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Connecting to the Creed A guide for understanding and applying CONNECTING the centennial Social Creed, adopted by ecumenical representatives of 35 Protestant and Orthodox church TO THE CREED: communions for 2008. the 2 for 1st reed C l C en ocia tu S ry A hope ... in love In faith ... in “That all may have life and have it abundantly” John 10:10 Biblical, Theological and Historical Background Current Challenges and Choices For each affirmation and action area of the new Social Creed 1 1 National Council of Churches of Christ Member Communions and Denominations African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Alliance of Baptists American Baptist Churches in the USA The member bodies of the National Council of Churches Diocese of the Armenian Church of America encompass a wide spectrum Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of American Christianity — Christian Methodist Episcopal Church representing traditions as Church of the Brethren varied as Protestant, Orthodox, The Coptic Orthodox Church in North America Evangelical, Anglican, and The Episcopal Church African-American, historic peace churches and ethnic- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America language immigrant churches. Friends United Meeting Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America They include more than Hungarian Reformed Church in America 100,000 local congregations International Council of Community Churches and 45 million persons in the Korean Presbyterian Church in America United States. Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church “A Social Creed for the 21st Mar Thoma Church Century” was adopted by the Moravian Church in America Northern Province NCCCUSA General Assembly and Southern Province in November 2007. * National Baptist Convention of America National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. *For the 2008 centennial. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America Orthodox Church in America Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USA Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends Polish National Catholic Church of America Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. Reformed Church in America Serbian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A. and Canada The Swedenborgian Church Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America United Church of Christ The United Methodist Church With permission from www. NCCCUSA.org 2 2 Inside this guide ... Page National Council of Churches Members List 2 Table of Contents 3 About This Publication and Resource Listing 4 The 1908 Social Creed (text) 5 Preface and Invitation 6 A Social Creed for the 21st Century (text) 8 Short History and Background 10 In Faith—Personal action areas 15 Individual rights 16 Forced labor 18 Employment 20 Workers’ rights 22 Restorative justice 26 In Love—Communal action areas 28 Hunger and poverty 30 Education 32 Healthcare 34 Social security 36 Tax and budget policies 38 Immigration 40 Communities and public safety 42 Public service 44 In Hope—Global action areas 46 Simpler lifestyles 48 Clean air and water and healthy food 50 Earth’s resources 52 Global trade 54 Peacemaking 56 Nuclear disarmament 58 Cooperation among religions 60 United Methodist Companion Litany to the Social Creed 61 Questions for Study and Discussion 62 3 3 About this publication: CONNECTING TO THE CREED: A guide for understanding and applying the centennial Social Creed, adopted by ecumenical representatives of 35 Protestant and Orthodox church communions for 2008. PDS # 02-052-09-004 Copyright © 2009 The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 100 Witherspoon Street, Lousiville, KY 40202 www.pcusa.org/acswp The “Social Creed for the 21st Century” © is a copyright of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and is available for quotation or citation free of charge. The “Social Creed for the 21st Century” was also adopted by the 218th Gen- eral Assembly of the PC(USA), and can be found in the Minutes, Item 09-09. Booklet design and concept assistance: Stone Soup Marketing, Inc., Ossining, NY www.stonesoupmarketing.com Printing done on recycled paper content by: Farley Printing Co., Louisville, KY Resources: DVD: “Toward a New Social Awakening: The Social Creed 1908-2008” Prayers for the New Social Awakening Edited by Christian Iosso & Eliza- beth Hinson-Hasty (Westminster/John Knox, 2008) To Do Justice, A Guide for Progressive Christians Edited by Rebecca Todd Peters & Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty (Westminster/John Knox, 2008) Poster: “A Social Creed for the 21st Century” Poster: “A Social Creed for the 21st Century, edited for youth discussion” Other resources and bibliography at: www.pcusa.org/acswp/socialcreed.htm www.hudrivpres.org/socialcreed www.ncccusa.org Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, unless otherwise noted. 