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As the 227th General Assembly convenes on June 22, commissioners and advisory delegates on the Reformed Identity in the United States Committee will tackle a variety of issues including Christian nationalism, a forced labor bill of rights, and the Doctrine of Discovery.
RUS-01 is an overture from the Presbytery of San Jose asking the church along with other faith traditions to call out the dangers of Christian nationalism as “an urgent theological and social concern.” The overture also proposed amending F-1.0404 of the Book of Order to emphasize the distortions of any ideology of national or ethnic supremacy.
In the same vein, the committee also will consider RUS-07, Standing Against White Christian Nationalism, a social witness policy brought by the Advocacy Committee on Women and Gender Justice (ACWGJ), which calls on the church to repudiate all forms of white Christian nationalism and repent its historical complicity with such ideology.
In its endorsement of RUS-01, ACWGJ urges the denomination to “expose how this religious supremacy is antithetical to the teaching of Jesus and in complete contradiction to the purpose of the Church.”
The Advisory Committee on the Constitution in its response recommended approval of naming the dangers of Christian nationalism but raised a constitutional concern and recommended caution before making any amendments.
The Presbytery of Northeast New Jersey has brought RUS-02, an overture to commemorate the role of the Presbyterian Church and Reformed tradition in the American Revolution on its 250th anniversary. Presbyterians and Congregationalists were heavily represented in formulating the Declaration of Independence and the forming of this new government.
The overture recommends promoting historic ministries and advocating for Reformed Christian principles and accurate education of all aspects of history, including failures to “live up to its ideals with regard to Native Americans, African Americans, and various immigrant groups: Propaganda cannot be allowed to rewrite history.”
The Advocacy Committee on Women and Gender Justice asks for disapproval, citing the risk of “sanctifying a narrative that binds the Church’s witness to a national origin story rooted in conquest, exclusion and erasure of Indigenous peoples, particularly women and gender expansive persons.”
The Advocacy Committee for LGBTQIA+ Equity advises approval with an amendment to reference harm done to LGBTQIA+ people through government policies and highlighting the history of good works by the denomination by LGBTQIA+ people.
Re-establishing an Office of Theology and Worship, which was disbanded during the unification of the Office of the General Assembly and Presbyterian Mission Agency, is requested in RUS-03, an overture brought by the Presbytery of Susquehanna Valley. The overture asks for at least one full-time position, offering that the need to grow in theological engagement is rooted in the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church.
The overture asserts that in the vacuum left with no Office of Theology and Worship, the “church denigrates, minimizes, and otherwise does not take the importance of theology and worship in the life of the church.”
The Unification Commission, which has also been the governing body of Presbyterian Life & Witness, asks the General Assembly “to discern the theological support functions that are most appropriately resourced at the national level,” and offers to resource those needs.
In RUS-04, the Presbytery of North Central California proposes the General Assembly promote “the Forced Labor Bill of Rights” as an addition to the “Human Trafficking Human Rights: Children of God, Not for Sale” resolution on the 10th anniversary of its approval by the 222nd General Assembly.
The overture states that the global phenomenon of forced labor has been ongoing since humans left the Garden of Eden. Contemporary need for such a statement was reinforced during a 2023 PC(USA) Peacemaking travel study seminar to the Philippines and Hong Kong. The study included first-person interviews of migrants whose stories kindled the push for a new bill of rights.
The overture asks the church to call upon the federal government to promote human rights in accordance with this document. It further asks that prayers for all those in forced labor and migrant workers be lifted with advocacy efforts throughout the church.
In a referral from actions taken in 2016 and 2018, the Presbytery of Santa Fe proposes in RUS-05 that the General Assembly join with other denominations to eradicate the Doctrine of Discovery.
The overture offers thanks to the Catholic Church after the late Pope Francis’ actions repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery and asks Pope Leo to continue this work toward fully rescinding the papal bulls that gave permission to early European explorers to take lands from Indigenous peoples.
The overture further encourages all Presbyterians be given the opportunity to study this history through “The Doctrine of Discovery: A review of its origins and implications for congregations in the PC(USA) and Support for Native American Sovereignty,” a report to the 223rd General Assembly. In addition to understanding the destruction left in its wake and the continuing harm through contemporary laws on the United States, the overture requests Presbyterians lift stories of Indigenous peoples and issues facing them.
Also on the committee’s docket:
- RUS-10, a report from a special commission that has written a confession for these times
- RUS-11, a call for a thorough investigation into the death of Renee Nicole Good and others who died in connection with federal detainment operations
- RUS-08, a social witness policy navigating artificial intelligence through a Reformed lens
- RUS-09, a referral to an overture from the 226th General Assembly (2024) to advocate for the rights of the internally displaced.
The committee is moderated by the Rev. Dr. Joshua Robinson of Mission Presbytery. The Rev. Patricia Stetson-Warning of Plains and Peaks Presbytery is vice-moderator.
