Opinion: Who Will Stand Up for the Poor?

Victims of child poverty need us to stand up both for them and for the idea of America, writes Bishop Gene Robinson.

I haven’t been sleeping well lately. Not ever since the new poverty statistics came out. With the deep recession, I knew they wouldn’t be good — but I could not have predicted the grim nature of the cold, hard facts.

As a religious person in the Judeo-Christian tradition, I know that there is more in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures about our care of the poor than any other topic.

According to those sacred texts, God will judge us most closely and most harshly on our care for the most vulnerable in our communities. From the looks of things in America, the most prosperous nation in history, we’re not going to fare very well with the creator and lover of humankind on Judgment Day.

The above excerpt was originally published in AOL News. Click here to view the full article.

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