Calling Out The Speaker

Executive Director Shari Roeseler’s editorial in the Chronicle earlier this month urged San Francisco city government to balance the municipal budget with the understanding that “budgets are not merely financial documents, they are statements of our values as a community.” Writing on behalf of the San Francisco Interfaith Council CEO Roundtable, Shari stressed the fact that “in every faith tradition, it is understood that poverty hurts the entire community.”

Similar urgings were directed toward Speaker of the House John Boehner last week by faculty of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where Boehner is scheduled to give the commencement address later this month. A self-professed devout Catholic, Boehner helped pass a 2012 budget through the House that will be devastating to low-income people and the programs and services they rely on. In a letter addressed to Boehner, professors at the university point out the ways that his legislating fails to square with his religious faith:

“Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings. From the apostles to the present, the Magisterium of the Church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor. Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.”

The letter to Boehner does more than call our Speaker out on his hypocrisy, it also underlines our current confusion about faith and politics and how they inform one another. Our constitution ensures a separation of church and state in our government, yet current politicians don’t stand much of a chance of getting elected if they don’t claim an adherence to a religious (very preferably Christian) faith.

What if, instead of wearing their faith on their sleeve during election season as evidence of their solid moral character, politicians drew on it away from the public eye, as a source of personal guidance when it comes time to make difficult legislative decisions? How many crucial programs for the poor might be saved? Both Shari’s article in the Chronicle and the letter to Boehner argue that, whether here in San Francisco or over in Washington, claiming faith as part of our lives will necessitate fighting for budgets and policies that help the poor.