What I'm Doing and Learning

This is an unusually personal post. Eight months after retiring from Bread for the World, I’m now teaching in Berkeley and, at the same time, coordinating the intensified advocacy of the church bodies and organizations who are part of the Circle of Protection. You might be interested in what I’m doing and learning.

I’m a joint fellow of the Goldman School of Public Policy and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. The graduate seminar I’m leading includes students of public policy and students preparing for religious ministry. After some introductory studies, the course is featuring a series of guest speakers starting with:

Josh Dickson, who directed the successful faith engagement program of the Biden-Harris campaign. He is now deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. U.S. presidents sometimes have an influence on U.S. religion, and I hope Joe Biden will remind many Americans that opportunity for poor and vulnerable people is a religious issue.

Eric Sapp is a leader in the use of technology and artificial intelligence to promote democracy and the public good. His projects have included work to neutralize Russia-financed advertising among Evangelicals in 2020 and a current effort to better understand and address vaccine hesitancy among many people of color. Check out his website at www.publicdemocracy.io

Henry Brady is dean of the Goldman School. His most recent book, Unequal and Unrepresented, shows how unequal participation in U.S. politics is and how inequality in economics and politics are mutually reinforcing. He has also written repeatedly on the role of churches, unions, and other voluntary groups in strengthening democratic participation.

I’m also learning from my students. I’ve again been struck by how many people in the rising generation have experienced periods of economic hardship. I am really enjoying the different perspectives that an international student from Myanmar and a Chinese student who logs in from Nanjing have brought to this seminar. The Chinese student notes that Chinese people are proud of their progress against poverty, but her grandmother is the only religious person she has ever known.

Teaching remotely has required me to learn a lot in a hurry about digital communication. I have come to appreciate that technology is a new literacy. It takes effort to learn, but allows the human mind to think and communicate in ways that are not possible otherwise.

One of my sons, Andrew, lives in San Francisco, and I have enjoyed seeing him more often.

Meanwhile, the American Rescue Plan is moving through Congress. It will help us get COVID under control and powerfully help people and communities who have been hit hardest by the pandemic and its economic fall-out. The church groups in the Circle of Protection are working to pass it through the Senate with more than 51 votes. But Leader McConnell is urging Republican senators to oppose it as a bloc, and no Republican senator has so far indicated support for the bill.

Passage of the American Rescue Plan is extraordinarily important, and its passage is not a sure thing. Call your senators’ offices (especially Republicans or conservative Democrats) and ask them to push for its passage.

Seventy-five percent of U.S. voters, including 60 percent of Republicans, say they favor this legislation. If Republican senators hear from their constituents, some may decide to vote for the final version of the bill.

Biden and Economic Opportunity for All

U.S. policies have shifted more to the benefit of poor and near-poor people in President Biden’s first month than in any month in the last 70 years. This year is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to move toward an economy that provides justice and opportunity for all.

A week before President Biden took office, he outlined his plans to get the pandemic under control, rescue the economy (with a focus on assistance to the people and communities who have been hardest hit), and then launch investments designed to build a more just and sustainable economy.

In his first days in office, he announced a series of executive actions. One of the very first was focused on the current surge in hunger in America, especially among children. It has expanded the national nutrition programs. Another early action focused on racial equity - restoring protection against discrimination in housing and the federal government’s reliance on for-profit companies to manage prisons.

Biden’s executive actions related to other problems were all designed with an eye to economic justice. The new administration’s top priority is COVID management, especially speeding up vaccinations, but it includes federal action to reach population groups who are most likely to be neglected. In executive actions related to health care generally, the President reopened the health insurance exchanges and ended the work requirements some states have imposed on Medicaid.

Importantly, Biden’s climate change plan promises strong emphasis on creating quality jobs in our shift to an environmentally sustainable economy. The new administration is committed to developing alternative energy businesses and to focusing business development and assistance in communities that rely on coal for jobs.

Biden’s immigration announcement included immediate action to end construction of Trump’s wall (an ugly symbol of harsh immigration policies) and strengthen DACA (allowing millions of young people to thrive and contribute to their communities).

I was especially heartened by President Biden’s early attention to Yemen, the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. Biden has put an end to U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s bombing in civilian areas.

Congress is now moving quickly to pass legislation based on the President’s emergency health and economic plan. Low-income people and people of color have been hit hardest by COVID-19 and stand to benefit most from an orderly, science-informed public health response. Many low-income and working-class families desperately need the schools to open, and the legislation includes funds to allow schools to reopen safely.

