WISCONSIN: Episcopalians participate in state fiscal-policy debates
Episcopal News Service. March 4, 2011 [030411-05]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
In the midst of the nearly three-week-old debate in Wisconsin and elsewhere over the impact of proposed cuts to state-funded social programs and changes in public-employee union bargaining, Episcopalians have been calling for inclusive decision-making and an awareness of the impact of budget cuts on society's most vulnerable.
Diocese of Eau Claire Provisional Bishop Ed Leidel recently said to northwestern Wisconsin Episcopalians that "the voices of the low-income parents, the disabled, the elderly, and the children are barely breaking through" the protests over public workers' ability to collectively bargain.
In Madison, Wisconsin, the epicenter for the recent protests, some Episcopalians are offering hospitality to protestors who have been filling the state Capitol building and grounds.
Bishop Steven Miller of the Diocese of Milwaukee, which includes Madison, told Episcopal News Service in a March 2 telephone interview that he grew up in a Detroit family that benefited from union gains even though his father held a management position for General Motors.
"We also know that there were great frustrations with unions and how the unions also at times didn't use their collectively power responsibly," he said. "But just because people haven't used it responsibly doesn't mean that they shouldn't have that right for collective bargaining."
On March 1, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker introduced a $59 billion two-year budget whose contents have been hinted at and hotly debated since mid-February.
His budget would cut about $1 billion in state aid to schools and local governments, and prevent local officials from raising taxes to make up the difference. Aid to private schools would be increased. State health insurance programs for poor children and their families would be cut, as would a program to help older Wisconsinites pay for prescription drugs. Mandated recycling in the state would end.
Walker also wants an end to the ability of most government employees to collectively bargain for anything other than an increase in wages at the rate of inflation, a requirement that a majority of all union members (not just of those voting) certify their union representation every year and an end to payroll deduction of union dues.
The governor has also asked for what amounts to an average 5.5 percent pay cut due to increases in health insurance and pension contributions. Public-employee unions say they would accept the increases in their benefits costs, but they refuse to give up their bargaining rights. Walker says that much of the protection public employees now enjoy comes from the state's civil-service law rather than collective bargaining. He argues that the budget crisis requires that state and local governments have more flexibility in dealing with public-employee unions.
The protests, complete with Democratic senators remaining beyond Wisconsin's borders to deny the state Senate a quorum, has gained national and international attention. On March 3, Walker threatened to issue layoff notices to 1,500 state workers if a least one Democratic senator did not return and give the 19 Republicans the 20 people needed to conduct a vote. Also on March 3, Senate Republicans voted, 19-0, to find the Democrats in contempt and issued orders to state law enforcement to detain them.
While the protests of unionized state workers have gotten the most of the media's attention, Walker's plan to drastically cut social spending has equally caught the concern of Episcopalians in the state.
Four days after the protests began, Miller wrote to his diocese, saying that "regardless of our individual positions on the bill before the Legislature and what steps are necessary to build a stronger and better Wisconsin, I believe we can all agree that our baptismal vow to 'respect the dignity of every human being' is not served by a majority simply pushing through legislation because they have the votes necessary to do so."
"As Christians, it is our duty and call to make sure that everyone has a place at the table and every voice has the opportunity to be heard," he wrote.
Miller said it "would be a sin to balance our state budget on the backs of those who have the least" and asked Episcopalians to contact their legislators and "invite them to true leadership by taking the time to listen to the voices of all and provide a guarantee that the voices of all will be heard in the future."
He also asked diocesan members to pray for state legislators by name. "Leading is a difficult task that requires the prayer support of many," he said.
A number of public-opinion polls released in recent days (Wall Street Journal/NBC News, New York Times/CBS, USA TODAY/Gallup) show that Americans oppose efforts such as Walker's, even though they want public employees to pay more for retirement and health-care insurance.
"We live at a time when the rich continue to get richer and the poor get poorer," Leidel said in his letter. "Cutting health care for the most vulnerable people in society and taking away workers' rights to bargain are values that do not square with the traditions of Christianity, Judaism, or other faith groups."
Leidel said he and his wife, Ira, plan to attend 2001 Advocacy Day March 15, sponsored in part by Wisconsin Council of Churches, at Bethel Lutheran Church a few block off the Capitol Square in Madison. The event will include an afternoon rally at the Capitol.
The Diocese of Fond du Lac in northwest Wisconsin publicized the event in the March issue of its Clarion newspaper, adding that "our representatives need to hear our values, priorities, and concerns. Together, we can ensure that our commitment to compassion and justice is reflected in that budget."
Miller and others say they feel called to speak out and they also say it is clear that the often-rancorous debate is taking its toll on the state.
