Speakers seek congressional, grass-roots movement on hunger, poverty

Published: 2005-06-06

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The leader of the Bread for the World Christian citizens' anti-hunger lobby acknowledged the difficulty in recent months of prompting congressional action on hunger and poverty in remarks at a conference designed to spur action toward addressing those two issues. "It's been very difficult to get a few moderate Republicans to get ahead of where President (George W.) Bush is. There is tremendous party discipline," said the Rev. David W. Beckmann, a Lutheran minister who heads Bread for the World. "It's like trying to move a mountain." But more recently "we have felt the mountain move" with regard to those issues, Rev. Beckmann said June 4. "God is in the mountain-moving business." Rev. Beckmann spoke at the opening session of "One Table, Many Voices: A Mobilization to Overcome Poverty & Hunger" in Washington. The conference's two major co-sponsors were Bread for the World and Call to Renewal, a Christian anti-poverty network.

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