Medium-rare bison burger, oven fries, cherry tomatoes and balsamic vinaigrette, and a dish of frozen yogurt with cashews and chocolate sauce. That was Monday night’s dinner.
Tonight’s menu is low-sodium vegetable juice, followed by something that is akin to a soy milk shake, and a large dose of prayer.
Welcome to the Fast for PA’s Vulnerable.
United Methodist Advocacy in Pennsylvania has joined with a coalition of faith groups in a fast to focus prayer on the Commonwealth’s upcoming 2011-2012 state budget. I am putting my appetite on hold for the next few weeks to focus on prayer for Pennsylvania's most vulnerable citizens.
We fear for the well being of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable residents in this process. We are praying for our leaders to make moral choices, moral decisions, and to produce a moral state budget.
Fasting is a spiritual discipline, and an appeal for God’s intervention in times of crisis. Participants in the Fast for PA’s Vulnerable are sacrificing to focus prayer on this moral crisis. We will fast until there is a final budget signed into law by Gov. Tom Corbett.
Pennsylvania faces a $4 billion shortfall as Gov. Corbett and the 253-member General Assembly begin putting together a 2011-2012 state budget. This is due in large part to the loss of federal stimulus funding and the lingering affects of the recession.
The governor has proposed massive cuts or the elimination hundreds of programs throughout state government. He has cut more than a billion dollars in education funding and another nearly $200 million in human service funding for Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. He says he has used a scalpel, not an axe in dealing with most programs to help Pennsylvania’s poor, sick, and homeless. He has even proposed increases in a few programs.
One of the four legislative caucuses, upset with cuts in education, has proposed an alternative that restores a large chunk of the education funding. They want to make reductions in hundreds of other programs, and take a proverbial battle-axe to programs that assist the poor and vulnerable. This plan reduces funding for programs for children, families, the elderly, and the sick by nearly a half-billion dollars. Faced with a choice, they are picking funds for education over money for the Department of Public Welfare.
We believe it is morally wrong to balance Pennsylvania’s budget on the backs of our most vulnerable.
We believe every choice our leaders make in this process is a moral one. They are moral decisions that we pray lead to a moral budget that reflects what Pennsylvania should be: a place where the needy are cared for, and not portrayed as scam artists, too lazy to work, and deserving of their plight.
Fasting as a spiritual discipline is an important tenet of many faiths. For Christians and Jews it is rooted deep in the Old Testament. Fasting is an intensely personal action, and is not done for glory or favor.
Fasting for PA’s Vulnerable is an act of atonement, seeking God’s forgiveness for how we have treated the poor, the sick, and the homeless. It is a prayer for God’s intercession, asking God to touch on the hearts of those who are making the moral choices and decisions affecting those who are in such need.
This fast is also a prayer of hope, of hope for a better future for all Pennsylvanians, a prayer of hope that all Pennsylvanians will have an opportunity to share in life’s abundance.
We pray that God touches the hearts of the 254 elected officials in Pennsylvania who are making these vital, moral choices and decisions
Join us. Be part of this spiritual discipline for Pennsylvania's most vulnerable.
