Clinton focuses on debt relief at prayer breakfast

Religious leaders gathered at White House hear president call help for poor nations a `moral issue'

Religion News Service
WASHINGTON President Clinton focused attention on international debt relief Thursday as more than 100 clergy and other religious leaders from a variety of faiths gathered at the White House for the last annual prayer breakfast in his term of office.

During his remarks, Clinton called alleviating the financial struggles of Third World countries -- a stance that has gained widespread support this year from the religious community -- ``a moral issue.''

``I think that it is very much in the interest of America to have big, large-scale debt relief if the countries that get the relief are committed to and held accountable to good governance and using the money not to build up military power but to invest in the human needs of their people,'' the president said.

The wealth of America should propel its citizens to want to help others, Clinton told the gathering that included representatives of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Baha'i, Hindu and Sikh communities.

``I do not believe that a nation, any more than a church, a synagogue, a mosque, a particular religious faith, can confine its compassion and concern and commitment only within its borders, especially if you happen to be in the most fortunate country in the world,'' Clinton said.

While Congress has supported forgiving bilateral debts -- owed to the United States from poor countries -- Clinton said it still needs to appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative that would forgive multilateral debts due to organizations like the International Monetary Fund.

About 120 people packed the State Dining Room to hear the remarks from Clinton, who also called on religious leaders' support for relieving health and education crises in nations across the globe.

The president urged them to help him increase efforts to assist countries fighting AIDS and drug research companies developing vaccines for malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis, which he said are responsible for a quarter of the world's deaths each year. He proposed increasing by $100 million the money spent by the United States on AIDS efforts and instituting a billion-dollar tax credit for companies developing vaccines.

``It ought to be an American obligation,'' he said. ``This is a serious global problem.

Clinton also spoke of the need ``to do more to universalize education so that everybody everywhere will be able to take advantage of what we're coming to take for granted.''

As they dined on doughnut-shaped peaches and frittata with tomatoes, the spiritual leaders took part in an almost two-hour discussion with the president.

Afterward, several in attendance praised Clinton for his encouragement of international debt relief.

Religious leaders, including Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J., said U.S. decisions on debt relief will influence other countries' decisions.

``If the United States fails to exercise leadership by providing this extremely small portion of our budget for debt relief, other creditors are possibly going to back out,'' said McCarrick, a member of the board of Catholic Relief Services.

``We strongly urge Congress and the administration to work together in these next few weeks to achieve full funding for debt relief.''

Episcopal Bishop Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts said relieving the debts of poor countries is fiscally and morally prudent.

``This debt relief makes all kinds of sense,'' he said. ``It makes common sense that the small budgets that most of these poor countries have should not go for debt relief but should go for the education and for the health, the prevention of AIDS, so desperately needed in these countries.''

Sister Christine Vladimiroff, chair of the board for Bread for the World, a Christian organization that works against hunger, agreed.

``Poor country debt keeps children from getting the food and education they need,'' she said. ``Debt relief is hunger relief. Debt relief is medical care for children.''

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said debt relief is the latest of important topics discussed at the breakfast, held annually during Clinton's administration.

``This is an institution that President Clinton has helped regularize,'' he said. ``This has been a remarkable set of conversations.''

While previous presidents held ad hoc prayer breakfasts that aimed to bring religious leaders together, Clinton took the concept further by holding lengthy dialogues, Saperstein said.

``It's a substantive discussion about religious issues or how religious values should affect American policy,'' he said.