POVERTY SOCIAL STATMENTS - UNITED METHODIST

Poverty and the Working Poor

http://www.umc-gbcs.org/issues/resolutions.php?resolutionid=101

As people of faith and religious commitment, we are called to stand with and seek justice for people who are poor. Central to our religious traditions, sacred texts, and teachings is a divine mandate to side with and protect the poor. We share a conviction, therefore, that welfare reforms must not focus on eliminating programs but on eliminating poverty and the damage it inflicts on children (who are two thirds of all welfare recipients), on their parents, and on the rest of society

We believe that people are more important than the sum of their economic activities. Successful welfare reform demands more than economic incentives and disincentives; it depends on overcoming both biased assumptions about race, gender, and class that feed hostile social stereotypes about people living in poverty and suspicions that people with perspectives other than our own are either indifferent or insincere. Successful welfare reform will depend ultimately upon finding not only a common ground of policies but a common spirit about the need to pursue them for all.

http://www.umc-gbcs.org/issues/resolutions.php?resolutionid=102

The purpose of welfare reform was not only to reduce the welfare rolls, but to move people from dependence on public assistance to economic independence and a better life, especially for children of welfare families. Too often, this has not happened. So-called "workfare" programs are not a permanent solution. Studies have shown that one third of the people who were enrolled in these programs are now back where they started. In addition, these programs, paying minimum wage with no benefits, have also eliminated many good-paying jobs in the public sector, putting even more people out of work. What is required are bold new programs of training and public sector job creation. Training is needed to equip people for jobs that pay well, such as manufacturing and the information economy, to assist them in completing their formal education, and to provide assistance in parenting while making the transition.

http://www.umc-gbcs.org/issues/issues.php?topic=Poverty

In spite of general affluence in the industrialized nations, the majority of persons in the world live in poverty. In order to provide basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, and other necessities, ways must be found to share more equitably the resources of the world. Increasing technology, when accompanied by exploitative economic practices, impoverishes many persons and makes poverty self-perpetuating. Therefore, we do not hold poor people morally responsible for their economic state. To begin to alleviate poverty, we support such policies as: adequate income maintenance, quality education, decent housing, job training, meaningful employment opportunities, adequate medical and hospital care, and humanization and radical revisions of welfare programs. Since low wages are often a cause of poverty, employers should pay their employees a wage that does not require them to depend upon government subsidies such as food stamps or welfare for their livelihood.

Center Priorities (.pdf)

Bulletin Inserts
Child Support (.pdf)
Environment (.pdf)
Housing Trust (.pdf)
Indigent Defense (.pdf)
Payday Lending (.pdf)
Minimum Wage (.pdf)

Advocacy Resources
Advocacy Guide (.doc)
Advocacy Portal (link)
Lending Info. (.ppt)
Richmond Map (.pdf)

For Small Groups
Eco-Stewardship (link)
Prayers for Creation (link)
Poverty Diet (link)

Policy Briefs
EITC (.doc)
TANF Child Support (.doc)
Payday Loans (.doc)
Healing Creation (.doc)
Child Ombudsman (.doc)
Affordable Housing (.doc)
Indigent Defense (.doc)
Minimum Wage (.doc)
Wage & EITC (.doc)
VA Tribes (.link)

Actions
Lending Petition (link)
Title Petition (link)
Wage Petition (link)

Reports
Budget Analysis (.pdf)
Food Stamps (.doc)
Lottery Study (link)

FAQ's (link)

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