Faith and Public Policy Roundtable, New York, NY
STATEMENT ON THE CRISIS IN HAITI
January 26, 2010
The earthquake in Haiti has not merely hurled the people of Haiti into profound pain and loss. It has placed in bold relief the unrelenting plight endured by the people of this poverty-stricken nation. Such disaster begs a question of the gravest sort: where is God in Haiti’s desolation and grief?
Some religious leaders have answered this question by claiming divine punishment of the Haitian people and calling for mass repentance for some aggravating sin. We utterly repudiate this position. It is erroneous and misleading.
We are Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish clergy and academics, and we share the Psalmist’s conviction that “God is our refuge and stronghold, a help in distress, very near. Therefore we are not afraid though the earth reels, though mountains topple into the sea—its waters rage and foam; in its swell, mountains quake.” We believe God is near to the Haitian people who have endured such terrible loss and devastation.
Human temptation finds the judgment of a vicious God in natural disaster. Contrary to that impulse, people of faith put their hope in a God who loves and worries for humanity. It is up to us: men and women of flesh and blood created in the Divine image, holding in our hands the redemptive power of our human responsibility, to provide direction in reaching for God’s nearness. As Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik wrote regarding the worst of human suffering, ultimately, “We ask not about the reason for evil and its purpose, but rather about its rectification and uplifting.”
Identifying God as being very near to those who suffer places responsibility squarely on the shoulders of all humanity. The impact of this disaster and its toll on human life, both those so cruelly taken and those who struggle daily to survive, is at once borne acutely by a particular people and the concern of us all.
As a non-fundamentalist interfaith roundtable concerned with religious values that address public policy concerns, we urge our country, both its private and public sectors, to provide two forms of aid to Haiti: the kind of emergency support most needed now, and already being provided by so many individuals and organizations, and then, the harder kind of aid to maintain: that which will provide for sustainable recovery. This means we are committed to reconstruction of Haiti over the long term. As human beings created in the Divine image, we must stay near to this people in their need just as God remains close. We urge the faithful of our country to act with such bold resolution.
Acts of faith are the incremental building blocks of healing and justice. In this case we begin by acknowledging that we of the developed world have not been near to the Haitian people. We have allowed abject poverty to perpetuate itself far too long. We of the developed world have failed. God’s nearness to those who suffer calls us to constant vigilance that illuminates the Divinity within our humanity. Our aid to Haiti needs to reflect the value of ongoing sustenance. We bear responsibility to lift the burden of poverty by every means possible.
The people of Haiti will have many needs in the months and years to come. Our aid to Haiti must be deep and long in impact, given over to an individual or a community in a sustainable way. Emergency aid will need to be reshaped into support for the rebuilding of lives, institutions and infrastructure.
We urge all Americans to support relief and reconstruction efforts to help Haiti through this crisis, and to think about how each of us, in our own way, individually and through institutions, will continue to support the recovery of Haiti over time.
This tragedy will become multi-generational unless the human family rallies around this stricken nation.
FAITH & PUBLIC POLICY ROUNDTABLE STEERING COMMITTEE
(In alphabetical order)
Noah Arnow
Senior Rabbinical Student
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Rabbi David Lincoln
Rabbi Emeritus
Park Avenue Synagogue, New York, N.Y.
The Reverend Gary Mills, Ph.D. (co-chairman)
Assistant to the Bishop for Global and Multicultural Administration
Metropolitan New York Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Rabbi Stephanie Ruskay
National Education Director
Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps
The Reverend Patrick J. Ryan, S.J.
Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society
Fordham University
Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D.
Director, Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development
Fordham University
The Reverend Jared R. Stahler
Associate Pastor
St. Peter’s Church, New York, N.Y.
Rabbi Abraham Unger, Ph.D. (co-chairman)
Assistant Professor and Director of Urban Programs, Department of Government and Politics & Campus Rabbi, Wagner College
Rabbi, Congregation Ahavath Israel, Staten Island, N.Y.
The Faith and Public Policy Roundtable is a coalition of mainstream clergy and academics from houses of worship, seminaries and universities, and ecclesiastical organizations throughout New York City. For more information, see their Nov. 3, 2009 white paper, “Mainstream Clergy Confront Economic Crisis.”
