wfn.org | Assembly Adopts Anti-tobacco Resolution

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17-June-1998 
GA98075 
 
    Assembly Adopts Anti-tobacco Resolution 
    by Jerry Van Marter 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--In a debate that sparked intense media coverage in this 
state, the 210th General Assembly today adopted a commissioners' resolution 
calling for stiff taxes on cigarettes and strong curbs on the advertising, 
marketing and worldwide distribution of tobacco products, particularly to 
children. 
    The resolution, originally submitted by minister commissioners John 
Scotland of West Jersey Presbytery and Wendell Phillips of Greater Atlanta 
Presbytery, also calls for churches and governments to "express compassion 
and concern" for those addicted to nicotine, family tobacco farmers, and 
manufacturing workers in the tobacco industry. 
    And it calls on churches and governments "to provide emotional and 
financial support" for those whose economic livelihood will be affected by 
declining use of tobacco. 
    The resolution, recommended to the Assembly by its Assembly Committee 
on National Issues on a 45-1 vote, easily passed the Assembly, 371-109 with 
nine abstentions. 
    Debate on the floor of the Assembly was briefer and much less 
impassioned than in the committee, where it was discussed at length. 
    A motion to eliminate the cigarette excise tax  provisions of the 
resolution -- to $1.10 per pack in 1998 with further increases in ensuing 
years -- was brushed aside 185-299 with two abstentions. 
    Elder Elizabeth McPherson of Salem Presbytery -- in the heart of North 
Carolina's tobacco-growing region -- pleaded with commissioners "not to 
lean the ladder against the wrong wall."  She said that curbing the tobacco 
industry in the United States "will not make a lot of difference because we 
only grow about 6 percent of the world's tobacco."  She likened the 
resolution to prohibition, saying, "It doesn't work." 
    Instead, she pointed to her own family, none of whom smoke, and said it 
is up to parents and churches to use moral persuasion to keep children from 
smoking. 
    But speaker after speaker told personal stories of the health problems 
created by tobacco use.  Elder Lyn Smit of Plains and Peaks Presbytery, who 
served on the Assembly Committee on National Issues, said her father died a 
number of years ago of lung disease caused by smoking and, with her voice 
breaking, told the Assembly her mother died of the same ailment the 
previous day while the committee was debating the resolution. 

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