Reproduce and share this updated tri-fold brochure, describing the advocacy ministry of the Lutheran Office of Public Policy – Maryland and the priorities of its efforts in 2010.

The ELCA advocacy office in Washington has prepared a set of video resources featuring ELCA voices in support of meaningful, sustainable health care reform. Voting members of the ELCA national Assembly in Minneapolis last month 799-126 in support of health care reform now.

These resources show what Lutherans are doing to support reform and offer expressions of faithful advocacy on behalf of our neighbor. They could provide a useful discussion starter simply by being up and running on a computer in church parlors and common spaces this weekend.

Remember that ELCA Lutherans have been for universal access since 2003. We have been working on expanding access and covering everyone in Maryland since 2002.

Thank you for your partnership in ELCA advocacy in Maryland.

http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Advocacy/Issues/Health-Policy-and-Global-Disease/Health-Care-Reform.aspx

Three issues of importance to the public positions of our ELCA faith community will continue to generate news, debate, and policy actions through the summer and fall.  Several have Maryland story-lines.
 
The first is continuing economic deterioration. Those of us who advocate human-service issues were relieved at how well the General Assembly session went. When it was over we looked at one another and collectively said, “That wasn’t too bad.” Federal stimulus money helped Maryland keep its commitment to expand health care on July 1st (and not reduce it as in other states), perhaps the most important human need issue. Some help with utility bills was offered (and not reduced as in other states) and more may be coming from the PSC. Child care, a favorite target for budget axes, was maintained. The senior prescription drug assistance program was funded. Job training for welfare clients was expanded. If you have followed national news stories you know that the states have slashed budgets to keep up with revenue free-fall and the result that in these worst of times is there’s less, not more, assistance available. Taken as a whole, Maryland is not one of those states and is holding on to services for vulnerable citizens. This leaves aside the problem of under-funded services that are not up to the task in good times. Still–it’s better to be in Maryland than in many others jurisdictions. The next revenue estimates will come in July and the expectation is that they will still be in free-fall. Unemployment (which is currently at a new, contemporary high) will be higher, more businesses will be closing, there will be another round of defaults and foreclosures, and draconian measures may yet be applied. In spite of that poverty and religious advocates will be talking to department heads this summer about protecting the vulnerable and more planning for the kind of public investments that will reduce poverty and sustain a vibrant economy. One learning of this economic disaster is that oft repeated axiom that “Wall Street can’t thrive if Main Street can’t survive.” Surprisingly in these difficult times, there is a renewed sense of urgency about addressing chronic poverty, a persistent problem of American society. It may not be a new New Deal, but we as a faith community are working to reduce poverty and increase opportunity.
 
Second, is health care; by now most people have absorbed the news that health care is this year’s priority in Washington. It remains one in Maryland also. The committees that deal with health care in the Maryland Senate and House will be working this summer on sketching out a proposal to finish the task of covering everyone in the State. That is why we are urging every Maryland, ELCA congregation and its affiliates (such as women’s and men’s organizations) to endorse and sign-on to the plan of the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative, Health Care For All [http://www.healthcareforall.com/HTML18.phtml]. A letter from LOPP/MD’s board, which endorsed the plan last fall when it was released, will be sent to each ELCA congregation this summer. The letter will include a packet of information and our position on the plan. We are trying to build and demonstrate public support for covering everyone in Maryland through affordable and feasible policies. This is an exciting time to be working on the public policy of health care access. Please join your church’s advocacy ministry in helping it happen here in Maryland.
 
Finally, immigration remains one of the most contentious and volatile public issues in the nation and in our State. On the one-year anniversary of a big ICE raid in Iowa, LIRS and the ELCA released a letter about the raid and the issues surrounding it. The position articulated in the letter is not new; neither is it non-controversial for many including those that attend our churches. A link to the letter is provided and you may want to make copies as a hand-out or for discussion. I recall again the Faith Night several years ago when we asked the assembled Lutherans and Episcopalians how many came from congregations that were dealing with immigrant people and their issues. Nearly half the fifty or so present raised their hands. But there are plenty of folks who dealing with the issue in other ways. One individual who represents a vociferous anti-immigrant group in Maryland identifies herself as “Lutheran” in public appearances. Another Lutheran who works in Annapolis used the term “treason” with me when characterizing the ELCA/LIRS policy position. In the letter provided by the link, the paragraph immediately under the subheading, “Grace and Mercy” summarizes well the position we state to policy-makers in Maryland and in Washington. You may note that one of the bishops who signed the letter is Jerry Knoche of DE/MD, who is one of the church’s immigrant advocates in the college of bishops. Here is the link [http://www.lirs.org/News/NewsReleases/20090512PostvilleAnniversary.htm]; I commend both the letter and its position to you and your congregants.
 
