Contact: Stacey Holliday, Concerned Women for America, 202-488-7000 ext. 126

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 /Christian Newswire/ --Concerned Women for America (CWA) released an analysis this week of the National Council of Churches’ (NCC) Study Guide on “Eradicating Global Poverty.”  The study guide promotes the United Nations (U.N.) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as the best means for eradicating global poverty.

Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Senior Fellow of CWA’s Beverly LaHaye Institute and author of the analysis, said, “The NCC study guide prepares church members to become advocates for the United Nations’ effort to implement the MDGs around the world.  Never mind that the church, throughout history, has been at the forefront in caring for people’s needs with compassion, effectiveness and mercy.  Now, the NCC is suggesting that the church, with its strong record of integrity and success, cede that mission to the United Nations, an institution of ineffectiveness and corruption at unprecedented levels.”

Crouse continued, “The NCC study guide is a political document with a naïve view of the U.N. and a critical view of the United States; indeed, it is critical of capitalism and democracy. It is especially critical of the U.S. government as a source of international poverty. The study guide is riddled with inaccuracies, overstatement and utopian rhetoric.  The study promotes the typical leftist agenda –– gender quotas, environment, debt relief, etc.”

Crouse declared, “The United Nations’ easy money has become a trough at which some of the most aggressive despots in the world survive.  Worse, that money has become the means through which the U.N. maintains international control –– giving U.N. funds as a ‘carrot’ to attract cooperation and withholding funds as a ‘stick’ to punish those who fail to comply with U.N. provisions and recommendations.”

“Throughout the study,” said Crouse, “the NCC accuses the United States of not doing our share and putting too much of our national resources into the military.  When confronted with the fact that the United States leads the world in generosity –– giving $34 billion a year in official development assistance (not including corporate and other giving) –– they claim that God cares only about percentages.  Well, how about the fact that the U.S. provides 22 percent of the U.N.’s operating costs –– nearly $400 million a year!”

Concerned Women for America is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.