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Food, Faith and Frustration
You can’t miss rising food prices if you do the grocery shopping or listen to the radio these days. They are causing real pain all around the world as family budgets everywhere are squeezed. There’s no end in sight, though hunger is much more prominent at least in policy discussions, from Davos to U.S. political campaigns.
Food was on the agenda for three events I attended last week, but I came away with a sense of frustration because they approached the question from such different perspectives, and the solutions offered seemed vague and slippery. It’s hard to see how we can move forward in this jumble of debates and narratives.
Let's start at the White House, where the monthly meeting run by the Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, called “Compassion in Action”, focused on hunger and food. About 80 people, billed as coming from many different kinds of organizations, even political persuasions, sat in the 4th floor theater of the Old Executive Office Building. These meetings tend to be celebratory --both of the work of faith organizations and the support the Bush administration gives them -- so problems and complex issues rarely make it onto the agenda.
The spotlight was on the work of organizations that help people who are hurting directly – Catholic Charities, Planet Aid, World Vision and others. And there is reason to honor them; these organizations are truly on the front lines in fighting poverty.
But the feel-good aura could not mask the concern about current trends. The statistics on hungry people are horrendous – almost 900 million worldwide, and about 36 million in our own prosperous society. Food stamps in the U.S. don’t reach many who need them, including children, and the organizations are worried that the economic downturn will push more and more people over the poverty line. The Farm Bill (which includes food aid programs) is still in limbo in Congress. The impact of rising food prices on poor families in Africa and Asia is barely known but is not hard to imagine.
A very different meeting did not set out to celebrate anyone; instead, it surfaced a raft of long-standing arguments that bedevil discussions about hunger. The Geneva-based Christian Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance came to challenge the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, arguing that policies these international organizations press on governments hurt small farmers when they try to sell their products. But EAA’s arguments fell rather flat because they turned essentially on stifling free trade, hardly a plausible proposition for organizations founded in good measure to promote the global exchange of goods.
Then the inspiring former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, spoke at Georgetown University about human rights and citizen mobilization. She agreed that rising food prices exacerbate the challenges of meeting the “right to food” that has long been accepted in principle at the international level. She seemed equally frustrated about taking that noble pledge to the level of action.
One White House speaker was Pastor Joe Wingo, from Angel Ministries, who said he was inspired by what his father told him long ago – that the poor shall always be with us. But that ancient wisdom is outdated – today we know we can end poverty and hunger. But it will take more than speeches and, sadly, more than saints at work to do so. It is, as Catholic Charities says in their mission statement, about “providing help, creating hope”. We need a revival of the kind of energy and determination that inspired the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed 60 years ago, to make sure that no child today goes to bed hungry.
By Katherine Marshall |
March 20, 2008; 4:18 PM ET
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Posted by: Ray Flynn | March 27, 2008 3:48 PM
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I am curious about Pastor Joe Winga's comment about the poor being with us always. Did he say that as an excuse for inaction? Jesus also said, "Blessed are the hungry - for they shall be filled." That promise is what these faith based groups are trying to work towards. Sayting the poor will be with us always seems to me to be a very poor excuse, and missing the true compassion for the poor that we should expect from a pastor.
On a different matter, it seems to me that the Geneva Christian group has justified complaints about the plight of small farmers that witih some innovatiive thinking might be addressed without stiffling global markets.
Posted by: Paul Raushenbush | March 24, 2008 12:01 PM
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With food and water becoming increasingly precious commodities that a larger and larger percentage of the global population lacks access to, it is imperative that governments, faith-based organizations and other groups focus their efforts on this problem. Though there have been many wars fought over land and precious goods, none of those will compare to the worldwide battle for sustenance if this trend continues. Feeding those in need is the first step in heading off the next world war. Marshall makes a great point here; I just hope that those who make policy take some time to read this blog entry.
Posted by: Nevin | March 24, 2008 10:33 AM
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I am delighted to read Katherine Marshall's blog and to know that Georgetown takes the issue of faith/development seriously.
Tom Blinkhorn
Posted by: tom blinkhorn | March 21, 2008 2:05 PM
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I am the director of a faith-based organization that helps feed the poor. The White House emphasis on the faith community "feeding the hungry" is a diversion to seek to justify government inaction. I remember a movie several decades ago where the Catholic Church was so moved by the state of the poor that the fictional Pope sold everything the Church had and gave it to the poor. If all the religious communities in my city did that it would not be enough to meet the needs in our city for very long and we would be right back where we are. Faith based organizations should be providing what they can in as quality a way as possible. What the faith-based community needs to do more than anything is speak "justice" to power. This will get us in trouble and it should. We need to say "Government must provide for it's people and to not do so is against God's will."