Chris: Ron, you have just given another mid-semester weekend to the work of the committee, this time focusing on the preparation of the Advice & Counsel memos that get attached to items of General Assembly business. What is the hardest part of that process?
Ron: We are very pleased that many presbyteries send overtures on social witness policy questions, and recognize that many other items of business have social-ethical implications. In each case, we want to affirm the work the presbytery has done — including the initiatives that begin in individual congregations, like one of the anti-torture overtures in 2006. At the same time, we try to suggest ways to put similar items together so that the GA Commissioners only have to vote once on a given item, and that one phrased in the best possible way. In some cases, a study team from the committee (has) produced a more detailed study (that) answers the main concerns of the overture, but we always try to recommend as much of the overtures as possible. What do you find hardest, from a staff perspective?
Chris: Checking previous policy is not hard because we have the computerized Social Witness Policy Compilation online (https://www.pcusa.org/acswp look for button.) We also have to make sure we know what program work is already being done, or has been done in the past. This is important, for example, on the overtures requesting that an office of environmental justice be re-established. We support that, of course, since the church has been at the forefront of environmental concern — we were right about global warming at least 15 years ago. We could use a passionate expert in that role, and if that person really pushes energy conservation and new technologies, the church can save a lot of money. But the hardest part is taking into account the financial limitations on the whole Church. Thus, though we would like to urge our colleagues in the program areas to do more, and we ourselves would love to address new ethical questions, we try to suggest things that will strengthen both the church and its public witness and be doable.
Ron: We cut back a number of items requested by the study teams. On the Katrina impact report, for example, we took out some funding recommendations — though we kept in the request for an investment from the Creative Investment Program that would sacrifice some investment income if the commissioners approve it. That was a great report because, like the Homelessness Report, we could really celebrate the amount of generosity by thousands of Presbyterian volunteers. It is also a report where we can clearly move the argument from generosity to justice.
Chris: Ron, you should say a bit more here about the justice theme because that has been a big piece of your own journey.
Ron: Wow, how much time do I have? Ever since my undergraduate days in the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship group at Stanford University, I have been drawn to the God not only of grace, but also of justice. One of the key factors in my own call has been the commitment of the Presbyterian Church to issues of justice. There is really an awful lot I could add here. Let me just say that I am encouraged by my conversations with undergraduates and seminary students from a wide spectrum of evangelical traditions. They see almost intuitively a connection between evangelism and justice that my generation struggled to perceive.
Chris: Well, the justice element has been a big part of ACSWP’s work all along, since the committee gained much of its current form in 1936, during the last Great Depression, and even since the Committee’s precursors worked on the first Social Creed in 1908. But we would have to say that the theological components — the explicit Jesus concern in the Social Witness statements— probably began to get longer in the 1970s.
Ron: You know that evangelicals want to invite people to come to terms with God through Jesus Christ. I hope the readers of our statements realize that the Jesus who offers them new life was also a prophet who came not only to rescue us but to change the structures of our world. In this regard it is important for people to understand that justice is not merely about rescue, and I think it is important for us to speak prophetically to our own social order as well as to unjust systems in different parts of the world. We would be hypocritical if we spoke only about abuses of power beyond our borders. Our call is to trust Jesus as prophet and truth teller as well as Lord and Savior.
Chris: This combination of affirmations is one of the distinctive things about our social witness right now. And I think the Church wants its leaders to articulate that theological foundation for our public role. ACSWP has a particular responsibility to contribute that within the overall work of the General Assembly Council, and we are very mindful that direct access to the General Assembly is a big responsibility. Year after year we are impressed that the commissioners read the material and understand that we don’t just talk off the top of our heads. Just like you don’t go into court nowadays without a lawyer, we don’t go into the public policy arena without some real study — and we have been a church that does serious studies and then gets them in people’s hands. I pray we can live up to that.
Ron: This is where the connection to seminaries and colleges is important. We try to learn from them, we appreciate the many faculty volunteers, especially in the ethics departments. ACSWP has a long tradition of bringing some of the best minds in the church to the table where difficult ethical issues are considered. We are happy to have Lew Mudge, for example, doing a lot of the theology as we update the study of bioethics and end-of-life concerns from the 1981 PCUS study paper, “Nature and Value of Human Life.” My own New Testament work comes in handy sometimes [Note: Ron is a professor of ministry, but his Ph.D. is in New Testament. His 2007 commentary on Mark is with InterVarsity Press.] In our resolution, “Costly Lessons of the Iraq War,” we are also recommending some real consultation with both the PC(USA)-related seminaries and the colleges and universities on how to teach peace in the coming years as our “superpower” status is challenged and the need to support an effective United Nations becomes even more necessary.
Chris: I do hope that study will be approved, but it is up to the commissioners. Our goals there include strengthening “program,” that is, peace education, and potentially suggesting policy changes. We regularly seek to update important areas of concern, and the Assembly’s decisions about policy then shape what programs are developed. So the studies, (much cheaper than the big Special Committees), have long been a part of the ecclesiastical work. The Peacemaking Program, the Hunger Program, the Advocacy Committees, the Child Advocacy Office, the Immigration Legal Services Office in the Office of the General Assembly … these and other programs were created as result of serious studies of the issues and how best to address them.
Ron: I agree that the Iraq war has been a tragedy. Our foreign policy is extremely militarized, and our economy is over-leveraged. Can the church help our nation find its way again? I certainly hope so. Our basic peacemaking policy goes back to 1980 and it would be great to build bridges to the thinkers, including the students, in our academic institutions. The Social Creed also does a lot of that basic consensus building, especially on the economic and environmental side, among denominations and for both evangelicals and mainliners. It does give us a chance to talk about Jesus and justice in a very direct way. And at one page it is very concise! It leaves open a lot of options about how those social goals can be achieved, not simply through government or business, but it helps us see the outlines of a more Reformed society …
Chris: We have gone a bit beyond the Advice & Counsel starting point, but we have touched on a number of the social witness reports going to the Assembly. All are posted on our Web site and we urge people to read the short resolutions even if they don’t have time for the background papers.
Ron: Remember, Chris, to pray for the General Assembly. I know you have recently co-edited a book of prayers, but the key thing for us is to remember that God’s Spirit will be in those committee rooms and on the floor.
Chris: Amen!
