Aid organizations worry severe cuts to foreign aid will reverse progress at reducing poverty.
The leaders of America’s top evangelical aid groups and denominations urged Congress to reject proposed cuts to foreign assistance in a letter signed by more than 100 prominent Christians.
President Donald Trump released his budget blueprint Thursday, which outlines the anticipated cutbacks to international aid programs. The plan reduces the State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID) budget by 28 percent.
“As followers of Christ, it is our moral responsibility to urge you to support and protect the International Affairs Budget, and avoid disproportionate cuts to these vital programs that ensure that our country continues to be the ‘shining city upon a hill,’” the letter read. Currently, foreign assistance—America’s contribution to healthcare and development efforts abroad—represents a fraction of 1 percent of the budget.
Signatories include leaders from humanitarian aid groups like World Vision USA, World Relief, Compassion International, Living Water International, Food for the Hungry, and Catholic Relief Services, as well as denominational leaders from the Southern Baptist Convention, Assemblies of God, Wesleyan Church, Church of Nazarene, Christian Reformed Church in North America, National Association of Evangelicals, and several Catholic dioceses.
These groups are major players in international development and poverty relief; World Vision’s president, Rich Stearns, wrote a few years ago that its $2.8 billion budget ranks among the countries with the 15 biggest economies in the world for overseas assistance.
The 100-plus Christian leaders want America to maintain the international programs they consider “instrumental in saving lives, safeguarding ...
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