"I'm not sure how long this will continue but enormous damage has been done to our state and our common life," the Rev. Dr. D. Jonathan Grieser, rector of Grace Episcopal Church, the church closest to the state Capitol, wrote Feb. 28 in his blog. "I'm beginning to think of the aftermath –what can we as a community of faith do to foster reconciliation?"
Miller suggested that the church "need to be a place where we can have holy conversations and respectful listening because … if we take that baptismal vow to seek and serve Christ in all persons, [we must discern] if there is a word from the Lord even in those with whom we most vehemently disagree."
In recent days, Grace, just across the street from the Capitol building on the southeast corner of the square, has been "a place of prayer, warmth, and respite," in Grieser's words. The decision to offer Grace's space has not necessarily been a statement on the merits of the protestors' concerns, Grieser told ENS on March 2.
"Grace was built where it was as a witness to government," he said. "It's just part of who we are."
Given its location, Grieser said, he told the parish that "whatever we do, if we do nothing, we send a political message."
In a parish with many state workers, teachers, professors and graduate students, Grieser said, "We've got Republicans like every Episcopal church but the response [to welcoming protestors inside] has been overwhelmingly positive."
Miller participated in a Feb. 22 interfaith press conference on the steps of Grace Episcopal Church and a Feb. 26 rally outside the capitol that saw an estimated 75,000 protestors fill the one-mile square area surrounding the statehouse.
After the Feb. 22 news conference, people bearing signs from the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin entered the Capitol. In the rotunda, a leader shouted, "Tell me what religion should look like," and the protestors replied, "This is what religion should look like." A short video of that part of the protest is here.
"We are here today because Jesus opened the eyes of the blind and we know that same God can open our Gov. Walker's eyes," Miller said standing in the midst of a light snowfall at the Feb. 26 rally. "We're calling on Gov. Walker and the Legislature to repent, to turn away from balancing the budget on the backs of the poor."
Telling the crowd about the vow in the Episcopal Church's baptismal covenant to respect the dignity of every human being, Miller said, "We are here because we know that the dignity of every human being is not respected when power is played in a zero-sum game."
His speech was punctuated with applause and shouts of "Amen." After Miller concluded, the crowd repeatedly chanted, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
A video of his speech is here.
The Rev. David Simmons of St. Mathias Episcopal Church in Waukesha, Wisconsin, asked his parish in a sermon on Feb. 27 to consider "what would Jesus legislate?"
He participated in the Feb. 22 interfaith rally, and told his parish that "this is not something that comes easy to me."
"I am by no means the sometimes stereotyped 'liberal in the pulpit.' I have been a registered Republican my entire life ... Some might say that religion has no place in discussing this situation here in Wisconsin," he said. "But while Jesus did not spend his time in open rebellion against the Romans, it's very hard to say that his teachings have no political implications."
"For a second, don't think about what a Republican or a Democrat would do, or what a union supporter or opponent should do, or what the other party did in control, or what you'd like to do or what would be easiest," he said. "Those are human arguments. As a minister of the Gospel, my job is to challenge you to ask yourself, 'How would Jesus handle this?'"
The call for dialogue and respect has not been limited to Episcopalians. "Hard times do not nullify the moral obligation of each of us to respect the legitimate rights of workers," Roman Catholic Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee recently said. Workers, "like every other economic actor," are called to look out for the common good, he added, and "to make sacrifices when required and to adjust to new economic realities."
The six bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Wisconsin Synod on March 1 called on Walker and the Legislature "to pay particular attention to people who may be vulnerable if certain state programs are eliminated or reduced."
"We ask that the rights of all workers, public and private, be held in high regard," they wrote. "We ask that decisions that involve the livelihoods of those workers be made with compassion and shared understanding."
The collective-bargain issue has hit a particular Wisconsin nerve in part because of the state's labor-movement history. The state passed the country's first worker compensation law in 1911, passed unemployment insurance in 1931, supported workers' rights to organize in 1937 with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Act, and in 1959 became one of the first states to give public employees the right to bargain collectively. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents most U.S. non-federal public employees, was founded in Madison in 1936.
The Episcopal Church's involvement in advocacy on labor issues dates at least to 1919, when the General Convention established what was then called the Department of Christian Social Service. "Its job was to promote the witness of the church concerning social and industrial righteousness," according to "An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church." While the office was eventually subsumed into other parts of the church's work, such advocacy has continued.
In 2006, the General Convention approved Resolution C006 which reaffirmed the church's stance that U.S. workers have the right to organize and urged Episcopalians to be informed "and act accordingly when rights of workers to associate [are] being jeopardized." The resolution also commended the work of Interfaith Worker Justice, a branch of which has been involved in the Wisconsin protests.
And in 2009, the convention passed Resolution D039, calling for federal labor-law reform "to better protect employees seeking to engage in collective bargaining, to simplify and streamline the procedures by which employees may choose to organize, and to assist employers and employees in reaching agreement."