social justice and righteousness. While it may be that our American democratic traditions have us work within – and sometimes confront – political processes, our religious traditions mandate that we act out a sense of religious obligation. Our scriptures and traditions direct us to act for the good of the whole society, not for any particular interest group.
Finally, we speak as a group of Wisconsin citizens who have banded together to offer these views out of our religious calling and consciences; we do not speak on behalf of any congregation or organization. The United States Constitution permits the freedom of our speech and the right to address our grievances to the offices of government, and we have gathered together to act within this framework.
The statement that we authored speaks for itself, with the particular understandings that I just enumerated. The statement concludes with these four action statements:
1. We call upon the leaders of our state’s three branches of government to pledge to work with one another for the common good.
2. We call upon them to repeal the budget items recently passed that have removed the social safety net from the destitute and impoverished.
3. We let it be known that our watch over these issues has just begun, and that we will continue to monitor and report to the public on the situation from our religious perspective in the coming months and years.
4. We call upon all citizens of our state to continue to work toward the common good, to seize ownership of our governmental processes, and to become involved, as citizens and legislators, to make our state strong and stable.
Rabbi Jonathan Biatch is the rabbi of Temple Beth El in Madison, WI
Statement of Reverend Stephen G. Marsh
I have lived and done ministry in the state of Wisconsin for a little over 5 months. During the almost 30 years of ministry I was blessed with before I came here, I served in Philadelphia, Queens, Chicago, Brooklyn and Detroit, and was involved in each of those cities in ministry and community organizing that sought to address the injustices that are heaped upon the people of God in those and other large cities of our country, particularly the people of God who live in underserved communities of color and poverty.
When I came to Madison, WI, I assumed I would be able to catch my breath for at least a short time from the ever-present reality of injustice concerning God’s people. After all, the values of community, faith and family, helping and sharing, fairness and compassion HAD to be playing out SOMEWHERE in this country, and over the past decade or so, the record shows that the people and legislators of Wisconsin had been seeking to stay faithful to those values in some creative ways.
Needless to say, I was both SURPRISED and DISMAYED to find that the newly elected executive and legislative branches of Wisconsin government had turned the tables on everything sacred concerning the letter and spirit of justice and democracy for ALL the people of Wisconsin.
I do not exaggerate when I say “everything sacred,” as demonstrated by the document that we present to you today from many concerned religious leaders across faith and denominational lines. The budget that was submitted by Governor Walker and passed by the partisan legislature – and even upheld by the judicial branch – attacks EVERYTHING THAT IS SACRED concerning our lives together, and the values we hold as the people of faith, democracy, fairness and decency.
From the gutting of the ensured right to health care by the elimination of over $600 million from BadgerCare and Planned Parenthood; to the disrespectful burden that has been placed on our elders and seniors thru the capping of the Homestead Tax Credit, to the elimination of collective bargaining – which the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in its 1999 social statement Sufficient Sustainable Livelihood for All, identifies as a right of all employees, and commits itself as a church to honor and fight for those and other worker rights – the budget and subsequent laws that have been passed by this administration and legislature are DEPLORABLE when set against the standards that Almighty God, by whatever name you choose to call him – has given us to live together as brothers and sisters on this earth. God reminds us loud and clear – for just such a time as this – what is required of us. Thru the prophet Micah, God says “What does the Lord require? To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before our God.” (6:8).
But allow me to make a couple of points that particularly disturb and anger me as an African American resident of this state:
· Why would the legislature take $800 million in general support away from our public schools – and make $1.6 billion in budget cuts to education overall – just as our public schools are becoming more and more filled with people of color and people in poverty, for whom an education is the only legitimate way to do battle with the forces of race and class prejudice in this country that are determined to keep them segregated and in poverty? Why would the legislature forget that the constitution of the state of Wisconsin calls a free, quality public education A RIGHT for all children in this state, and then dismantle the mechanisms that help to insure that?
· Why would the legislature ENACT a Voter ID Law that disenfranchises over half of the African American and Latino voters of this state, not even to mention almost a quarter of Wisconsin’s senior adult citizens, when there was no research to suggest that voter fraud – which the law is supposed to be aimed against – is a problem AT ALL in this state? Why would a law of such magnitude be enacted when there was no need?
· Why would the legislature REPEAL the Racial Profiling Law that since 1999 has had by-partisan support, but most importantly has taken this state a long way in discovering the issue and mandating correctives in law enforcement agencies throughout the state? Why would the present legislature now PROHIBIT the collection of data that is used for the study of racial profiling? Why would a law of such magnitude be not only repealed, but GUTTED, in the face of a documented need?
· Why would the legislature ENACT a Concealed Carry Law that only makes streets and public places – including houses of worship – much more dangerous places, when there was NO NEED for such a law? As seen by the murder rate in our country – one of the highest in the world, especially in communities of color and poverty – people who want to carry guns have EVERY OPPORTUNITY to do so. Why enact a law that puts even MORE of us in danger from the insidious mentality of even MORE of the gun-toting public? Isn’t our legislature supposed to be PROTECTING us instead of putting us in harm’s way?
Legislation such as the ones I just mentioned not only smack of unfairness and disregard for the public good; they also smack of a not-so- hidden agenda of institutional racism. As a person of faith AND a person of color, I am obligated to speak truth to power, and demand truthful answers from those who have been elected to power. I am also obligated as well as saddened to say that the budget and subsequent laws that have been passed by this administration and legislature are UNFAIR AND EGREGIOUS BURDENS on the children, the families, the workers, the seniors, the people of color, the people in poverty, and the people who are differently-abled of our state. Not only are OUR hearts breaking, but I have been sent here today to remind us all that GOD’S heart is breaking too.
