At ONE, we believe that faith is a major driving force behind social change. And that’s why we spearheaded a number of campaigns this year to help motivate and mobilize faith communities to take action on behalf of the world’s poorest people.

Earlier this year, we launched Lazarus Sunday, a nationwide event to help raise awareness for HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 1,000 faith communities took part. Faith leaders aired “The Lazarus Effect,” a documentary about AIDS, at church services, and touched on ONE’s issues during their sermons.

We traveled with the David Crowder*Band, a Christian rock group, on their final tour to recruit anti-poverty advocates. For weeks, ONE Organizer Seth Philpott and his volunteers tabled at shows to spread the word about our mission. Their hard work paid off — they signed up nearly 10,000 new members from the tour!

To remind ONE members about the famine in the Horn of Africa during the holiday season, we launched our ONE Sabbath Thanksgiving event. More than 200 faith communities from across the world signed up to help combat the devastating drought. Before the event took place, USAID Administrator Raj Shah participated in an exclusive conference call with ONE members of faith to discuss the Horn of Africa situation.

What else happened this year? We recruited 40 new regional faith leaders, distributed faith action guides for the Ramadan and Sukkot holidays, and launched a lovely series of essays on Thanksgiving from ONE members of all faiths.

To those who participated in Faith at ONE events and activities this year, thank you. We’ve got lots more in store next year, so stay tuned!

We live in a world where a person’s future is too often determined by where he or she is born.

If you’re born in a certain village or zip code, you have a better chance of dying before 18 than receiving a secondary education. And on the flip side, if you’re born into certain freedoms, you have access to life-giving resources such as an education, health care and a worshiping community.

In the aftermath of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt talked about the Four Freedoms — freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

As advocates with ONE, we are focused this Thanksgiving on addressing the freedom from want for our African brothers and sisters — both on an immediate level in response to the famine and on the level of long-term sustainability.

As we speak up this holiday season, we are reminded that our ability to be advocates is a direct result of the freedoms we were born into.

Jesus taught us, “To those whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48). As we reflect this Thanksgiving, we are reminded that even if we are not part of the 1 percent in the US, we are almost certainly part of the 1 percent in the world.

Yet our motivation to give this holiday season is not, and cannot be, out of guilt. If we respond this Thanksgiving out of guilt, it will ultimately paralyze us. Instead, as Christians, we are called to respond generously to others in the same way that God’s amazing grace was generously offered to us.

The disciple John writes, “We love because God first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

A couple of months ago, we were praying about how to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11; our church got excited about responding by taking up an offering for those facing the worst of the drought in Somalia, many of whom are Muslim.

We were blown away by what happened — it was generosity in action, generosity out of thanksgiving: more than 100 young people in our new church gave $14,600. What made this even more miraculous is that it was matched and multiplied by others the following week to total $100,000 in emergency food aid for the famine!

We love because God first loved us. The best advocacy and the best giving is not done out of guilt but out of thanksgiving. For us, it is a response to the compassionate and relentless love that God spilled out for us that we surely did not deserve.

This week, we’ll be joining with ONE in their Thanksgiving campaign, to add our voices to the call for immediate aid and long-term sustainable development in the Horn of Africa. If we truly believe all are created in the image of God and that we are blessed to be a blessing, speaking out is the least we can do.

Please join us: head to one.org/faith and sign up.

Aaron Graham and Justin Fung are the Lead Pastor and Associate Pastor at the District Church in Washington, DC.

For those of you who missed our ONE Sabbath “Fight the Famine, Feed the Future” national conference call, we have an mp3 recording of the file that you can download here.

USAID’s Dr. Raj Shah gave us an update on the latest surrounding the famine in the Horn of Africa while ONE’s CEO Michael Elliott briefed our national network of faith leaders on ONE’s comprehensive hunger and agriculture campaigns. More than 13 million of our sisters and brothers in east Africa are vulnerable to hunger and lack of access to clean water at this time –- and there is something we can do about it!

