Recently, I attended a prayer breakfast where more than 50 representatives of the Christian and Jewish faiths issued a national call for reflection on the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Despite broad and deep opposition to CAFTA, House leadership has promised to bring the agreement to the floor for a vote.

As an elected official and a citizen of this great nation, this disappoints me. As a Lutheran, I find this trade agreement to violate the tenets of my faith.

Whether Christian, Jew or Muslim, the Abramaic tradition is rooted in the principals of responsibility to each other as brethren - in doing unto others as you would have done unto you.

As Christians, we are given the New Testament, which shares with us Christ's teachings of social and economic justice.

As members of Congress - Democrat and Republican - we see first hand the real and tangible effects of trade policies that fly in the face of those teachings. CAFTA does just that.

The diversity of faith represented here today reflects well the breadth of opposition to this CAFTA in the U.S. and in Central America.

Workers, small business owners, ranchers, family farmers, Democrats, Republicans, House and Senate members, and millions of Central Americans all share in a common message to renegotiate.

Of course the faith-based community opposes an agreement that will have devastating effects on millions of faithful worshipers in the seven CAFTA countries.

Abandoned by big corporations, and too often by government leaders, our world's poorest have few to speak on their behalf, with little or no voice of their own.

The church, synagogue and mosque often are the only sources of refuge for millions of working poor.

When the world's poorest can buy American products and not just make them, then we will know our trade policies are working.