The economic assistance in the legislation is also focused on the people and communities who have been hardest hit by the economic fall-out from the pandemic. Most notably, it would expand low-income tax credit programs, especially for the poorest families and families with children. Hunger and poverty among children has surged during the pandemic, and the tax credit reforms are expected to cut child poverty in half. For many working families, the tax credits maintain work incentives and make work pay.

This new package of COVID relief legislation also includes $10 billion to deal with international aspects of the global pandemic - more than all the prior COVID relief packages combined. The number of people in absolute poverty around the world increased by about 100 million in 2020, and the 50 poorest countries have so far received almost none of the world’s supply of COVID vaccine.

President Biden’s inaugural address was all about overcoming the deep divisions in our country, and he has made conversations with Republican legislators a high priority. The Democratic package for COVID relief includes direct payments of $1,400 to nearly all Americans, but Biden has expressed openness to Republican proposals to focus these payments among lower-income people. Senator Romney has come forward with his own proposal to expand child tax credits.

I’m now serving as coordinator for the Circle of Protection, a broad coalition of church bodies and organizations from all the families of Christianity. We are focusing especially among Republicans. The Democrats have narrow majorities in both houses of Congress, but some bipartisanship in the development and passage of Biden’s first legislation would be an important step toward civic health and sustained progress.

People who are represented by Republicans in Congress can help by encouraging them to help shape and then support the COVID rescue package that is moving through Congress. There was strong Republican opposition to the COVID package that was developed by a bipartisan group of senators in December. But in the end, 92 senators voted for it. Also, many legislators in both parties were personally shaken by the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and I pray that some of them may find themselves newly open to working together.

Advocacy and Prayer in Trump's Last Days

Donald Trump consistently does what’s in his self-interest. We’ve come to know him and must expect that he will do everything he can to maximize his power and wealth, even as he stumbles and flails through the last days of his presidency.

I thank God that Joe Biden decisively won the election. Voters (both Trump and Biden voters) came out in inspiring numbers, and the election was well-run. There is no evidence of widespread fraud. More than 90 judges (some of them Trump appointees) have rejected his suits for a redo.

State and local election officials (in both parties) have resisted Trump’s intense pressure to discredit the results. In the tape of Trump’s phone conversation with Brad Raffensberger, Georgia’s Secretary of State, Trump even threatened him with criminal prosecution, but Raffensberger stood up for Georgia’s voters.

I also thank God that Congress and the President passed the $900 billion COVID relief package (including $13 billion in food assistance for hungry Americans and $4 billion in support for COVID vaccination efforts in low-income countries). Failure to agree on this package would have deepened hardship and misery across America.

As we approach the run-off election for Georgia’s two Senate seats, the Democratic candidates appear to be slightly ahead. Their victory would improve our prospects to move forward this year with a strong program to overcome the COVID crisis and then build back better from the economic crisis.

More than 11 senators and as many as 140 members of the House have now indicated they will object to electoral college results when they are read out on January 6. Most Republicans give some credence to Trump’s baseless claims, and Trump is urging them to contact their members of Congress. But after hours of theatrics, majorities in both houses of Congress are almost sure to affirm Biden’s election as President.

Trump still holds tremendous power and could do yet more damage in his last days as President. He seems to be doing nothing to improve the roll-out of COVID vaccines. He is encouraging “wild” street demonstrations on January 6, and he might find some pretext to call out armed forces to “restore order.”

In overriding Trump’s veto of this year’s defense reauthorization act last month, Congress blocked him from suddenly withdrawing troops from Afghanistan or Germany. But Trump appointed a group of his loyalists to top jobs in the Pentagon after the election, and he could order some international military action if he thinks it will serve his personal interests. This seems unlikely, but possible.

What can we do? If you have a Republican senator or representative, please call or email their office ASAP and urge them not to object to the results of the election. You will find any legislator’s email address and phone number on the homepage of his or her website.

For all of us, this is a time for prayer. Thank God for sustaining our nation and the world, and pray that God will guide President Trump, President-Elect Biden, members of Congress, and others in authority to serve the common good. We can also pray for peace of mind and a new spirit of cooperation among the people of our troubled nation.

The Book of Common Prayer offers this prayer for elections:

Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States in the election of officials and representatives that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.