Presiding Bishop, other leaders urge Obama to tackle Gulf Coast poverty, coastal restoration
Episcopal News Service. October 16, 2009 [101609-01]
ENS staff
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori joined more than 50 leading Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders in urging President Barack Obama to make poverty, climate and coastal restoration a priority in Gulf Coast communities still struggling to come back from Hurricane Katrina.
Faith-based groups seized the opportunity of Obama's first official visit to the famed city since his historic election, to call for a beefed-up long-term recovery policy.
In a letter to the president, the faith leaders said, "Four years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck and the levees were breached, the slow pace of recovery, persistent poverty, climate change and coastal land loss have created a moral crisis across the region that demands a powerful response from people of faith and our elected officials."
The full text of the letter is available here.
Also signing the letter were: Rabbi Steve Gutow, Jewish Council for Public Affairs; the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, National Council of Churches; Sayyid M. Syeed, Islamic Society of North America; Sister Simone Campbell, NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; Bishop Charles E. Blake, Church of God in Christ; Nancy Ratzan, National Council of Jewish Women; Rabbi David Saperstein, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; the Rev. Jim Wallis, Sojourners; and the Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins, Christian Church.
Organized by Louisiana-based interfaith groups All Congregations Together (ACT) and Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (BISCO), the letter urges Obama to look to a bipartisan bill, HR 2269, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, as a model for resident-led recovery policy to "ensure just and sustainable recovery for all Gulf Coast communities." HR 2269 would create 100,000 green jobs for hurricane survivors rebuilding affordable housing and infrastructure, restoring wetlands and promoting energy efficiency and climate change resiliency.
The letter was written in coordination with "Fighting Poverty with Faith," an interfaith week of action October 14-21, focused on urging elected officials to make poverty reduction a key goal in the nation's transition to a new green economy.
ACT and BISCO are co-founders of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign, a nonpartisan partnership of community, faith, environmental, student, and human rights organizations in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi and their national allies advocating for federal legislation based on HR 2269.