The budget debate in Congress and in our own State legislature has become a moral crisis; prayer, fasting, and radical action are now required. Soujourners, the Alliance to End Hunger, and Bread for the World have spearheaded an effort nationally to fast in the face of this moral crisis, and have been joined by World Vision, the ONE campaign and many other faith-based and secular organizations. More than 30,000 participants have already joined the fast including 25 members of Congress. Now, the Church Council of Greater Seattle, the Washington Association of Churches, and the Lutheran Public Policy Office are taking the fast to Washington State's Capitol in response to our state's budget crisis.
A rolling fast beginning in Washington State will be launched at noon on Monday, April 18th, at the beginning of the Christian Holy Week and the final week of the legislative session.
The 2011-2013 state budget proposals create a moral crisis because they cut off thousands of children and adults from health care, severely reduce the lifeline for the poor and disabled, take away food from the most vulnerable and unravel services for seniors, while revenue options remain unexplored and corporate tax breaks continue unabated without legislative review. A budget balanced in large part on the backs of the poor is unjust. We fast to change our own complicity with these proposals and to call for a genuine solidarity with the people most affected by these decisions.
The economic, social and moral costs of neglect are clear. We all pay when our jails are full of mentall ill and chemically dependent people, when poor people use the emergency room as their doctor when all else fails, when hungry children can't learn, and when homelessness continues. We ask, "In what kind of state do we want to live?"
If we can provide tax exemptions for elective cosmetic surgery, private jets, and more than 500 other enterprises without public scrutiny, surely we can find additional resources to take care of Washington's most vulnerable populations. In the final days of the legislative session as the budget is finalized, we fast to call our legislators' attention to the choices they are making and challenge them to prioritize Washington's most vulnerable populations.
