Fasting Because Budgets are Moral Documents
Posted on | April 2, 2011 | Comments Off on Fasting Because Budgets are Moral Documents
The practice of fasting is testament-honored but not much practiced these days, as any trip to the shopping center or the movie snack bar will reveal. But starting this week, I along with more than 20, 000 Americans will be partial fasting for economic justice. Jim Wallis and a number of other clergy have announced a fast, and I have decided to join, because, like them, I believe that budgets are moral documents and that advocating cutbacks in basic aid to the poor–such as Food Stamps–is moral bankruptcy. Move-On, whose leadership is also joining, announced its participation with these lines from Isaiah:
Is this not the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke. (58:6)