Statement for KY Faith United To Reduce Tobacco Use

The following is the statement I delivered at a press conference on May 31, 2006. To read more about this press conference, please visit the website of the Kentucky Council of Churches. To read the statement adopted by the Executive Board of the Kentucky Council of Churches on May, 16, 2006, please visit http://www.kycouncilofchurches.org/TobaccoUse.html.

Scripture tells us that our bodies are gifts from God, and that they are to be honored and respected. Today, on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, I am pleased to announce that the Executive Board of the Kentucky Council of Churches, meeting on May 16, at Faith Baptist Church in Georgetown, Kentucky, unanimously endorsed the resolution of the Kentucky Faith United to Reduce Tobacco Use.

We in the faith community cannot stand by while tobacco use devastates so many Kentucky families. So many of our children and adults are at risk because our state has the highest smoking rate in the nation. Our community leaders have a moral obligation to address this serious problem by taking actions to protect the health of all citizens. We hope and pray that public officials will do what is right and that they will act quickly to increase the tobacco tax-a proven means of reducing teen smoking in particular-and to pass smoke-free air laws and fund tobacco prevention programs to protect all Kentuckians from the hazards of tobacco use and second hand smoke. We know these solutions work.

So far, our elected leaders have only taken baby steps towards enacting ways to change and improve the health of Kentuckians, when it comes to tobacco use. These small measures leave us with the fifth lowest tobacco taxes in the nation. Kow-towing to merchants in the name of so-called "lost revenues" does not acknowledge the profound expenses that they incur and that all of us experience because of the ill-health of our fellow citizens.

The Kentucky Council of Churches has been conducting a multi-year campaign among our member denominations to encourage congregations and pastors to understand physical health as a spiritual issue. By addressing health related behaviors such as smoking and other addictions, churches help their members grow spiritually, and contribute to changing public attitudes and public policy about tobacco use. In its first years of existence, the Kentucky Council of Churches brought churches together to address the use of tobacco and alcohol by children. We are continuing that emphasis nearly 60 years later. Moreover, in a time when the state continues to struggle to find adequate revenue to meet the growing costs of Medicaid (many of which are caused by the health damaging effects of tobacco use), the Kentucky Council of Churches has consistently endorsed tax reform measures that would include raising the tobacco taxes in our Commonwealth. Then, instead of eliminating a number of our neighbors' access to health care, we might be able to fund the system more adequately.

Finally, however, it is our clergy who can make the biggest difference in this battle. Talking with our members about their habits-from tobacco use to alcohol to eating habits--, and creating support ministries to help people address their health issues in positive ways, we can change the reality of Kentucky's embarrassing ill health, and make our beautiful state a place of healthy, bright, energetic people. The Council will continue to use its means of communicating with its 3000 congregations, who have collectively nearly one million members, to join this campaign and our campaign of Kentucky Churches Care for the Body.