(A personalized version of this letter went to every United Methodist Member of Congress)

July 17, 1998

The Honorable Senator/Representative
U.S. Senate/House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.

Dear Senator/Representative:

We are turning to you as a fellow Methodist, to help us to correct what we believe is an egregious moral wrong: the fact that the more than half a million residents of the District of Columbia have no voice in their national government.

We believe that whatever the historical, Constitutional, legal and political circumstances that created and sustain it, this disenfranchisement of the citizens of the District nevertheless remains morally unjustifiable. The people of Washington give their loyalty and allegiance to the United States in every way: we pay our taxes, we fight in the nation's wars, we provide services to the Federal government. And yet, we have no say in whether war should be waged, or how our tax moneys should be spent. This is an immoral state of affairs. We urge you to redress it.

In the United Methodist Book of Discipline, we are told that "the governments of all nations should be determined by exercise of the right to vote guaranteed to all adult citizens"; and that the "strength of a political system depends on the full and willing participation of its citizens." We accept these as fundamental moral principles which stress the need for individual liberty and democratic rights. We also recognize that neither of these conditions is met in the District of Columbia. For, residents of the District neither determine the form of their government by an exercise of the right to vote, nor can they give their "full and willing participation" to the political system of the United States as a result of their disenfranchisement.

Recently, the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church, which encompasses all the United Methodist churches from the State of Maryland (except the eastern shore), the District of Columbia, and parts of the panhandle of West Virginia, adopted a resolution in favor of democratic rights for the District of Columbia. This Resolution calls upon the President and the Congress to "take action to provide Congressional representation to the citizens of Washington, D.C., by whatever means they should find suitable and appropriate." A copy of the full text of the Resolution is attached.

To that end, we encourage you to think seriously about the petition for voting representation in the Congress that John Ferren has brought before you, and similar ones that may be brought before you in the future. The continuing disenfranchisement of the District is an embarrassment to our values as Americans, and makes hypocrites of us all as we lecture foreign nations, such as China, on their need for democracy. We urge you to rectify this inequality, and to use your power to at last provide full voting representation for the citizens of the District of Columbia.

And so, as fellow members in the faith of John Wesley, who preached to the downtrodden and to the disenfranchised, we look to you for enfranchisement. As fellow believers in Jesus the Christ, who taught that all were equal before God and who proclaimed a gospel of liberty, we look to you to help provide us with the same democratic rights available to all other Americans. And finally, as believers in the Lord our God, who "upholds the cause of the oppressed" and "loves the righteous" we look to you to restore equity and justice to our people.

To us this in not a question of law or politics. It is a question of morality: of a choice between what is right and what is wrong. We ask you now to stand up on the side of right, to make your support for righteousness known, and bring justice and freedom to our city.

Yours in Christ,

/s/
Bishop Felton E. May
Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church
/s/
Rev. J. Philip Wogaman
Senior Pastor
Foundry United Methodist Church
/s/
Mark A. Schaefer
Chair, Foundry Democracy Project

United Methodist Members of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives

Sen. Jeff Bingaman
Sen. Sam Brownback
Sen. Dale L. Bumpers
Sen. Max Cleland
Sen. Paul D. Coverdell
Sen. Larry E. Craig
Sen. Daniel K. Inouye
Sen. Dirk Kempthorne
Sen. Richard G. Lugar
Sen. Pat Roberts
Sen. Jeff Sessions
Sen. Craig Thomas
Sen. Robert G. Torricelli
Rep. Richard H. Baker
Rep. Bob Barr
Rep. Joe Barton
Rep. Marion Berry
Rep. Rick Boucher
Rep. F. Allen Boyd
Rep. George E. Brown
Rep. Stephen E. Buyer
Rep. Bob Clement
Rep. Michael A. Collins
Rep. Larry Combest
Rep. John C. Cooksey
Rep. Robert E. Cramer
Rep. Jay Dickey
Rep. Lloyd Doggett
Rep. Chet Edwards
Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich
Rep. Thomas W. Ewing
Rep. Harris W. Fawell
Rep. Bob Franks
Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest
Rep. Paul E. Gillmor
Rep. William F. Goodling
Rep. Bart Gordon
Rep. Kay Granger
Rep. Gene Green
Rep. Ralph M. Hall
Rep. Lee H. Hamilton
Rep. David L. Hobson
Rep. Sam Johnson
Rep. Jay C. Kim
Rep. Jim Kolbe
Rep. Steven C. LaTourette
Rep. Robert T. Matsui
Rep. Jim McCrery
Rep. Sue Myrick
Rep. Charlie Norwood
Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz
Rep. Edward A. Pease
Rep. John E. Peterson
Rep. Rob Portman
Rep. Jim Saxton
Rep. Pete Sessions
Rep. Deborah Stabenow
Rep. Ted Strickland
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson
Rep. Edward Whitfield
Rep. C.W. Bill Young