Bishop Eaton Statement on OBBBA's Passage

“Whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all and especially for those of the family of faith.”  —Galatians 6:10

July 3, 2025

‍

Dear church,

Today the U.S. Congress passed a budget package that will have a monumental impact on many in the country and on our ministries and communities. The scope of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is generation-defining and life-altering for many, with provisions that will harm the well-being of local communities and the lives of many individuals for decades to come.

This church teaches that government has limits but fundamentally should seek the well-being of all. In at least three obvious ways, the bill undercuts that aspiration. This bill:

• ‍Abandons our commitments to people who are sick or who live with financial hardship. For many decades now, our nation has made commitments to come alongside people when they are in their worst moments, through Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and other programs. Our church is on record in supporting such expressions of care and compassion. These lifelines are now endangered by massive cuts and policy changes. More than 17 million people could lose health coverage over the coming years, and 22.3 million U.S. families will lose some or all of their SNAP benefits. These cuts will make our nation sicker and more hungry, disproportionately impacting rural communities by putting hospitals and other community health providers at long-term risk of closure. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill transfers wealth from those in the bottom 10% of income to those in the top 10% of income in our nation, shamefully funding tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans on the backs of the most vulnerable. ‍
• Threatens family and community stability. As a church, we have worked for many years for comprehensive immigration reform, just asylum policies and a pathway to citizenship for immigrant neighbors. This bill abandons compassion by more than tripling federal spending on deportation and detention and by adding over $170 billion for immigration and border enforcement. This goes far beyond the reasonable goal of ensuring a safe and orderly border and risks tearing apart millions of families, communities and churches. ‍
• Harms future generations. This bill compromises our children’s futures by recklessly increasing the national debt and exposing our next generations to dirtier air and a hotter climate. The CBO projects that it will add between $3 trillion and $4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years. Such excessive spending will worsen, not improve, the fiscal sustainability of our government and the financial prospects of future generations. It also halts and reverses progress toward a clean-energy transition by reversing nearly all the clean-energy tax credits and other incentives passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. This will undo our country's efforts to mitigate climate change and preserve creation for our heirs.

In the Galatians text for this coming Sunday, Paul calls the church to do what is good, not simply for other Christians but for all. Luther echoes this in the Small Catechism when he explains the Fifth Commandment, “You are not to kill.” “We are to fear and love God,” Luther writes, “so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead help and support them in all of life’s needs” (The Book of Concord, ed. Kolb and Wengert, p. 352).

As a church, we face this moment together with resolve, rooted in our trust in God, to work for the good of all as these policies begin to impact our congregations and communities. I ask you to:

• Pray with and for those made newly vulnerable, asking for God’s presence and power.
• Identify community and interreligious partners to identify the impacts of this legislation and seek common approaches in your communities.
• Engage in faithful public witness through your networks as well as ELCA federal advocacy and the ELCA-affiliated state public policy office network.
• Follow and support the work of ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response.
• Become part of the ELCA AMMPARO network to walk with migrant neighbors.

In peace,

The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 

‍