David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, presented the ONE Campaign to the Association of State Baptist Papers during its meeting at the Southern Baptist Convention June 20.
Bread for the World, a Christian citizens’ movement against hunger, has been helping Christians lobby their legislators for more than 30 years about issues that affect hungry and poor people.
The ONE Campaign is endorsed by a wide variety of Americans — evangelical leaders like Billy Graham, Rick Warren and Pat Robertson; Christian artists Michael W. Smith and Jars of Clay; and a host of celebrities including Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and George Clooney.
The central message of the campaign is that Americans have the opportunity to dramatically reduce extreme poverty, hunger and global AIDS.
The fastest, most effective way to do that is for the U.S. government to direct 1 percent of its annual budget to development assistance to corruption-fighting governments, private charities and faith-based organizations in the developing world, Beckmann said.
The ONE Campaign has partner campaigns in 88 wealthy nations, all seeking to get their governments to do more to help “the least of these” in Africa and other impoverished nations of the world.
“I am like the prophet Isaiah with a coal on my lips,” said Beckmann after the meeting. “We can end hunger and extreme poverty, and I am convicted to share that message everywhere I go. We have the technology and the know-how to fight poverty, disease and hunger and we must use it to support life.”
Beckmann said he has seen Christians of every stripe, but especially evangelical Christians, recognizing Jesus’ call for Christians to act on behalf of the poor.
“Many Christian supporters of the ONE Campaign are reading their Bibles, which say to care for the widow and the orphan,” he said. “The best way to care for them is to help them not become widowed or orphaned in the first place by curbing deaths due to hunger and preventable diseases.
“The opportunity to let Southern Baptists know about this campaign and ask them to join is tremendous. Southern Baptists are Christians who act upon their faith and follow Jesus, and I pray they will answer this call,” Beckmann said.
He also highlighted the work of the Micah Challenge, a similar global Christian campaign that aims to deepen engagement with the poor and challenge leaders to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. These goals were agreed upon by 188 nations in 2000 and include halving poverty by 2015, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and five other important measures.
White armbands are the symbol of the ONE Campaign, the Micah Challenge and the other international anti-poverty campaigns that make up the Global Call to Action Against Poverty.
Since January, 1 million Americans have signed on to be part of the ONE Campaign. The campaign was founded by 11 anti-hunger and poverty groups including Bread for the World, World Vision and Save the Children U.S.
For more information, visit www.bread.org/one.
(BP)
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