Christian Leaders Debate Government's Responsibility for the Poor

Christian leaders split sharply over the 2006 federal budget and deficit-reduction bill, according to an article in Christianity Today. They differed not just on how Washington can help the poor, vulnerable, and aged, but also the extent that government should. The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 on February 1. The spending measure trims $39.5 billion from the federal budget over five years. The largest cuts target Medicare and Medicaid. The act also reduced $343 million for foster-care programs and $5 billion over 10 years to states for enforcing child support. Many Christian leaders condemned the spending reductions as immoral. "Today's vote was a callous vote," the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, said in a statement on February 1. But many Republicans in Congress with ties to religious conservatives voted for the spending cuts and disagreed that the government should prioritize aiding the poor and marginalized. "I believe the 'least of these' is my daughter, who's 4 years old, and my son, who's 2 years old, and all of those not born," Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said. "I believe it's unfair to saddle them with debt way into the future." Of those who protested the budget, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said, "They don't know what they're talking about. There's $1.7 billion fraud in the food-stamp program. If the churches had done their job and followed Jesus' teachings, the government wouldn't have started all these programs and created all these problems."

Presbyterians Take Closer Look at Trinity

Presbyterian churches across the nation may soon receive new guidelines to help them understand the doctrine of the Trinity, the Christian Post reports. On Saturday, the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing” to be forwarded to the denomination’s next General Assembly, slated to be held in Birmingham, Ala., in June. “I have a deep hope that this will be helpful to the church,” said the Rev. Rebecca Button Prichard, moderator of the working group that developed the report, according to the Presbyterian News Service (PNS). The comprehensive report, which took more than five years of study and revision to complete, affirms the importance of the three-fold nature of God and reviews the doctrine of the Trinity in Presbyterian theology, worship and life. “What the paper tries to do … is articulate how glorious this notion is that God is Trinity,” said the Rev. Charles Wiley, associate for theology in the Office of Theology and Worship, part of the Congregational Ministries Division (CMD). The General Assembly will be asked to publish the study and have the materials ready to be distributed throughout the denomination.