Senator Coons talks about faith and poverty

At a gathering of global aid activists, scholars, and clergy this evening, Senator Coons spoke about his travels in Africa as a youth and how the depth of poverty he witnessed on that continent affected him as a person of faith. The event was hosted by International Relief and Development and the Yale Divinity School, of which Chris is an alumnus, having earned his degree in ethics there in 1992.

Timed to coincide with the beginning of Lent, the event featured Chris discussing how faith can be a powerful catalyst for action to ease the suffering of others.  He drew on his own religious background as an ordained Presbyterian elder as well as lessons from other faith traditions, including Islam and Judaism, to explore the meaning of our connections to one another as people sharing this world.  Faith, he told those in attendance, has the power to motivate us to act – as individuals, as communities, and as a nation – to help feed the hungry, heal the sick, and shelter the homeless. 

Chris recalled some of his early experiences in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania as a student in college:

I’ll never forget walking through Nairobi’s Mathare Valley for the first time.  Its seemingly-endless slum fills the narrow space between the hills, a mess of corrugated metal, dirt roads, animals, and people.  It is difficult to imagine unless you have actually been there. 

While there is difficult poverty in every nation, including our own, the depth of poverty in the slums of the developing world is unmatched. 

Mathare today is home to nearly half a million Kenyans, and they live without running water, sewers, and access to basic health care, education, and adequate food.  Homes are constructed from garbage, and the stench of the slum is just unbearable to those who were not forced to grow up inside it.

…I saw something else in Mathare and in all the slums I visited that stood in striking contrast to their poverty.  I once attended a church service lasting over four hours, and the faith and hope and joy that overflowed from the worshippers was incredible. 

These people, so poor in wealth, were so abundant in their love for God and hope for the future.  Several of us who were there working on relief visited the home of a family who slaughtered their last goat in order to serve their guests an adequate meal.  We were as the three strangers arriving at Abraham’s tent. 

After returning to the United States, Chris worked with the South African Council of Churches against apartheid and later worked with the Coalition for the Homeless in five states. He noted how striking it was that, twenty-five years after that first experience in Nairobi, he has just recently been selected to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs. 

In his leadership of the Subcommittee, Chris looks forward to working with his colleagues, with the Administration, with our allies, and with aid groups – including faith-based organizations – to help Africans escape the painful cycles of poverty and work toward political freedom and economic developme