Rev. Gordon Rankin-Conference Minister
When I was serving in South Dakota, I sat on the South Dakota Faith in Public Life Board. One of the biggest pieces of work the Faith in Public Life Board did while I was there was advocating for a ballot initiative to cap payday lending. Payday lending had a long history of being exploitative, particularly of the poor. The ballot initiative passed, and I was very proud of what we had done. A few weeks later, I learned from my neighbor that he would soon be losing his job. He worked at a guitar studio. The guitar studio was in a strip mall owned by one of the city’s largest payday lenders. With the payday lender no longer being able to run an office, the guitar studio would also need to close.
All actions have consequences. Some are intentional and some are unintentional. Part of what we do as a people of faith is listen and offer support to those who are adversely affected by the consequences of a public action…whether we agree with public action or not.
There are a lot of public actions taking place right now and there are a whole lot of consequences. One of the things we will try to do from time to time is to raise up before you the voices of those affected by the consequences.
One of the voices I would raise before you is that of our partners at Church World Service. You may recall that last year at Prepared to Serve Church World Service has a significant presence. They worked with us to pack hundreds of period packs during the event. This year that impactful voice in our midst will be silent. They will not be able to be present with us. Why? A significant part of the work that Church World Service does is with refugee resettlement. With the State Department having frozen so much of its refugee resettlement dollars, the impact on Church World Service has been drastic. They have had to furlough well over half their staff nationwide. This limits not just their resettlement work, but all aspects of the work they do to help the needy in our world.
The other voice I would raise is from our United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe (UCCZ) partners. If you didn’t have a chance to read it last week, I would encourage you to read this letter from UCCZ President, Rev. Matiza now. During my sabbatical, I visited Chikore Hospital (a mission hospital run by the United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe). While there, I spent some time talking with folks the HIV clinic. Because of the freezing of USAID resources, that does not have the treatment resources to operate. From what I am hearing from our partners, there are few resources to help treat the 1,300,000 people in Zimbabwe who are living with HIV.
Those who are living with the consequences of our public actions are crying out. It is imperative that we hear their voices as people of faith.
Gordon