Here in Washington where the perception is that people are split about everything and can’t seem to agree on anything, it would seem the exact opposite is going on under the roof of Bread for the World. Each day at the office on Capitol Hill I have the opportunity to work on behalf of Bread where Christian’s collective voice is being heard. While wandering the hallway I might bump into Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, Southern Baptists, Cooperative Baptists, etc who are cohesively rallied around the cries that hunger in this day and age should not negatively impact our world to the extent that it currently does.
             This is an organization that due to being ecumenical and bipartisan allows for other outside affiliated organizations to work autonomously with Bread. It has been such a delight to come into this place where people are rallied around a cause and are not focused on how or what the differences are of the people around them but rather the concentration is on what they have in common and the mutual desire to see this generation be the one where we see world hunger dissipate and become a thing of the past. It would then seem reasonable that John F. Kennedy famously said, “Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”

             In looking at Bread’s ability to mobilize Christian’s together I’m reminded that we as Christians stumble when we fail to recognize the similarities that we collectively share. Erich Fromm once said, “If I perceive in another person mainly the surface, I perceive mainly differences, that which separates us. If I penetrate to the core, I perceive our identity, the fact of out brotherhood.”
             I see a sturdy foundation before me in this place they call Bread. The different groups of Christians that, despite differences in affiliation, work together to provide the greatest chance of seeing an end to hunger.