Washington Office director shares stage with Clinton
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, February 23, 2001
LOUISVILLE, Ky.–A C-Span video of Eleanor Giddings Ivory with Bill Clinton was introduced at the meeting of the General Assembly Council on Feb. 23 to help shore up the sagging reputation of the Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Ivory is director of the Washington Office, the denomination’s political arm.
A Presbyterian Panel survey in 2000 said Presbyterians had little interest in or knowledge of the Washington Office. A ranking of funding priorities by the General Assembly Council in September placed the Washington Office near the bottom of the list, and a 1999 study by the Institute for Religion and Democracy revealed that the office supported only Democratic issues while most Presbyterians in the Senate and House are Republicans, as are 55 percent of the members of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The video showed Ivory participating in a news conference last year with President Clinton after the president signed a law forgiving the debts of nations with poor economies. The legislation provided $435 million in federal tax money to write off foreign debts. Over a four-year period, the cost to taxpayers is expected to be nearly $1.3 billion.
Ivory was one of several speakers at the press conference. Wearing a dark coat and dark shirt with a white clerical collar, Ivory said the concept of debt relief was Biblical, based on the Jubilee Year mentioned in Leviticus 25.
“The Jubilee 2000 campaign is a worldwide movement to achieve a debt-free start for the new millennium,” she said. “It is time to lift this burden that has created the present debt crisis.
“In God’s envisioned world, no person, no family, no nation is to be permanently impoverished. With debt-relief, we have faced up to the reality that most of the debt of the poorest countries cannot be paid. Repayment has required unconscionable human sacrifice.”
Ivory described debt relief as “an act of justice. Justice is not liberal or conservative, not Democratic or Republican.”
The edited C-Span video contained about 15 minutes, including five minutes of Ivory’s comments, the comments of Clinton and remarks by other speakers.
Emily Wigger, chair of the National Ministries Division Committee that introduced the video to the council, announced that it will be edited down to five minutes and that copies will be sent to commissioners to the 2001 General Assembly.
In addition, Ivory’s Washington Office is promoting the sale of full coverage of the news conference on 35-minute videos for $29 each.