During the fall season, and especially around Thanksgiving, it’s critical that we do all we can to fight the famine and secure a future where there is hunger no more. Get your local faith community involved and sign up for ONE Sabbath.

Hopefully you’ve heard about the famine in the Horn of Africa by now — at least 30,000 children have died in the past few months. Even today, lives are still being lost, and more people are being displaced. The stories, pictures and statistics continue to show us that we need to take action to help those who are suffering and prevent this from ever happening again.

Carolyn Worthge and Adeela Tajdar

As the 2011 Faiths Act Fellows, a multi-faith project of ONE and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, we are tasked with mobilizing faith communities to come together and take action on extreme poverty around the world, particularly in parts of Africa. With the current famine crisis, now is the time to do just that.

More than 13 million people need our help in the Horn of Africa, and we as people of faith can come together this Thanksgiving by raising our collective voices to put an end to this famine. There is a call in each of the major faith traditions to serve those who are hungry and hurting, and the famine requires us to accept this call and put a stop to this injustice.

During a holiday that focuses so much on gratitude for the great abundance in our lives, let us give thanks by living out our faith and taking action to serve those who are without. Download Faith at ONE’s Interfaith Thanksgiving Guide to begin the conversation on faith and the famine, and learn practical ways you can take action in your faith community. The guide includes quotes from many of the major faiths to highlight the importance of social justice in each, as well as more information on the famine and what you can do to address the issue.

What will you do this Thanksgiving season to draw attention to the famine? Maybe you can raise awareness during a service or meeting of your faith community, host a discussion with local faith communities about the famine, or hold a petition-signing party in your community.

Whatever it is you do, let us join together in solidarity through the common call to serve others. Help show how your faith inspires you to take action when it is needed most. Download the Interfaith Guide and get started today!

Carolyn Worthge and Adeela Tajdar are ONE’s 2011 Faiths Act Fellows. Faiths Act, a program of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, works to mobilize faith communities to take action on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Lazarus Sunday was an event that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) shared at last fall’s regional meetings. Through an interactive educational program, which included a portion of the Lazarus Effect video, many leaders from within the 65 synods (geographical areas) of the ELCA learned about the importance of accessible, affordable access to ARVs for people living with HIV, in Africa and around the world.

These educational programs stirred interest in those who participated. Many were able to take ideas about lifting up the importance of the video home with them. As the April 10 date drew closer, the ELCA website produced a “spotlight” story on Lazarus Sunday, with links to the materials and video, which ONE produced. We do know that many members accessed the website, and saw the emphasis lifted up for their use.

In my own experience, I was able to see the impact of the Lazarus Effect video on so many people as I led the educational program in many settings. The stunning reality of the critical importance of accessible, affordable ARVs taken in a prescribed protocol was brought home to people through the video and the discussion following. It was moving and motivating for viewers, and I think made a great impression on them of the importance of focusing on HIV and AIDS work for our church, or for individual congregations and members. Together we can make a difference in combating this pandemic, and restoring hope and health to millions of people.

Photo courtesy of ELCA

Stories continue to roll in from churches that got involved on Lazarus Sunday, almost two weeks ago. To recap: almost 1,800 faith communities across the United States and around the world signed up for more information on how to raise awareness about AIDS in Africa.

Here’s a snapshot of the latest:

As Rev. Phil Hoy, of Zion UCC in Henderson, KY, wrote:

During the discussion after showing ["The Lazarus Effect"], a visitor spoke and thanked us for showing the [film] and for the courageous stand the congregation has taken.

We at ONE are also grateful for the actions that communities of faith have taken to stand for and with those living with AIDS — by raising awareness of the problem and the solution, and by advocating on their behalf to those in Congress whose decisions will have a significant impact beyond our own shores.

Keep the stories/pictures/videos coming in; we want to hear your Lazarus Sunday story! Email us at faith@one.org.

Wow! What a Lazarus Sunday weekend! After months and months of preparation, getting the word out and mobilizing churches to lift their voices, we’re reflecting back on a tremendous campaign.

Nearly 1800 churches across the country signed up to celebrate Lazarus Sunday with ONE, raising awareness about the issue of AIDS in Africa and seeking to engage people in the fight against the pandemic.

Everyone from Evangelicals, Catholics, Mainline Protestants, campus ministries, youth groups and small groups participated in a number of different ways, including Sunday sermons, Sunday school, bulletin inserts and screenings of the entire “The Lazarus Effect” documentary.

Because of all these efforts, we were able to create a buzz, too. Did you see us on CNN, the Christian Broadcasting Network and the Religion News Service?

One of the churches highlighted in the CNN article was Northpark Community Church:

“We never have petitions in our courtyards against gay marriage or abortion,” Ryan Townsend said, a pastor on staff at Northpark Community Church in Fresno, California. Each Sunday, Townsend said, about 700 people attend worship services there. The church, a part of the Assemblies of God denomination, has signed on for Lazarus Sunday.

Townsend said that in 1988 the church took a deliberate step away from politics. But the issue of HIV/AIDS seems to transcend politics at Northpark. “It’s not a political agenda. It’s a moral command to love our neighbor,” he said.

One of Townsend’s priorities as pastor has been to reach out to those who are suffering from HIV/AIDS. “For us, we’ve screened the film before on World AIDS Day,” he said. “To be frank, we’ve had less-than-stellar attendance when we’ve done a film screening but we’ve had great participation when we do something in the service.”

This Sunday they will detail how far contributions can go and encourage attendees to write or call their members of Congress to encourage them to support legislation and budget priorities that provide foreign aid.

Here are a few of the other stories we’ve received in the wake of Lazarus Sunday:

Temple Lutheran Church, Haverton, PA

The members of Temple Lutheran Church were encouraged by the great progress that has been made and amazed by the dramatic changes that can happen in as little as 40 days. Many added their voices to the fight against HIV/AIDS by becoming ONE members on Lazarus Sunday. Prayers for the poor and efforts to fight poverty were taken to an important new level as congregation members came to realize that one of the greatest ways to serve the poor is through offering their voice through advocacy. As people of faith across the country had equally important experiences on Lazarus Sunday, it becomes joyfully clear what is possible when we come together as ONE.

-Pastor Matt Staniz

Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina

More than 50 Winthrop students and faculty attended a screening of HBO/RED’s The Lazarus Effect Tuesday night at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The ONE Campus Chapter at Winthrop hosted the event as a part of National Volunteer Week.

After the screening, several students and faculty asked questions and were very engaged in discussion on antiretroviral medication, public health education and the programs ONE advocates for, including the new agriculture and vaccination programs.

-Philip Reynolds

Highlands Presbyterian Church, Schooley’s Mountain, NJ

We used the Call to Worship and the responsive Prayers of Intercession printed in the bulletin. Then we had the bulletin insert with the powerful picture and facts. I spoke personally in my sermon about a friend of mine from college who died from AIDS and used some of your sermon preparation ideas as quotations in the sermon as well. I am sure this helped raise awareness in our mostly blue-collar, farming faith community in western New Jersey.

-Rev. Amy Lincoln

Riverside United Methodist Church, Fulks Run, VA

We had a great Lazarus Sunday morning at Riverside UMC in rural Fulks Run, Virginia. Our pastor, Rev. Joel Robinette, led us through the Lazarus story in the scriptures during his sermon. Then he talked about the ONE Campaign, the problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and the United Methodist Church’s participation. The youth and young adults watched “The Lazarus Effect” during Sunday school, and I shared some stories about my own time in short-term missions in Africa. We discussed sharing our views with our elected officials as one way to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

-Bob May

We still want to be sure to hear from you if your church participated in Lazarus Sunday! Share your videos, pictures and stories with us by emailing faith@one.org and get ready for more campaigning later in the year to beat back hunger, disease and poverty.

“The federal budget should protect human life and dignity, make the poor a top priority and promote the common good of all during tough economic times…

“A just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons. It requires shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending and addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programs fairly.”

While the bishops expressed their appreciation towards the FY 2011 budget, which is scheduled for a vote this week, they also offered three moral criteria to guide budgetary decisions:

“1. Every budget decision should be assessed by whether it protects of threatens human life and dignity.

2. A central moral measure of any budget proposal is how it affects “the least of these” (Matthew 25). The needs of those who are hungry and homeless, without work or in poverty should come first.

3. Government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all, especially ordinary workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times.”

To read the full text of the letter, visit the USCCB site.

Lazarus Sunday (which is taking place this Sunday, April 10) is a day to recognize the powerful story in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Churches all across the country will screen the HBO documentary “The Lazarus Effect” for their congregations in an effort to convey the monumental importance of antiretroviral treatments in the fight against AIDS. It’s not too late for your faith community to join — resources for Lazarus Sunday (including sample sermons, video clips, and handouts) are available at one.org/faith.

Over the past several years, we have used our social media tools to point attention to ONE. They provide great resources and information about issues that are affecting the poor around the world. Inevitably, such posts draw huge criticism, some healthy dialogue and some flared tempers.

I often want to respond to the threads on Facebook, but want to speak as myself and not on behalf of the entire band. Also, part of being in a band is acceptance that you can’t critique the critic. I know that expressing these views might cost us fans. But, if the bass player’s opinion on these issues causes you to no longer like our music or hear the message of our music, I’d question if you had really ever listened to our music to begin with.

The criticism tends to express itself in the following ways:

I’ll attempt to answer some of the critique and hopefully give you a better picture of my perspective.

“Why are you getting into politics?” Firstly, I’m just as turned off as anyone when I hear a musician or actor advocating for something for which they don’t really understand. It feels like a betrayal of trust. However, I’ve taken the time to explore these issues and explore poverty first hand. I’ve taken four trips to Africa and a recent trip to Haiti. So, I feel qualified to at least have an opinion. I don’t see my band getting into politics. I don’t see these issues as partisan issues. We dipped our toes in the water when we played at the Republican National Convention in 2004. We were excited for the chance to take our music and message to a national audience, but we didn’t really weigh through the implied endorsement. We got some harsh criticism, and I listened. I’ve purposed since then that our message is bigger than politics, and we need to be careful not to let it get used as a quasi endorsement for any partisan purposes. (Did we cross the line for allowing TLC to use our song as the theme song for Sarah Palin’s Alaska? That’s another discussion.) I do, however, believe that our American fans should be good citizens who exercise their role in power in a representative democracy. In other words, just because you and I are people of faith, we do not abdicate our voice to speak to power or the responsibility for the choices our government makes.

The pastor of my church was doing a series on finances this last year and made a pretty bold statement. He said that the family budget is a moral document. As Christians, we are to exercise good stewardship over the resources to which God entrusts us. How we spend our money is a direct representation of what we really value. Is my entertainment budget greater than my giving? Am I tithing faithfully? Am I treating money as if it belongs to God and he allows me to keep 90 percent, or do I treat it like it’s mine and if God’s lucky, I’ll give him 10 percent, after taxes of course! These are healthy questions to ask ourselves. In the same way, how our government spends OUR money is a reflection of our values. If we don’t like the priorities our spending represents, we should speak up and let our representatives know, which I have done numerous times. It only takes about 3 minutes.

Right now, our government is waking up to a harsh reality that our national debt and yearly deficits could really catch up to us and is looking for ways to cut. BRAVO! I just contend that breaking our commitments to the world’s poor is not the way to do it. It won’t help us reach our goals, but it will cost thousands of lives and hamper the path of progress we’ve seen over the last ten years. The poor are targeted because they are easy targets and don’t require any perceived sacrifices. Over the last several years, the US has made increasing commitments to fight poverty and disease around the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. These programs have been working! Aids rates are dropping, malaria is being eradicated, more kids are going to school and Africa is beginning to participate more and more in the world economy, which will translate to a very healthy return on our financial investment: jobs, cell phones, internet, computers and cars. You get the idea. People in poverty don’t participate in the world’s economy. When they’re helped out of poverty by gaining access to basic necessities such as food, water, and education, they become fellow citizens, producers and consumers.

Of course, now is the time for belt tightening of our federal budget, and the first thing to get cut is foreign aid. I just asked my wife, “What percentage of our federal budget do you think the US spends on fighting poverty, aids and other diseases?” Her reply: “I don’t know. 10 percent?” That’s what I used to think too. In reality, our government spends less than 1 percent of federal budget on fighting poverty around the world. I contend that it is money well spent. As Christians, shouldn’t we want the way our government spends our money to reflect our values? It does whether we want it to or not.

“It’s not the government’s job to help the poor. It’s the Church’s.” There is a lot of truth in that statement, and it also comes as a terrible indictment to the Christian church. If we were doing our job as people of faith, there would be little need for our government to have to do anything. I agree. But, we’re not doing our job. Don’t get me wrong, organizations like World Vision are on the front lines of fighting poverty and are doing so in Jesus’ name. But how many of our churches even take one sermon a year to focus on these issues? Again, just as my pastor challenged me about my family budget being a moral document, I would challenge American Evangelical churches the same way. What’s bigger — our building funds or our mission’s budget? Are we serving people’s physical needs as well as their spiritual needs? (It doesn’t have to be either/or.) Also, like it or not, America is perceived as a “Christian” nation. That again is a whole other discussion. There is the little problem of democracy. We are the government. It is our money. We have a voice in how it is spent.

“We have are own problems here in America. We shouldn’t be helping other people.” I hear this argument a lot. I get it. One of our fans responded beautifully to this critique when she simply said, “Well, maybe when God looks at the world, He doesn’t see political borders, but just His children.” I do find that most people that say, “America shouldn’t help foreigners,” have never experienced the extreme poverty of the third world. Experiencing poverty is heartbreaking, but it also a blessing. You gain a new appreciation for our own prosperity. When you’re around the poor, you begin to see just how good we really have it here in the states. Once again, I don’t see this as an either/or issue. We don’t have to choose. We can help both, and we have the resources to do it. It’s just a question of priority.

I’m surprised when I hear Christians make this argument. In the Bible, Jesus tells the parable of the “Good Samaritan.” Basically, a man is mugged on the side of the road. Religious people ignored him and refused to help. A despised foreigner, the Samaritan, gave him help and took him to an innkeeper for extended care asking the innkeeper to send him the bill. Jesus ended the story by asking who was a loving neighbor to the beaten man. It was the Samaritan. The take-away message of this was that we should “go and do the same.”

As Christians, shouldn’t we be “going and doing the same”? In this connected world, who is our neighbor? Is it only across the street? I generally find that people who are helping other people, whether their neighbors across the street or strangers across the planet, have little criticism for others that are also trying to make a difference. Most of the criticism comes from people who do nothing themselves to help anybody.

“The ONE Campaign is a multi-national, socialist organization that advocates one world government and one religion. How can you support that?” These statements are hard to answer because they’re so off base. However, I would simply offer that the ONE Campaign is just people. It’s a lobbying organization. Organizations are just people working together. Governments are just people working or not working together. Are all of the people who participate in the ONE Campaign Christians? No. But I think it’s important that our voice be a part of this chorus.
The ONE Campaign is not a religious organization and is not supporting any one religion over another, but it does appeal to all religion’s own values to care for the poor. Just because the Muslim and the Jew is also called to care for the poor, we are not abdicated of our responsibility to do the same.

Christians, don’t give your money to the ONE CAMPAIGN! They never asked for it anyway.

The ONE Campaign simply wants you to stand with your neighbors to ask our leaders to spend our money in ways that reflects our values. I’m not asking our government to even spend more at this time. We’re asking them to keep the promises we’ve made to the poor around the world. It’s good public relations for America, costs less than fighting the terror that only grows in environments of poverty and is a small reflection of what should be our Christian values.

-Tai Anderson, Third Day