Religious Leader: 'Words from Capitol Hill...Make Me Ache' - East Idaho News
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Religious Leader: ‘Words from Capitol Hill…Make Me Ache’

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Getty 101613 CapitolHill?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1381944130600iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — A small group of religious leaders held a “Faithful Filibuster” at sunrise at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to pray for an agreement on a deal to reopen the government, avoid default and protect the needs of America’s poor.

Jim Wallis, founder of the Christian community Sojourners, is frustrated. “The words from the Capitol this week make me ache. They really make me ache,” he said.

Wallis has been at the Capitol every day for a week and he’s hurting inside. “The words from politicians and pundits make me ache. We’ve lost the common good,” he declared.

Sensing a vote could come Wednesday, as the sun came up over the Capitol, Wallis and a group of about 10 other religious leaders called on Congress to end the impasse.

“We pray for votes made today that they will honor You and honor the people who are in such danger,” Wallis and the group prayed.

Rev. Gary Cook of Bread for the World believes the government was shirking its responsibility to care for the needy. “We continue to pray for our leaders and to publicly and privately remind them that they should, as scripture explicitly says, defend the cause of the poor,” he said.

“The God of this Bible says the last shall be first and the first shall be last,” Wallis said. “And that is completely opposite of all the words that I hear in this place.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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