4 4 The 1908 Social Creed Statement by the Federal Council of Churches We deem it the duty of all Christian people to concern themselves directly with certain practical industrial problems. To us it seems that the churches must stand— •For equal rights and complete justice for all men in all stations of life. •For the right of all men to the opportunity for self-maintenance, a right ever to be wisely and strongly safeguarded against encroachments of every kind. •For the right of workers to some protection against the hardships often resulting from the swift crises of industrial change. •For the principle of conciliation and arbitration in industrial dissensions. •For the protection of the worker from dangerous machinery, occupational disease, injuries and mortality. •For the abolition of child labor. •For such regulation of the conditions of toil for women as shall safeguard the physical and moral health of the community. •For the suppression of the “sweating system.” •For the gradual and reasonable reduction of the hours of labor to the lowest practicable point, and for that degree of leisure for all which is a condition of the highest human life. •For a release from employment one day in seven. •For a living wage as a minimum in every industry and for the highest wage that each industry can afford. •For the most equitable division of the products of industry that can ulti- mately be devised. •For suitable provision for the old age of the workers and for those inca- pacitated by injury. •For the abatement of poverty. To the toilers of America and to those who by organized effort are seeking to lift the crushing burdens of the poor, and to reduce the hard- ships and uphold the dignity of labor, this Council sends the greeting of human brotherhood and the pledge of sympathy and of help in a cause which belongs to all who follow Christ. 5 5 Preface and Invitation: A NEW SOCIAL CREED FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY In our time of economic crisis, the churches have an answer, a constructive vision of the directions needed for a fairer society and a healthier world. This non-doctrinal Social Creed is a positive framework for needed new thinking and action by individuals, institutions and gov- ernment itself, all of which are called to serve the common good. It em- bodies the prophetic heart for justice, which insists that all persons must be treated equally and that societies are judged by how they treat their weakest members. Developed before the fi nancial panic that began in fall 2008, the Social Creed adopted by the National Council of Churches and the Pres- byterian Church (U.S.A.) was already clear that a new track was needed. It recognizes that our previous path has been unsustainable, for moral as well as fi nancial reasons. It also recognizes that real change is hard, and that for Christians, change needs to be grounded in the redemptive hope and power of the Gospel. 6 6 Individuals, congregations, and communions are all invited to support this ecumenical Social Creed. This booklet explains the think- ing behind each of the affi rmations. It gives a brief history, showing that church commitment to a just social order goes way back, and includes the fi rst “Social Creed” adopted in 1908. But the overall goal is to give people of faith a short, punchy statement of what we stand for in the world today. It is applied Christian social ethics, meant to help us prac- tice what we preach. The biblical message is not about infi nite life, but about death and resurrection. It is this grounding that helps us stand for the abun- dant life that Jesus of Nazareth preached and lived. The kingdom or commonwealth of God that he embodied turned the values of the world upside down and created a new community of forgiveness, freedom and equality in the Spirit. In light of Jesus’ courage and redemptive power, we are called to be the kind of persons who do not shrink from the challenges of so- cial and ecological chaos. The era of unlimited consumption and ac- cumulation is over, but a more cooperative society is far from present. The vision of the Church is not based on the logic of the market, with its short-term biases, the reduction of human motivation to self-inter- est, and its tolerance for enormous inequality. The Church’s vision here is more communitarian, reaffi rming a mixed economy with heightened democratic accountability for government and private enterprises. This booklet points to a politics of annunciation found in the opening and closing paragraphs of the Social Creed and its Trinitarian framework. Those three sections are pledges of personal, communal and global responsibility. In affi rming them, we are led by the Spirit who is both “above partisanship and beyond neutrality,” to quote ethicist Edward Long. No political formulation is fully adequate to express the new responsibilities that we all must shoulder if our children, and all God’s children, are to inherit a better world.
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