Presiding Bishop, other leaders urge Obama to tackle Gulf Coast poverty, coastal restoration

By ENS Staff, October 16

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori joined more than 50 leading Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders in urging President Barack Obama to make poverty, climate and coastal restoration a priority in Gulf coast communities still struggling to come back from Hurrican Katrina. 

Faith-based groups seized the opportunity of Obama’s first official visit to the famed city since his historic election, to call for a beefed-up long-term recovery policy.

In a letter to the president, the faith leaders said, “Four years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck and the levees were breached, the slow pace of recovery, persistent poverty, climate change and coastal land loss have created a moral crisis across the region that demands a powerful response from people of faith and our elected officials.”

The full text of the letter is available here.   Read the full article here.