By Robyn Hyden
At Alabama Arise, as in The Episcopal Church, we value agape love. We strive to practice unconditional love, and through this, we envision a world where all people live with concern for the common good and respect for the humanity of every person.
These values lead us to tackle what we see as one of the root causes of human suffering and inequity: public policy. With Episcopalians and other people of faith at the forefront, Alabama Arise advances state policies that improve the lives of people marginalized by poverty, which inevitably and tragically overlaps with race.
No one will be surprised to learn that Alabama’s fundamental state policies are unequal by design. You can see this first in our explicitly racist 1901 constitution. Since then, right-to-work laws, preemption (the state legislature blocking local control), and other measures have blocked efforts to protect and support working families. We have low wages for average working people, low taxes for rich people, and racially discriminatory policies across our entire state.
Here is an example: Alabama is one of only three states, along with Mississippi and South Dakota, with no tax break on groceries. This tax on survival costs families approximately two full weeks of groceries every year, driving working-class people deeper into poverty and increasing hunger rates across the state. Throughout our state tax system, the trend continues: proportionally, poor people in Alabama pay about double the amount of state and local taxes as wealthier taxpayers.
We are also only one of 12 states that have yet to expand Medicaid. Currently, a family of three with a countable income of just $346 a month earns too much for the parent to get Medicaid coverage. About 340,000 people fall into this “coverage gap,” meaning they earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private health insurance or to qualify for premium health subsidies on healthcare.gov. Arise has worked for years to ensure that we close this coverage gap, and our Cover Alabama campaign is one important way we are advancing the conversation about the benefits of providing healthcare to all people.
Our state policies are leaving families underprotected and underpaid. But we also know that we have the power to change this reality.
Alabama Arise’s coalition includes more than 150 congregations and organizations and thousands of individual members across the state. Together, we are fighting to make sure no person has to decide between paying for food or paying for rent, or the doctor, or running water, or child care. And each year, we chip away at unjust systems and slowly build an Alabama where we value the common good and the dignity of all, commitments The Episcopal Church holds dear.
Robyn Hyden is the executive director of Alabama Arise, a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition that partners with the Episcopal Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. Learn more at www.alarise.org.