Lifting Up the Poor: A Dialogue on Religion, Poverty, and Welfare Reform

As Congress considers legislation affecting low-income families, it is dealing not only with policy issues connected to work, marriage, and child care, but also with the moral issues implicit in the injunction that individuals and the government have a responsibility to help the poor. Despite the fact that policymakers, advocates, and others who debate the causes and cures of poverty often speak from religious convictions, researchers rarely examine the influence of personal religious commitment on policy decisions.

The Brookings Welfare Reform & Beyond initiative and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life will convene a public forum at the National Press Club to address the moral and religious dimensions of social policy. Mary Jo Bane and Lawrence M. Mead—leading scholars and advocates of poverty policy and the authors of a new book from the Brookings Institution Press, Lifting Up the Poor: A Dialogue on Religion, Poverty, and Welfare Reform—will join E.J. Dionne and Ron Haskins for a timely discussion of these issues. Other members of congress have also been invited and may attend, schedules permitting.

Moderators:

E.J. Dionne, Jr.
Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution;
Columnist, Washington Post Writers Group

Ron Haskins
Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution;
Former Senior Advisor for Welfare Policy
(Bush Administration)

Authors:

Mary Jo Bane
Professor of Public Policy and Management, Harvard University; Former Co-chair, Working Group on Welfare Reform
(Clinton Administration)

Lawrence M. Mead
Professor of Politics,
New York University
Former Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution