| Hunger summit speakers urge church to mobilize BY JORETTA PURDUE United Methodist News Service  Americans who cannot deliver a dollar a day to the hungry people of the world should not claim to be Christian, the Rev. Tony Campolo told the crowd at the national Hunger Summit at Mount Verno n Place UMC in Washington, D.C. Speaking on hunger and justice, Campolo, a clergyman of the American Baptist Church, inspired the participants in the closing address of the May 9-10 event. The Hunger Summit focused on creating a movement to end hunger in the United States. It was jointly produced by the United Methodist Board of Church and Society; the Society of St. Andrew, a nonprofit hunger relief organization; and Wesley Theological Seminary. One of the things we have to recognize, Campolo said, is that its hard to preach good news to the poor without preaching bad news to the rich. Campolo said he admires the United Methodist Church for doing that. You stand up for people who will never attend your church and aggravate those who do, he said. Getting people to give is the kindest, most loving thing you can do for the giver, he told the audience of about 250 people including 100 registered hunger workers from 31 United Methodist conferences. The United States is spending so much on international warfare that weve forgotten there are people in need, Campolo said. During break-out sessions, participants discussed ways to bring the hands-on emergency relief and feeding ministries together with those who were primarily engaged in advocacy work, following the theme of the event, The Embrace of Justice and Mercy. How can we move churches from a charity mode to doing social justice? asked Sharon Leatherman, executive director of the United Methodist Appalachian Ministry Network and a member of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. If you just do charity, you keep them in poverty, she said. Bishop Donald A. Ott of the Wisconsin Conference attended the summit as the coordinator of the Council of Bishops Task Force on the Initiative on Children and Poverty. He said one of the greatest increases in the United Methodist Church over the past 10 years has been the Volunteers in Mission program that largely works with hungry and poor people. But, he added, VIM is a missed opportunity of building in a questioning of why its even necessary to renovate houses, of moving beyond the charity to pursuing justice. We should not have just worship but education and social justice, he said during a small group discussion. There are lots of VIM groups to West Virginia, said Neal Christie from the Board of Church and Society. Attach public policy to these groups, he said. We havent brought Church and Society into this work. There are hungry people in the United States today, and there shouldnt be, said the Rev. Ken Horne, a United Methodist clergyman and director of the Society of St. Andrew, which operates volunteer gleaning and hunger education programs. About 90 billion pounds of food are thrown away each year in this country, Horne said. In 2001, the society salvaged 46.4 million pounds and redistributed the food to hungry people. There are hungry and homeless people in the United States because that is the way we want it as a country, Horne declared. We exist in a culture whose main religion is materialism. Horne challenged the church to provide the will for change. The moral leadership must come from the church, he said, because it is the only organization that has as its bottom line the welfare of the least and the lost. Linda Worthington contributed to this article. | 
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