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Churches in US fight poverty

by
02 November 2006

THE National Council of Churches in the United States (NCC), which represents 50 million Christians, is beginning a new national anti-poverty campaign today. Presidential candidates will be questioned live on TV by poor people at the launch in Columbia, South Carolina.

All the Democratic hopefuls have said they will be present at the event, which comes shortly before the South Carolina Democratic presidential primaries on 3 February. On Wednesday, however, President Bush, who had been invited, had not yet confirmed whether he was coming.

Volunteers will also be going from door to door to persuade people to register to vote, as part of a national $15-million campaign to encourage a further two million poor voters to register before the presidential elections in November.

Many poor people are not registered as voters. Ecumenical News International reports that only about half the US citizens earning less than $5000 a year are registered, and only 34 per cent voted in the 2000 election. Yet more than four-fifths of those earning more than $75,000 are registered, and 75 per cent of these voted.

The Revd Paul Sherry, co-ordinator of the NCC’s Poverty Mobilisation, said: “What we hope to do is demonstrate the deep commitment within the major faiths for economic justice and for ending poverty in this land — in other words, to demonstrate the spiritual basis for working to end poverty.

“Spirituality without this commitment is a weak spirituality,” he said.

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