c. 2004 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The Rev. Bob Vitillo has heard a lot of talk about swing states, blue states and red states, but the one state no one is talking about this election year is what he calls America’s “51st state” _ the 36 million Americans living in poverty who, grouped together, would outrank California as the nation’s largest state.

“When we listen to what poor people tell us about their experience, time after time they talk about feeling invisible, forgotten and ignored by everyone,” said Vitillo, director of the anti-poverty Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

“It’s almost as if they didn’t exist.”

Vitillo’s frustration is shared by other religious leaders who say poverty has gone mostly unnoticed by both the Bush and Kerry campaigns. In an election year dominated by terrorism, Iraq and the economy, they say the “least of these” have gotten the least amount of attention.

The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, got so fed up he told both camps in a rare public rebuke that terrorism wasn’t the only issue facing the country.

“President Bush and Sen. Kerry both claim to be people of faith, and they can differ on doctrine, they can differ on personal morality, but it seems to me that if you read the Scriptures, what unites them is the prophetic call that God expects the people of God to stand alongside those living in poverty,” Hanson said in an interview.

In a campaign where both sides have vied for the attention of religious voters, critics say both campaigns have battled over piety while ignoring a mandate to care for the poor that is central to all faiths.

Poverty, Vitillo said, has “barely warranted a passing notice or reference” from either side.

In the Catholic Church, where some conservatives have questioned Kerry’s credentials because of his support of abortion rights, others say the controversy has overshadowed their church’s rich history of social concern for the poor.

“It’s so easy to make abortion the only issue because you don’t have to spend a penny on it,” said Sister Joan Chittister, an outspoken Benedictine nun. “You don’t have to be generous, you don’t have to give alms, you don’t have to be moral. You can just be loud.”

To their credit, both campaigns have addressed poverty indirectly, with Bush’s call to “unleash the armies of compassion” through his faith-based initiative, and Kerry and running mate Sen. John Edwards bemoaning the “two Americas” of the haves and have-nots. And despite targeted initiatives to fight AIDS and poverty overseas, domestic aid to the poor has been indirect _ often linked to tax cuts, education and minimum-wage jobs.

Both campaigns say they are talking about the issues Americans care most about _ terrorism, the war in Iraq and the economy. They also chide the media for being consumed by decades-old war records and horse-race polling numbers.

Mike McCurry, a former Clinton press secretary and now senior adviser for Kerry, said, “It’s deeply frustrating, especially to Democrats, that we cannot command the focus of the media for a discussion on poverty, homelessness, hunger and the dispossesed.”

Ralph Reed, the former president of the Christian Coalition and now a senior adviser for the Bush campaign, said the president intends to fight poverty by tackling other issues.

“We know that if you want to bring people out of poverty, all the social science says the most important thing you need is an intact marriage or family and a quality education,” Reed said.

While some blame the media and others blame the candidates, does part of the blame lie with religious leaders themselves? Have they allowed social morality to overshadow social justice?

Religious conservatives _ especially President Bush’s evangelical base _ have been galvanized by hot-button social issues like abortion, gay marriage and stem-cell research. In a recent open letter drafted by the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, nearly 75 evangelical leaders listed the six issues that should shape voters’ decisions _ the Supreme Court, terrorism, abortion, gay marriage, embryonic stem-cell research and environmental development.

Poverty did not make the list.

One of the signers, Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., signed the letter, which he said was not “exhaustive.” He said voters must be compelled by both morality and a “mandate” for the poor.

“We neglect a vital aspect of the Christian life and Christian conscience if we don’t address (poverty) as well,” he said. “It’s not an either/or. It’s a both/and.”

Surveys show that voters do care about poverty, although usually less than other issues. In a national poll commissioned by Vitillo’s office last January on the biggest “problems” facing the country, most Americans ranked poverty 13th, well behind government, the economy and terrorism. Among low-income Americans, poverty was No. 4, behind jobs, health care and education.

In a separate national survey by the anti-hunger group Bread for the World, 78 percent of people said they wanted to hear a candidate’s plan for ending poverty, while just 15 percent wanted to hear a position on gay marriage.

“As God looks at U.S. politics, what we know is that God has a special interest in what’s in this for the `least of these,”’ said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, referring to Jesus’ mandate in the Gospel of Matthew.

John Fox, a tax attorney who teaches about poverty at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., said politicians have pandered to the middle class with promises of tax cuts that make it hard to think about poverty.

“Once you say to the broad middle class that you’ve been given short shrift, then it’s not hard for you to think I’ve got to look after myself before I look after somebody else,” Fox said.

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As poverty rates continue to rise _ to nearly 36 million Americans last year _ concern seems to be growing. In Vitillo’s poll, the portion of people who were worried they might one day be poor rose from 49 percent in 2000 to 56 percent in 2003.

While some religious leaders have not made poverty a priority, some progressive faith groups, frustrated by what they see as little attention to poverty, have responded by launching a coast-to-coast effort to raise awareness. The Washington-based Call to Renewal sponsored a 12-city bus tour in six battleground states that urged voters to consider poverty policy on Election Day. “How a candidate deals with poverty is a religious issue,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, convener of Call to Renewal.

The Chicago-based Gamaliel Foundation, in a similar effort, has registered 44,000 voters at 26 local “Rolling Thunder” rallies, and hopes to mobilize 450,000 voters to take their concerns to the polls on Nov. 2.

Gamaliel president Ann Smith said the mandate is clear: “We have a moral imperative to care for those who can’t care for themselves.”

MO/PH END ECKSTROM