wfn.org | Election, international issues highlight Disciples assembly

["Disciples Off. of Communication"<wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

Date: October 12, 1999
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
E-mail: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

99b-74

	Cincinnati General Assembly
	October 8-12, 1999
	Cincinnati Convention Center
	Room 233
	(513) 784-6014

	CINCINNATI (DNS) -- Reelection of the general minister and president, and 
calls to cancel Third World debt, end land mine use and close a 
controversial military installation highlighted the agenda of the 
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) General Assembly.

	The 1999 General Assembly, meeting here Oct. 8-12, marked the 150-year 
anniversary of the first Disciples "national" gathering -- also held in 
cincinnati.  

	The Rev. Richard L. Hamm was overwhelmingly endorsed by the assembly for 
a second, six-year term as general minister and president of the 
Indianapolis-based denomination. Hamm's first term began in 1993. He now 
will serve through the conclusion of the 2005 General Assembly.  

	Hamm served from 1990 to 1993 as regional minister of the Christian 
Church (Disciples of Christ) in Tennessee. He was senior minister of First 
Christian Church, Fort Wayne, Ind., from 1982 to 1990 and also held other 
pastorates in Missouri and Kansas.

	The assembly also elected new leaders for the 1999-2001 biennium. Paul 
Rivera,  Brooklyn, N.Y., was elected as moderator; and the Rev. Lanny 
Lawler, Nashville, Tenn., and Minnie Smith, Hannibal, Mo., were named 
first and second vice moderator. Rivera, Lawler and Smith will preside 
over the General Assembly, General Board and Administrative Committee. 

	In adopting Jubilee 2000, a world-wide campaign for debt cancellation for 
the globe's poorest nations, the assembly took seriously the Rev. Michael 
Kinnamon's plea that "human need takes precedence over profit." 

	The campaign, embraced by the World and National (USA) Council of 
Churches, seeks a one-time cancellation by the year 2000 of debt, 
amounting to some $300 billion owed by 41 countries, mostly in Africa and 
Central America. The money is owed to international institutions like the 
World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and individual governments.

	The loans proved to be a disaster. As Ben Boothe, a consultant to the 
World Bank, told the Assembly, "Big money, when injected into poor 
nations, is like heroin. It can give you a temporary high but cause severe 
withdrawal symptoms."

	Now, these countries are having trouble paying up, and what they can pay 
is creating social and economic havoc. According to the U.N., in Africa 
alone 21 million children could be saved from death by disease and 
starvation if their governments could spend the money on health concerns 
rather than servicing debt.

	"This debt is a new form of slavery," says Carol Rawls, a member of First 
Christian Church, Kent, Wash. Jubilee 2000 started six years ago in 
England and was inspired by the Biblical text in Leviticus that describes 
a year of Jubilee every 50 years when slaves are freed and debts are 
canceled. 

	In an emotional discussion, the decision-making body urged the United 
States to sign the international Ottawa Land Mines treaty, outlawing the 
weapons. While a majority of the 4,000 voting representatives elected to 
ask the Clinton administration and Congress to endorse ban on production, 
use and stockpiling of land mines, a sizable minority was opposed.

	Most who spoke against the treaty insisted the Pentagon needed land mines 
as a deterrent against aggressors like North Korea or to safeguard 
American military personnel. This is a military decision, not a political 
one," argued Bill Cooley, an officer in the Air Force and member of Monte 
Vista Christian Church, Albuquerque, N.M. "Land mines are a deterrent."

	Proponents, however, insist that land mines are indiscriminate weapons 
that annually kill and maim thousands of noncombatants, particularly women 
and children. "The only thing land mines deter are kids running up a hill, 
farmers planting their fields or women walking to market," pointed out the 
Rev. Robert Price, an ex-Marine who is pastor of Prairie City (Iowa) 
Christian Church.

	Voting representatives demanded the shutdown of the School of Americas, 
calling it a "school of assassins."  

	"It is a school of assassins, right in our own back yard," said the Rev. 
Ken Kennon, Tucson, Ariz., a  member of the Disciples Peace Fellowship. 
The retired Disciples minister was arrested and imprisoned for 
demonstrating at the U.S. Army-run school at Fort Benning, Ga. 

	There also was sharp disagreement over this vote with a sizable minority 
opposing the proposal. Opponents claim there is no hard evidence of abuse. 
"How would you like it if somebody did a profile of every graduate of your 
college and then blamed the institution?" asked the Rev. Tim Griffen, 
pastor of First Christian Church, Snyder, Texas.
 
	In other business, the plenary body reaffirmed its support for religious 
freedom; and asked Disciples congregations to give priority concern to 
issues related to children and violence during the year 2000. 

	The assembly also called Disciples members to work toward better health 
care for all and health insurance for clergy and church employees. The 
universal health care resolution specifically advocates treatment of 
short- and long-term illness and care for persons with mental 
disabilities.

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