Today we wanted to let you know about an important stand many of our friends are taking. The budget debate in Congress has turned into an ugly masquerade, where a seemingly innocuous term like "fiscal responsibility" is being used to conceal outright attacks on the poor, on women, and concerning the future safety of this planet.

And we've all dealt with budgets–it's a sterile exercise. That fact enables the harm of the budget cuts to go almost unnoticed.

In order to humanize what is, in no uncertain terms, an attack on many of the things we cherish in this country, many leaders are fasting. Jim Wallis of Sojourners, Justin Ruben of Moveon.org, and Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins of Green for All are among a group of people fasting until Monday.

Wallis' message, explained in Time, put the budget cuts in relative terms: "Every day we're spending more in Libya than everything we'd like to keep in the budget. That's turning around the Biblical imperatives and beating your plowshares into swords. You're not going to solve the deficit with these programs. This is just mean. This is not believing the government should help poor people as a principle."

To get involved or to learn more, vist HungerFast.org.