Peddling power

by Robert D. Francis

Over the weekend, a congressman reminded me that the two things that elected officials respond to are dollars and votes. Unseemly as it sounds, this is conventional wisdom in Washington.

The faith community tends to be short on cash to throw around, so we’re most often left with the power of the ballot box. That’s why, on the eve of yesterday’s health-care summit, a letter (pdf)—signed by 26 national faith leaders, more than 150 faith groups and 4,000 individuals—was delivered to the White House and every member of Congress, urging them to "complete the task at hand on behalf of the millions who are left out and left behind in our current health care system."

The organizers of the letter did not neglect the power of the purse entirely—they also scraped together enough funds to feature the letter in a full-page ad (pdf) in The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper read by elected officials and their staffs. The hope, of course, is to grab their attention and remind them that the faith community is watching.

But I think the congressman left out a third thing that moves policymakers: moral persuasion.

This week, a senator’s health-care staffer thanked me for the faith community’s work in support of reform. Specifically, she appreciates how the faith-based voice differs from that of other constituencies. She said that most other groups, even those supporting health-care reform, are interested in particular provisions that affect their own members—they may or may not have the big picture in mind.

Faith-based advocates lift up the names and faces of those who don’t have lobbyists in the halls of power. As a policy person for a Protestant denomination, I don’t represent doctors or hospitals or insurers; I don’t even represent my church’s interests as a consumer of health care. My mandate is to speak a voice of love and justice into the political discourse and to urge lawmakers not to forget the poor.

Inevitably, the summit yesterday included some political theater. But I enjoyed the serious policy discussion—it’s important to discuss philosophical differences and hash out approaches to reform. Indeed, part of my work is to know about different approaches to cost containment, coverage, access and affordability. But in the end, as the senator’s staffer encouraged us, the faith community is at its best when it laments with Jeremiah: “Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?”

Robert D. Francis is the director for domestic policy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The opinions expressed here are his own, not those of the ELCA.