218^th General Assembly
2008

Coordinator of ACSWP summarizes what's coming

The Rev. Dr. Christian T. Iosso, on behalf of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy which he staffs, has sent this letter to an e-list of interested people around the church. He has graciously agreed for us to share it here. It has been edited very slightly.

Dear Friends interested in Social Justice and Social Witness Policy:

At tax time, with a recession taking hold – in the midst of a very exciting political primary season—with two wars grinding on – and before Pentecost, I write to share with you information on a number of items going to this year’s General Assembly and on several other matters. We use links rather than attachments and I urge you to look at the resources made available, especially posted copies of the policies themselves. The core of all this effort is the conviction that the Church must speak and act on matters of grave social concern as part of our witness to Jesus Christ.

Because of the two-year General Assembly cycle, we have a seemingly larger-than-usual number of reports going to the commissioners. In order for elected persons to affect the programs of the General Assembly Council, it is necessary to put matters of social concern before the Assembly so that policies can be guided by representatives of the whole church. The word “policy” is used to show that we are not simply “pronouncing” on topics, or making “deliverances” in an omni-directional manner. The recommendations in all of the reports I will name are printed first according to General Assembly practice; the rationales or background statements follow, even if logically they should come first. But the key rationale is in the Book of Order, that “truth is in order to goodness;” hence the practice of adopting specific recommendations, rather than simply “receiving” them (which we do for study documents).

At this time, as my opening line suggests, we are seeing major changes in prospect on a very significant scale, and these changes affect everything the Advisory Committee is bringing to the Assembly. A brief overview of the set of 9 reports can be found on the ACSWP GA 2008 flyer, Responding to the Call.

All of the following documents are available on the website >>

Or click on any title for that document (in PDF format)

FROM HOMELESSNESS TO HOPE: This resolution addresses the most drastic evidence of poverty in America, the million plus who are homeless, on average, each night. Authorized by the 2006 General Assembly and developed by expert practitioners from across the church, this speaks directly to those 50% of our congregations who do some caring ministry related to people in need – food banks, Habitat for Humanity, offering beds, investing in affordable housing, etc. The basic issue here as elsewhere is to connect the church’s charitable works to the prophetic effort to change structures. Controversial is a proposal to invest unrestricted reserves of the General Assembly Council in affordable housing at 2/3rds market rate through the risk-absorbing intermediary of LISC, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. The Church has done such program investing since the 1970s through the Creative Investment Program related to the Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) Committee and managed by the Presbyterian Foundation, but finances are tighter today.

The scarcity and commercialization of clean water resources – a big ecumenical concern, is being superceded by the pressure on basic grains, partly by the rise of agri-or-bio-fuels. This is an inefficient way to make fuel, even for transportation purposes. Beyond that aspect of the struggle over resources, we are also aware that more solvent economies are growing rapidly in energy use: China and India above all. Thus this picture has big geopolitical implications.

COSTLY LESSONS OF THE IRAQ WAR: Speaking of geopolitics, some see this long war as the intervention to end interventions. The costs in human, material, military, and diplomatic terms are enormous and mounting. How do we scale down this catastrophe? The study paper recommends a strongly Gospel-based strategy of “repent, restore, rebuild, and reconcile,” internationalizing the occupation and restoring sovereignty as swiftly as reasonable, and acknowledging continued humanitarian reconstruction responsibility by the United States. Among the foremost lessons is to insist on “police-model” responses to terrorism rather than vast military over-reactions, punishing whole societies and downgrading the future influence and power of the United States. Among the key recommendations here is that the peacemaking approach of 1980 be updated with the help of college and seminary faculty consultations to address the changed place of the US in the post-Cold War order. Although the mainline churches were right in counseling against the war, the task of re-visioning our country’s place in the world requires new ways of teaching “the Gospel of peace.”

STRUCK DOWN BUT NOT DESTROYED: FROM KATRINA TO A MORE EQUITABLE FUTURE: This resolution is a response to the Gulf Coast crisis that again builds upon the great charitable work of Presbyterians, at least 30,000 of whom have volunteered through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to help New Orleans and other communities re-build. One church near a broken levee has an American flag painted on its roof: would that this metaphor for governmental shelter and protection had proven true. The questions here are not only those of justice and governmental responsibility under God, but of our social bond with afflicted areas and populations within the United States. The study paper’s main author grew up in New Orleans and asks hard questions about the elements of “structural racism” and cultural loss in the continued diaspora of almost half of the citizens of that city, without forgetting the losses in Mississippi and elsewhere, and on the environment itself.

GOD’S WORK IN WOMEN’S HANDS (PAY EQUITY): Over the past 30 years, women’s wages have moved from being 65% to 77% of men’s comparable wages. For a church that takes the equality of women and racial-ethnic groups seriously, this basic disparity remains crucial, and deeply affects the poverty in which one sixth of US children live. This resolution builds on the policy, “God’s Work in Our Hands,” which looks at the meaning of calling in today’s world of work (1995), and provides tools for the church to improve its own track record as well as that of society. Several presbyteries have addressed the too-predictable disparities among ministers’ salaries and one, in particular, provides a model for assessing pay equity concerns.

