From Sojourners, how the faith of this Sunday School teacher affects her work reviewing the bank bailout. In addition to describing her work she adds that writing to our senators and representatives is important and comments on the role of faith in daily life:
Elizabeth Warren is more than just the head of Congress’s panel reviewing the bank bailout (officially, the Troubled Asset Relief Program). Along with being a Harvard Law professor, she’s also a plain-spoken and passionate advocate for everyday people who is deeply motivated by her Oklahoma Methodist upbringing, as she described in an interview with Sojourners editor-in-chief Jim Wallis and assistant editor Jeannie Choi this February.
Sojourners: What can our readers do to support these changes?
Warren: I’m not someone who ever thought I would write letters to Congress, but now is the time—we must make a change. Write your senator, make a phone call, send an e-mail, do all of the above, and ask your neighbors to do the same. Write a letter to the editor in your newspaper. There has to be a sense of public energy behind this. This is not a Democrat-Republican issue, this is not a liberal-conservative issue; this is about the survival of our families.
Senators hear literally every day, from bank lobbyists, a plausible story for why we need to stay with the status quo. It’s water that wears on a rock, even for committed senators. They need to hear, on a personal level, what’s happening to families. They need to be held to account.
Sojourners: How does your faith inform the work you are doing today?
Warren: I grew up in Oklahoma in what we used to refer to as a mixed marriage—my mother was Baptist and my father was Methodist! I grew up in a world of Christian service, and the whole notion that some people of faith embrace greed is so deeply troubling to me.
My Methodist roots—a tradition that worship is doing what is right—show in every bit of work I do. It is about helping others. That guides my life every day.
You can get active and affect legislation through the Episcopal Public Policy Network