A comment San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor made earlier this month linking poverty to a lack of religion is getting national attention. The Mayor made the comments during a debate earlier this month.
At the April 3 debate streamed by NowCastSA, Mayor Ivy Taylor was asked this question by Megan Legacy of the SA Christian Resource Center. “What do you see as the deepest systemic causes of generational poverty in San Antonio?”
Taylor responded: “To me, it’s broken people. People not being in relationship with their creator and therefore not being in good relationship with their families and their communities. Not being productive members of society.”
Taylor said other causes of poverty include limited access to educational opportunities and teenage pregnancy.
This week Taylor’s response went viral on social media and made national headlines in major newspapers including the Huffington Post and the Washington Post. The attention grew during the last two days as early voting began. Taylor is running for reelection.
Her campaign said she wasn’t available to comment but released a statement in which Taylor said: “The video clip that surfaced on social media this weekend is a dishonest, politically motivated misrepresentation of my record on combating poverty. It was intentionally edited to mislead viewers.”
The video being circulated mostly widely, however, is the full 90-minute stream from the debate recorded by NowCast SA that appears to be unedited.