As a representative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Concerned Religious Leaders of Wisconsin, I call upon the leaders of our state’s three branches of government to repeal the budget items and other laws that were recently passed that not only remove the social safety net from under the feet of the least of God’s precious children, but which also smacks of the racism and classism that goes against the love of God that we have been commanded to show one another.
The Rev. Stephen G. Marsh is Interim Co-Pastor, Lake Edge Lutheran Church (Madison, WI)
Statement of Reverend Tisha Brown:
Good afternoon, I am Rev. Tisha Brown, pastor of Community of Hope, UCC and one of the pastors of the Madison Christian Community. I begin my remarks with a brief quote from “A Religious Witness to the breach in the Social Covenant for the Common Good between the people and the State of Wisconsin.”
“In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus taught that how we care for the least well off in our society – children, the elderly, those who are sick and impoverished – directly reflects and affects our relationship with God. In other words, if we leave our state with inadequate schools, without care for the aged, without medical care for those who are ill, we are literally abandoning our relationship with the Almighty.”
As a religious leader I am deeply troubled by what has taken place in our state over the past few months. I could focus my comments on any number of ways in which the social covenant between the people and our State has been damaged but what is closest to my heart is what inspires my action as a religious leader in the public square is my relationship with a 6-year old boy, whom I’ll call Ben, who lived in my home for 2 years as a foster child and who now lives permanently with his mother.
This past school year I was invited by Ben’s mother to attend a meeting at his elementary school in Sun Prairie where he was in Kindergarten. Ben was having some behavioral challenges at school and his mom, his great-grandmother, the school staff and I met to brainstorm how we could help Ben learn to function with greater respect and discipline within the school environment. Throughout this meeting I was impressed with the school staff. The principal, school social worker, school nurse and Ben’s teacher were clearly capable, compassionate, dedicated, hard-working and intelligent educational professionals. They clearly described their concerns for Ben, discussed his strengths and suggested ways we might all work together to make sure Ben has every opportunity to be a happy, healthy participant in the school community so that he could get a quality education and become a productive member of our society. Isn’t this what we all hope and dream of for our children?
What will happen in this coming school year as Ben’s school deals with the cuts they will inevitably have to make because of our state’s decision to carve $800 million out of the education budget?
What will happen to children like Ben when the school systems in which they are students no longer have the resources like Social Workers and nurses that enable them to provide extra support to students like Ben when they are struggling?
How will we as a society be able to live up to our social contract with our children to provide them opportunities to succeed regardless of their socioeconomic status?
What will happen to children like Ben and to moms like his who are struggling and who rely on support from their
schools and from society as a whole to become productive, engaged members of our society?
I am a Christian Pastor who reads scripture and clearly sees that God’s preference is for God’s people to value one another over profits. I believe that all that we have as a society has been given to us by God. It is our responsibility morally, ethically and faithfully to manage the gifts God has given with a deep concern and regard for children, the elderly, the poor, the downtrodden – all who are vulnerable in our midst. Making deep cuts to public education without seriously considering ways in which we might raise revenue to preserve programs that benefit the most vulnerable members of our society is simply wrong and it goes against my most deeply held values as a person of faith.
I sincerely hope and pray that as we move forward through the rest of this year Governor Walker and the Wisconsin Legislature will seriously and prayerfully consider proposals to ensure that all of Wisconsin’s citizens are sharing the burden of balancing our budget and providing for our children so that all children have the opportunity to succeed, and to grow up to be engaged and contributing citizens of our state.
I pledge to do what I can to hold our leaders accountable to this element of our social covenant so that Ben and children like him know that we value them and their lives, their potential and their future more than corporate tax loopholes or tax cuts for the wealthy. Thank you.
Rev. Tisha Brown is pastor of Community of Hope, UCC and one of the pastors of the Madison Christian Community.
Statement of Reverend Phil Haslanger:
As a pastor at a local congregation, I get several calls a week from folks who need financial help to keep from being evicted or need help paying overdue utility bills or people feeling domestic violence who need a security deposit for a new place to live. As pastors, we experience the issues facing people on the margins of society in a very personal way.
We're gathered here at Grace Episcopal Church, which hosts one of the primary shelters for homeless men in the Madison area. The congregation I serve helps with meals at the Community Meal Program and gathers items for food pantries. All of us here look for ways to shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, care for the sick. And these are important actions.
But we also know that there are conditions in our society that make things harder for people on the margins. So we also look at issues of justice. In the United Church of Christ, when someone is baptized, they promise to follow in the way of Jesus, "to resist oppression and evil, to show love and justice." Seeking justice is a core part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
That's why we make our voices heard on behalf of the poor, the marginalized, the oppress in public debates. Our statement on the social covenant looks back at how that has frayed in the first half of this year. But we are also looking forward, signaling that our voices will continue to be raised on behalf of those being left out. Our statement focuses on the state level, but we know this has an impact on the county and city as well. Scott McDonell from the Dane County Board is here. He and his colleagues need to keep the needs of the most vulnerable in mind as they approach this year's budget.
We know that in a democracy, elections are the heart of the democratic process. We know in Wisconsin over the last year through a series of elections that the people of this state are closely divided on the direction this take is taking. We also know that a democracy is more than voting. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution spells out the many forms of democracy - freedom of religion, which means our voices have a place in the public square, recognizing that other faiths, even other understandings of Christianity, also have a place in this debate. The First Amendment also talks about freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. We've seen a lot of that around this Square in the last eight months. And it talks about the right to petition our government.
Now we are going to walk over to the Capitol and petition our government as we deliver copies of our statement on the social covenant to the governor and the leaders of the Legislature. We hope you will join us in being voices for those who are most harshly affected by the actions of the last several months.
Phil Haslanger is pastor of Memorial United Church of Christ in Fitchburg.
