This past week a few of us from the church I work at, Trinity Episcopal Church, went to Washington D.C. to share our concerns with a few people. These people were Rep. Jim McGovern’s Legislative Director Cindy Buhl, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, and Senior Aid to Sen. Jon Husted, Sean Dunn. Unfortunately, Sen. Bernie Moreno’s office could not supply someone to meet with us. We also met up with members of the Episcopal Public Policy Network; Susie Faria, Lindsey Delks, and Troy Collazo, wonderful people doing incredibly important and hard work.
At the end of our meetings we provided a summary of our talking points we were able to get to, and some we couldn’t. Below you can read them, along with some pictures from our trip. We look forward to going back in the fall and following up with these concerns.
LGBTQIA+ support
The Trevor Project has been an incredible safety net for the LGBTQIA+ community, and the current administration has called to defund this. Trinity Episcopal Church is if not one of, then the most open and affirming Episcopal congregation in Toledo. We see first-hand people who walk through our doors that have been affected by gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination. Removing funding for this lifeline is not only unthinkable but cruel. The administration’s push of a “traditional family structure” as a source of stability and the lament for the lack of childbirth, coupled with the current administration wanting to cut programs like head start is not only confusing but shows they do not actually care for the American family. Queer families have been here from the beginning and will not disappear because this administration chooses to ignore them. With wages low, student and medical debt, cutting programs like head start continues to burden families of all kinds.
This suggestion of funding cut not only hurts at a federal level, but Ohio House Bill 616, is a slap in the face of history and decency. While we know you work at the federal level, we encourage you to reach out to your fellow legislators at the state level (as will we), to encourage voting against it. We believe reconciliation can only happen when people are willing to have open and honest conversations, and what HB616 offers leads to more pain and ignorance. Our children deserve to know the real history of America, this includes our queer siblings and how we have treated them and people of color, warts and all. Our Christian community is called to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to recognized and serve the dignity in all peoples. Our children deserve better than to be told they do not belong.
Medicaid cut concern
Medicaid makes up 93% of the non-mandatory spending and cuts to this must happen to reach the $880 billion according to the non-partisan Congressional Spending Office. President Trump says Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security will not be touched. How are we to trust this when in a recent interview with Meet the Press he stated he wasn’t sure if he is responsible for upholding the constitution? The truth is, cuts to Medicaid threaten the viability of hospitals, nursing homes to name a few. Every week, we serve a free meal to those who live on the margins to get to know our neighbors. There are real concerns about medical coverage from those who attend, and they run the spectrum of age and race. Part of the baptismal covenant we recite in the Episcopal Church is that with Gods help, we will seek and serve Christ in all peoples. Cutting medical coverage to the most vulnerable amongst us is unacceptable, and we are pleading you to help us uphold this covenant by standing against Medicaid cuts.
USAID concern
Ohio Farmer’s Union President Bryn Bird, who farms in Licking County, underscored the importance of USAID’s food commodity purchases on prices at the farm gate:
“USAID plays a crucial role, not only providing food aid to millions around the world but also directly purchasing grains from Ohio farmers. Our farmers deserve predictable, fair market conditions to plan and grow their businesses. A pause on these programs will only add more uncertainty and volatility to an already challenging marketplace, leaving many Ohio farmers facing an unpredictable season. Ohio farmers are more than capable of rising to the challenge of feeding the world, but they need stability to do so.”
A shutdown of USAID would also have devastating consequences for the people of food-insecure nations that rely on USAID’s food assistance programs. These programs provide vital nutrition to millions of human beings. To end these USAID programs with no replacement in sight will at a minimum, lead to increased hunger, malnutrition, and disease in the affected countries, cause the deaths of huge numbers of people worldwide, and could trigger political instability in countries that are already facing food crises.
As previously stated, every week we host a free meal and see the effects this would have stateside. Prices continue to go up and as we seek to make this breakfast ministry sustainable, it becomes harder as more people cannot afford groceries.
Gun violence concern
In the summer of 2023 our deacon, the Rev. Meribah Mansfield and Mike Linehan (Community Mission Team Leader at Olivet Lutheran Church in Sylvania, OH) formed the Northwest Ohio Multifaith Coalition to Reduce Gun Violence. This coalition helps to enable faith communities to work collaboratively to reduce gun violence through education, advocacy, and healing. Since its formation, it has grown to involve 41 congregations and more than 200 people throughout the Toledo area. Mike and Meribah met while marching with Moms Demand Action in a community festival parade in June 2023. It was there that the idea of a multifaith coalition began to take shape. Soon after, they began organizing a series of gun violence reduction forums.
Five faith-based forums have been held so far on topics including survivor testimonies, legislative action and advocacy training, safe gun storage, and updates on efforts of the City of Toledo’s Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). Coalition members worked with MONSE to develop Peace in Motion, Toledo’s 5-Year Comprehensive Safety Plan. It includes 42 targeted recommendations to reduce gun violence by fostering safer neighborhoods and creating opportunities for all residents. Gun violence not only continues to be an epidemic in Ohio, but nationwide.
Immigration and deportation concern
As of this week, CBS reported the current administration seeks to put into place deals with Angola and Equatorial Guinea to accept migrants. Everything that is going on with this administration’s handling of migrants, legal or otherwise, goes against one of the core tenants of Christianity. To watch over for one’s neighbor, to help the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner, is critical to living out our faith. Not only that, but the way the administration has been going around the courts, and not providing due processes, a constitutional right, flies in the face of what it means to uphold American ideals.
George of Sylvania 