The Circle of Protection: Balancing the Budget Does Not Require Burdening the Poor

By LEITH ANDERSON, president of the National Association of Evangelicals and former senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He is a signatory of the Circle of Protection, a religious advocacy group focused on protecting programs for the poor.

In the time of the Old Testament, Ruth came to Bethlehem as a foreigner from a strange land and a poor widow. Her story is of a life transformed. Ruth became not just a wife and a mother, but also a leader of her people and the great-grandmother of Israel’s King David. Her story became the eighth book of the Bible, and the New Testament lists her as one of the foremothers of Jesus Christ. For 3,000 years, millions of parents around the world have named their daughters after this once-obscure woman. How did all that happen? Believe it or not, it all started with a government-assistance program!

The biblically mandated program that transformed Ruth from powerless to powerful was an Old Testament practice called “gleaning.” The law required farmers not to harvest the corners of their fields, to leave behind crops missed by the first harvest, and not to collect some grapes in their vineyards. The poor, orphans, and immigrants were then invited to gather or “glean” the leftovers to provide for their own families. It was more than charity; it was the law.

Ruth was one of the law’s beneficiaries. In Bethlehem, this poor immigrant woman from Moab gleaned the fields of a man named Boaz. She eventually married Boaz and began one of the most famous family dynasties in history.

We evangelical Christians take the Bible seriously, so what does Ruth’s story teach us? It teaches us to protect and provide for modern-day Ruths—poor women and others who need help. Even without a government mandate, our churches have established ministries to provide housing, food, preschool education and day care, job placement, medical clinics, and much more for the poor in our communities.

But we also recognize that voluntary help isn’t enough. Just as in biblical times, we have government-mandated programs that help the poor and nearly poor in our country. But recently, budget considerations have put these programs in jeopardy.

That is why the National Association of Evangelicals has partnered with a broad array of other religious organizations in a program called “The Circle of Protection” to assure continued help for our population’s most vulnerable people. More than 65 heads of denominations, relief and development agencies, and other Christian organizations have joined hands and voices in this coalition. We are forming a Circle of Protection around programs that meet the essential needs of hungry and poor people at home and abroad.

Those of us in the circle are always in favor of fiscal restraint and the elimination of government budget deficits, but we also insist that budget cuts are not made at the expense of those who need help, most of whom are women, children, and the elderly. Balancing the budget does not require burdening the poor.

In all of the current budget debates, the focus has been on the needs of middle-class Americans. That’s legitimate; a strong middle class forms the economic backbone of our country. But little has been said about the tens of millions of poor Americans. If they are discussed, the conversation turns too often to blaming them, dismissing them, slashing programs that help them, and generally pushing them out of sight and out of mind. This is wrong.

We know it’s wrong because of the Bible’s hundreds of commands to care for the widows, the orphans, the strangers, the marginalized, and the needy. That is why we need what we would call a “moral budget” that protects those whom Jesus called “the least of these.” That is, first and foremost, a moral mandate from God to respect those who are created in his image.

But this isn’t just about morality; it is a matter of economic pragmatism. Programs that feed the hungry, educate the underemployed, prepare preschoolers, and preserve the family unit are good for everyone. They provide ladders out of poverty and into the middle class. Government-supported job training and work assistance programs help poor people work their way up, ultimately strengthening the U.S. economy by lessening the need for other types of federal aid—a way to reduce the nation’s debt. These are not drains on our wealth. They are investments in our nation’s greatest source of wealth—its people. It is important to reduce deficits, yes—but in ways that do not increase poverty or inequality.

Since the poor and vulnerable do not have the financial resources or organizational clout to influence government budgets, we will continue to use our influence on their behalf. At the same time, we must do our part to help them outside of government as individuals, churches, and nongovernmental organizations.

Let us all make sure we keep the gate to the American Dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness open for everyone. It’s not just the right thing; it’s the smart thing. Just ask Ruth.