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Note #7996 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

ACSWP readies policy papers
03467
October 31, 2003

ACSWP readies policy papers

Four documents being prepared for next summer's General Assembly

by Evan Silverstein

WASHINGTON - The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) has
received updates of  a number of proposed policy documents, including four
papers it is scheduled to present to next year's General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church (USA).

One of the papers under development for next summer's 216th Assembly in
Richmond, VA, examines the relationship between violence, religion and
terrorism. Another focuses on the changing nature of families in the United
States.

 During its meeting here, ACSWP, which develops social polices for GA
consideration, also discussed a paper on the full legalization of U.S.
immigrants and other refugee-related issues. In addition, committee members
heard a presentation of the draft document, "Resolution on Limited Water
Resources and Takings," by Dr. Robert Stivers, a professor of ethics at
Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA.

"With these four challenging reports to be received at the January ACSWP
meeting, the committee will have its hands full," the Rev. Peter A Sulyok,
the ACSWP coordinator, said after the Oct. 23-26 meeting.

A previous version of the families document, "Living Faithfully with Families
in Transition," provoked spirited debate at this year's General Assembly,
giving rise to a two-page substitute drafted by members of the GA's National
Issues Committee.

The 45-page report, ordered up by assemblies in 1997 and '98, was referred to
that committee, which approved a two-page substitute drafted by committee
members with the assistance of The Institute on Religion and Democracy, which
houses the "think tank" and advocacy group, Presbyterian Action. This
document became the majority report. Some committee members then drafted a
minority report.

The Assembly voted to refer both reports back to ACSWP with instructions that
it "strengthen" the original in consultation with the Office of Theology and
Worship and report to next year's GA.

In its paper, ACSWP had urged the church to commit to being an inclusive
community that values many forms of family. Detractors said it was based on
"flawed" theology and sociology, diminished the importance of the traditional
two-parent family, and elevated non-traditional families, including those
involving unmarried partners and same-sex couples, to moral equivalence, in
violation of scripture and of Christian morality.

Committee members were informed that a panel revising the families paper got
feedback during an open hearing on Sept. 24. The 45-minute public session
took place at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary during a
two-day meeting of the special panel, which was formed by ACSWP and the
General Assembly Council's Office of Theology and Worship.

During the Sept. 23-24 meeting, the Changing Families Panel discussed a draft
of a theological statement produced by the Office of Theology and Worship in
July.

A writing team appointed by the panel will work on the revised draft and the
full document over the next month. The panel is scheduled to meet again in
December. The final draft will be reviewed during ACSWP's January meeting and
will go to GA next summer.

	       Terrorism

The 214th General Assembly (2002) directed the advisory committee to form a
work group to study and report on terrorism, the relationship of religion to
violence, U.S. military response, and U.S. political and economic policies
that may contribute to global problems. The group is to report to the 216th
General Assembly in 2004. A vital part of the study will be defining
terrorism, war, and political violence, and reviewing the applicability of
the concepts of peacemaking, just war and nonviolent intervention in the wake
of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

A draft resolution is expected to come before ACSWP during its January
meeting in Louisville. The report is to go to GA in June.

	       Immigration

A resolution requested by the 213th GA (2001), will advocate for
comprehensive legalization for immigrants and make recommendations to the
Assembly and to the entire church for raising awareness and education about
immigration and refugee-related issues.

ACSWP members were informed that the work group drafting the policy met
recently to discuss theological issues and underlying issues facing
immigrants and refugees in the United States, particularly since 9/11. The
work team is drafting a resolution for review by conference call in January.
The proposal will be reviewed later that month by ACSWP before being
forwarded to the 216th Assembly in June.

	   Limited Water Resources

In response to the 214th General Assembly's request for clarification of
water-rights issues in the Klamath Valley Basin in southern Oregon and
northern California, the ACSWP, in consultation with the Advisory Committee
on Litigation, is preparing a "Resolution on Limited Water Resources and
Takings." Stivers, the university ethics professor from Tacoma, was on hand
to present an early draft of findings from a consultation held in June in
Medford, OR, with various groups concerned about the issue.

Like many river basins in the region, Klamath Valley has been affected
significantly by human use of its water. Human exploitation has altered the
character of watercourses that sustain many aquatic species, especially fish,
that are now threatened with extinction. Legislators have responded with new
laws to protect species and habitats, but water managers have a mixed record
of enforcing such laws. Sometimes managers have withheld water allocations to
certain users, such as farmers who need water to irrigate crops. The
withholding of water is a serious problem for farmers that has on occasion
promoted intense conflict.

Among the other issues in ACSWP's grist mill:

Disabilities (1999 overture, 2006 GA report-back); serious mental illness
(1999, 2006); problem pregnancies (2000, 2006); domestic violence (2001,
2008).

Committee members were informed during the meeting that two recently approved
papers on globalization will be published in November as the last two
installments of a series of four papers examining issues related to
globalization.

One of the newly approved papers, "Globalization and Culture," was written by
Ruy O. Costa of Billerica, MA, a former ACSWP committee chair. The other,
"Globalization and the Environment," was compiled for ACSWP by Stivers.

In his paper, Stivers concludes that, while economic globalization "promises
increasing material affluence to those who adopt its assumptions," it gives
rise to "very real abuses (that) stem from basic, taken-for-granted
assumptions about nature."

ACSWP was directed to monitor global trade issues by the 1996 Assembly.

The globalization papers are available at $3 each through the Presbyterian
Distribution Service; call (800) 524-2612, fax (502) 569-8030, or visit
www.pcusa.org/marketplace. Specify PDS # 68-600-01-002 for "The Globalization
of Economic Life: Challenge to the Church," by Gordon Douglass; PDS #
68-600-01-003 for "The Employment Effects of Free Trade and Globalization,"
by The International Labor Rights Fund; PDS #68-600-03-003 for "Globalization
and Culture," by Costa; and PDS #68-600-03-004 for "Globalization and the
Environment," by Stivers.

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