WHY THE BUDGET IS A MORAL DOCUMENT

RAISING THE minimum wage. Lowering interest on student loans. Making prescription drugs more accessible. Supporting research to relieve suffering. Promoting new technologies to save energy.

The U.S. House of Representatives' "first 100 hours" represents the kind of "faith-based initiative" I can get behind.

I was always suspicious of President Bush's much-touted version of faith-based initiatives, a promised $8 billion in government grants for religious organizations that was supposed to "rally the armies of compassion" to help America's poor and vulnerable.

Instead, it was an army of Christian proselytizers who rallied and got paid, while the poor got . . . well, poorer. The Government Accountability Office, not to mention various federal courts, concluded that many "faith-based" programs have used taxpayer funding to promote faith in Jesus in the guise of aiding prisoners, mentoring and helping with job searches.

Bush's version of faith-based initiatives also provided a new kind of patronage: employment for allies of the administration.

They gave great photo ops at election time, as "compassionate conservative" officeholders posed holding checks for urban ministries, while they pushed through legislation that increased extreme poverty and cut back on affordable housing and food programs.

We're through less than half of the Democrats' first 100 hours, but the House already has passed four of the six pieces of legislation they promised.

They voted to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour over two years, implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, remove restrictions on government negotiating lower prices with drug companies and allow funding for stem-cell research.

On the docket today and tomorrow: votes on reducing the interest on student loans, and reducing some tax subsidies to oil companies, using the money to develop sustainable energy.

Members of the House didn't mention God or faith as they pushed through their agenda. But their focus is on moving toward economic justice and fairness.

This is my idea of morality.

Jim Wallis, the progressive evangelical leader, says that a government budget is a "moral document." In fact, all of government reflects our moral values and, right now, we have much for which to repent.

In the past months and years, religious groups have been rallying their armies to convince Congress to turn back from policies that shred the safety net and increase the chasm between rich and poor. They have gone beyond preaching to acting in the world and, in so doing, clarified the difference between "charity" and "justice."

It's the difference between running a soup kitchen to feed the hungry and working in the political system to change the policies that allow people to go hungry.

It brings to mind the question posed by Brazilian archbishop Dom Helder Camara at the Eucharistic Congress here in Philadelphia in 1976. Acknowledging Mother Teresa's work with the poor of the world, Camara asked why the Mother Teresas of the world are necessary.

Religious groups from across the spectrum - Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians and others - have joined in the lobbying campaign to raise the minimum wage that now moves to the U.S. Senate.

This initiative also is faith-based. Its name, "Let Justice Roll," is taken from the words of the prophet Amos: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an overflowing stream."

In the usual workings of government, children and the poor and vulnerable have not been represented among the lobbyists who swarm over proposals and exert pressure on legislators to craft bills favorable to their clients.

Now some people of faith

are raising their voices - and the noise they are making is joyful indeed.

Praying With the News: A group of scientists and evangelicals apparently have agreed to put aside deeply-held differences about evolution in order to work together to fight global warming.

They were to announce details of their plan today in Washington. Let us pray that others follow their lead - and that it's not too late. Amen.
 
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Carol Towarnicky is a freelance writer who was a long-time member of the Daily News editorial board. E-mail her at

carol.towarnicky@verizon.net.