Feel free to reproduce and distribute this LOPP/MD message. Thank you for your partnership in ELCA advocacy to Maryland.
 
The Rev. Lee Hudson, Director

TO: the LOPP/MD listserv

An unusual number of recipients of these alerts e-mailed me last week as two stories broke about death penalty repeal. One was the story from New Mexico where the legislature passed, and the governor signed, repeal legislation. The other was of course from Maryland where the Governor and some repeal proponents agreed to back the Senate’s death penalty bill to slightly narrow the universe of death-eligible cases in the State. I’m not sure whether people were just noting the stories or expressing exasperation.

At the start of the year those two states, Maryland and New Mexico, were headed for death penalty repeal debates and if you had been giving odds (now that we’re a gambling state) the smart money would have been on Maryland’s so-called progressive legislature to abolish its error-prone, slightly illegal, expensive, and inequitable sanction. A former Wild West state with all kinds of social turmoil didn’t look like the next authority to see reason. Ah, well… Those of us who’ve been around for a while knew that Maryland’s very conservative Senate would be a formidable obstacle and that Maryland’s progressive achievements are always contentious and fragile.

Before summing up what happened in the House last week I note that we have an ELCA state office in New Mexico that helped to end its death penalty. We have congratulated our colleague, Ruth Hoffman, for her work and success. She reported they were so ecstatic it hadn’t really sunk in yet that they’d done it. I hope you can join me in sharing the realization of an ELCA public policy goal by an ELCA SPPO, even though it isn’t in Maryland.

Back to Maryland; the Governor made repeal one of his priorities and that is always a mixed blessing. We usually have more opponents than allies in the arena of human service- and interest advocacy so it’s nice to have a friend in important office whenever you can find one, a friendly legislator, or better, a governor. The downside is that a governor has complicated packages of initiatives and lots of different tools to promote them. If your issue becomes his issue then his strategy decides your issue. The Governor in this case decided to take the Senate President at his word that there would be a clean debate and vote on repeal in that chamber. He miscalculated in my humble opinion, and for a variety of reasons—some of which aren’t visible yet—decided to take what he could get and make another effort another day.

That decision left some of us in the repeal alliance without a cause. Some, notably the Catholics, decided to follow the Governor and support the Senate bill while calling for further discussion on repeal. We did not. Our ELCA testimony is that we want the General Assembly to deal with the report of its own Commission, debate the flaws in Maryland capital justice, and repeal the death penalty.

The hearing was something of a show of public discussion about a decision that had already been made. If you’re exasperated you’re entitled to be; repeal discussion is now at least a decade removed by which time the Commission report will have been forgotten. In the meantime what happened next in the House committee, where there had been votes to report out a repeal bill, is a preview of what that decade will be like. Before the House Judiciary voted to report out the Senate bill their debate was about how to strengthen it to preserve the death penalty, not about how to address any of the legal and justice failings in the death penalty we actually have.

I say this conscious that nearly every news outlet is reporting the bill about to be passed into Maryland law “practically” repeals the death penalty. That is not our view, and we are not alone. The law is so flawed it will be challenged and litigated to death. Death penalty proponents have already vowed to strengthen capital justice once more. Meanwhile nothing that’s wrong with Maryland’s death penalty was so much as mentioned. It’s my view that the effort may have made things worse.

Sometime this week the Maryland House will likely vote on a global warming reductions act, another bill with mixed reviews but which we helped achieve and still support. The story is a good one and I note again that we concur in the criticisms, and have made them ourselves; but this bill, unlike the Senate death penalty bill, actually does something and it‚Äôs helpful and much better than nothing. I’ll let the news story inform you on this one-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/19/AR2009031903532.html

Two additional and very important priorities for LOPP/MD are also moving toward passage. The first makes some part-time workers eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. The second increases the benefit a little. Both were overdue in Maryland. Both were subjects of intense negotiation between business and labor. Each represents a consensus that everyone could support. We’re very happy these two bills will pass.

As always, thank you for your interest in ELCA advocacy in Maryland.