From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org


A 'Mainline Church' message to Obama


From "Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>
Date Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:48:20 -0500

Vision, Virtue, and Vocation: the "Mainline Church" message to Obama

NOTE TO EDITORS: The following op-ed message is offered to you to use  any time as you deem appropriate. The authors are well-known ecumenical  leaders who offer their counsel and support to President-Elect Obama as  he prepares to take the oath of office. Iosso and Kinnamon were also  important architects of A Social Creed for the 21st Century (see  http://www.ncccusa.org/news/ga2007.socialcreed.html), which updated the  1908 Social Creed of the Churches, then a revolutionary declaration of  the responsibilities of persons of faith to work for social justice. The  authors write out of the knowledge that the President-Elect comes out of  the same religious tradition.

For interviews with the authors or additional information, please  contact Philip E. Jenks at 212-870-2228, pjenks@ncccusa.org.

___

By the Rev. Christian Iosso and the Rev. Michael Kinnamon 

Everyone, it seems, has a message for the new President.  They are  full of wish lists and urgent demands and heartfelt dreams for our  nation. 

The churches have a message for President Obama, too.   

Mr. President, we have thought about what needs to be done, and have  been working at it throughout the history of these United States.  And  we are ready to help you achieve great deeds that will bring positive  change for the people of America and the world. 

We Protestant and Orthodox churches - the ecumenical faith community -  know how serious is the need for social reconstruction at home and the  restoration of honor abroad. We have long worked in the soup kitchens,  sheltered the homeless, pushed for environmental justice, defended  public education, volunteered overseas, and steadily opposed the war  with Iraq, despite the weaknesses of media and congressional oversight.   

As the President-elect knows, we do not scorn "community organizers;"  our urban congregations have helped fund them and have given them a base  from which to work. We visit the prisons and know how bad they are; we  are regular caregivers in the hospital wards and emergency rooms.  We  know first-hand how many are without health insurance.  

While many look at who has a role on the platform at the ceremony, we  look at the commitments of the man being inaugurated:  long a member  of a distinctive, well-informed congregation of the United Church of  Christ (church of the historic pilgrims as well as contemporary  prophets), he is one of us.  

The social vision of the ecumenical churches is summed up in the "Social  Creed for the 21st Century," unanimously adopted by the General Assembly  of the National Council of Churches of Christ one hundred years after  the first "social creed" was adopted by the churches in 1908.  

That earlier social message addressed the challenges of its day -  industrialization and proposed measures like a "living wage," the  abolition of child labor, and prototypes of Social Security and Workers'  Compensation. When Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the churches' annual  assembly in 1933 he thanked them for their biblically based social  teachings. The text from Jesus that he quoted is in the 2008 version of  the Social Creed and articulates the purpose of the Creed, and of  faith's prayer for society:  "that all may have life, and have it  abundantly" (John 10:10).  

The 2008 Social Creed, speaking to our day, addresses the challenges of  globalization and sustainability and the context of war and inequality,  which is both morally and politically debilitating. While the new Social  Creed lists 20 specific reform measures under three  theologically-grounded headings, it is the overall vision that is key:  "a vision of a society that shares more and consumes less, seeks  compassion over suspicion and equality over domination, and finds  security in joined hands rather than massed arms." 

The churches do not split personal and public virtue. Individual  character and morality are crucial, but they depend on the character of  churches and other nurturing institutions. Action for social justice -  the "social activism" some critics scorn - is grounded in communities  that lift up God first.  

While solidly patriotic, our churches have resisted the kind of arrogant  nationalism that confuses the flag and the cross. We remember the  Bible's warnings about empire, that only a people who humble themselves  shall be exalted.  

Especially now in economic life, the churches stand for "grace over  greed," and recognize the need for burdens to be fairly shared, and  modern forms of usury to be regulated out of existence. This means  affirming progressive taxation as well as adequate social welfare: a  society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members.  

The vocation of the church is different from that of the nation, but  even a wiser and humbler United States still has a great vocation as  "one nation" among others "under God."  The Social Creed summarizes  countless church statements that address our nation's current  challenges:  "multilateral diplomacy rather than unilateral force, the  abolition of torture, ...strengthening ...the United Nations and the  rule of international law." The ecumenical churches helped write the  Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60 years ago and have never  forgotten its principles of "full civil, political, and economic rights  for women and men of all races."  

The churches do not affirm diplomacy without responsible power, but can  never tolerate the deliberate violence of "wars of choice" and the  economies distorted by them. We have seen the high tech and housing  bubbles burst but it is now time for the military-industrial bubble to  burst: we advocate "nuclear disarmament and redirection of military  spending to more peaceful and productive uses."  

The churches alone can not create a moral consensus for the redirection  of America, but if President Obama harkens to his personal experience,  he knows that the solid, unheralded work of the churches will be there,  in support of more courageous action than most observers outside the  faith community can imagine. In Reinhold Niebuhr's famous words, we pray  that we may now have a nation with the "courage to change" for the  better.  

___

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon is General Secretary, National Council of  Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and a former professor of theology.  The Rev. Dr. Christian Iosso, formerly a pastor in Westchester County,  New York, is Coordinator for Social Witness Policy, Presbyterian Church  (U.S.A.). The authors were among those who developed the Social Creed  for the 21st Century.

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228, pjenks@ncccusa.org

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