Word from Winkler — Reordering priorities

A great challenge before us is to reorder the priorities of this and every nation toward human needs and away from greed, to peace and not war. No matter who the leader of the United States is, she or he confronts a vast war machine that demands to be fed even before we care for our children and those who are sick and homeless.

One of the many ways this will play out in the months ahead is the fight over new weapons systems. Billions upon billions of dollars have already been spent to create new warplanes, tanks and so on. Any effort to cancel production and development of these weapons will be tenaciously opposed.

Priorities must be shifted from the military-industrial complex to meeting human needs.

Priorities must be shifted from the military-industrial complex to meeting human needs. U.S. priorities need to shift to cooperation and diplomacy and away from war.

Did you know, for example, there are more people in U.S. military bands and orchestras than there are in the entire diplomatic corps? Our priorities are misplaced.

This month marks the sixth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, which still goes on. And, while there is a growing number of hungry children around the world, the United States is sending more troops into Afghanistan, a nation already devastated by 30 years of war.

Lakhdar Brahimi, formerly the United Nations special representative to Afghanistan, has pointed out that the Afghan people at first viewed the U.S. invasion in 2001 favorably but now they see it as an occupation force. He says they want us out. The situation in Afghanistan is very complex, but it will not be improved by deepening the war.

We continue to spend tens of billions of dollars a month on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A fraction of that would cover not only the 47 million in the United States without health care, but would also provide basic health care for people in the poorest nations of the world.

We still have to defeat what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. named as the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism. This trio seeks to exert a stranglehold on us, forcing us to wrestle with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.

I’m glad our agency’s Board of Directors had the opportunity last week to spend time on Capitol Hill talking to policy makers about our concerns. It’s important we do that. Sometimes, those in high places don’t think people of faith are knowledgeable about legislation.

Our responsibility is less in the details than to remind those in power they must keep their priorities straight.

Sometimes people in the faith community may feel they didn’t know as much about details of laws and regulations as they would like to before meeting with members of Congress. But our responsibility is less in the details than to remind those in power they must keep their priorities straight: to care for those in need and protect God’s Creation.

There are, as always, for believers, signs of hope. This past week, the death penalty has been abolished in New Mexico. We sent out an action alert to New Mexico United Methodists asking them to contact their legislators to urge them to repeal the death penalty. We worked hard, but unsuccessfully with many organizations and faith groups to try and end capital punishment earlier this month in Maryland. But we’ll keep trying. Montana’s Senate passed a bill to repeal the death penalty. It now goes before the state house. We work in coalition.

The storms of economic distress were battering our brothers and sisters in poverty in the United States and around the world long before the financial crisis made the recession front page news. The International Labor Organization projects a loss of 50 million jobs globally by the end of 2009. The World Bank warns an additional 53 million people will fall into poverty: those living on less than $2 per day. The bank also projects that millions more children will die by 2015 if the crisis persists.

The rich have benefited at the expense of the poor. The Rev. Jim Wallis has said that “deliberate socially engineered inequality” has taken place in the United States over the past several decades.

Our focus in The United Methodist Church remains putting those on the economic margins at the center of our economic recovery, both in the United States and around the world.

We reject artificial notions of scarcity. What we have is a failure to manage the abundance we have been given. There is enough for all. It will, however, require bold global leadership to build a just, sustainable future.

Editor’s note: This column is drawn from remarks by Jim Winkler at the spring meeting of the board of directors of the General Board of Church & Society. The board of directors comprises more than 60 persons, lay and clergy, from around the world.