HUMAN RIGHTS IN COLOMBIA: “More than 2,500 union members in Colombia have been killed since 1985…so far this year, 17...” (NYT, April 14, 08). Church leaders are in exile in the U.S. Members of our church “accompany” church workers still in 3-million plus slums of Colombians displaced by land seizures and terrorism by para-militaries or rebels.

It is in this context that this timely resolution provides background to a “Free-Trade” agreement now stalled in Congress. And though concerns about the impact of such agreements are expressed in the rationale, the Church is most concerned about how to minister in a climate of fear and corruption with which a government richly supported by the United States has been clearly linked. A section of this resolution looks at the similar human rights situation in Philippines, where the US supports a government responsible for the death and torture of church workers and others who challenge oligarchs and their paramilitaries.

The “war on terrorism” can be an excuse for undemocratic governments to violate human rights—this is part of the timeliness of this resolution, though it also notes the 60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Christian support remains crucial for the cause of human rights.

COMFORT MY PEOPLE (ON MINISTRY WITH THOSE AFFECTED BY SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS): Following the 2006 policy statement on Disabilities, this proposed policy statement (longer and more comprehensive than a resolution) addresses fundamental issues that affect a significant percentage of the population. Distinguishing between common episodic mental stresses and more major and/or systemic disorders, the policy sections recommend “parity” in treatment reimbursement and a variety of individual and community-based responses to the range of serious afflictions. Alongside this judicious use of the “medical model,” however, is an emphatically theological response for those who feel stigmatized and in exile due to serious mental illness. Sections of the report provide personal witness and inside understanding of experiences of suffering and healing, inviting all church members to work with the Holy Spirit in responding to this part of our human condition.

LIFT EVERY VOICE: DEMOCRACY, VOTING RIGHTS, AND ELECTORAL REFORM: Responding to the 2000 election debacle and continued disenfranchisement of poor and minority citizens, this resolution addresses the basic need for fairness and integrity in the US political system. Despite the re-authorization of the Civil Rights Act, the Justice Department itself has been politicized and new concerns have been raised about paperless electronic voting machines. Beyond these basic challenges, this resolution recommends larger reforms: re-enfranchisement of felons who have paid their debts to society, non-partisan election commissions, weekend or special holiday voting, DC voting rights, further campaign finance improvements, all based in an affirmative, nation-wide right to vote. Inequities between “battleground” and “bystander” states caused by the Electoral College will be very evident in this year’s general election, but the report recommends study of additional reforms of the undemocratic College and other voting methods.

A NEW SOCIAL CREED: TOWARD A NEW SOCIAL AWAKENING: One page long, the Social Creed is a consensus of Christian social teaching rather than a doctrinal creed. It recalls and celebrates the very influential 1908 Social Creed of the Federal Council of Churches that built church support for an end to child labor (in the US!), better working conditions, and several major elements of what became the New Deal 25 years later. The current Social Creed broadens concerns and anchors them theologically much more than the earlier version, and also encourages the “convergence” with Evangelicals that is increasingly evident on matters such as poverty, the environment, and the war. A book, New Prayers for the Social Awakening, inspired by the Social Creed and modeled on Walter Rauschenbusch’s Prayers for the Social Awakening (1909) has been published by Westminster/John Knox; a 28-minute documentary film will be shown at the General Assembly, and a longer booklet on the particular recommendations will also be available.

ALSO AT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY--Additional communications from ACSWP:

Smithfield Foods: Response to Referral: The Advisory Committee was referred the 2006 Assembly’s strong statement of concern for working conditions and an un-coerced union election at the Smithfield Foods pork packing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina. ACSWP and representatives of two presbyteries, Coastal Carolina and New Hope, have met with workers, representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, and top management of Smithfield Foods and a leading subsidiary, Murphy Brown.

Advice and Counsel Memoranda: These apply General Assembly social witness policy to overtures, commissioners’ resolutions, and other reports coming as items of business before Assembly Committees.

Narrative Report: This is a brief summary of the Committee’s work that is provided to each Assembly for information.
 

If you are in San Jose for the Assembly, we invite you to stop by the ACSWP GA booth #612 and introduce yourself. The Social Witness of the church is not something we take for granted. How can we help you in your witness where you are?

Envision: The Gospel, Politics, and the Future, a Conference at Princeton University, June 8-10, 2008. This is a major event representing the “convergence” referred to above, with major Evangelical leaders like Jim Wallis, Rich Cizik, Ron Sider, and Brian McLaren along with mainline leaders like Randall Balmer, Rita Nakashima Brock, and Miguel de la Torre. This is aimed at thoughtful activists, including young adults of many different backgrounds. The Advisory Committee is among the sponsors of this serious look at ethics and faith in this new century. See their website: www.ev08.org and consider passing this information on.

Great blessings and strength in God,

Chris Iosso
Coordinator, ACSWP.

Witherspoon treasurer Darcy Hawk reports that Pittsburgh Presbytery, on April 17, passed by a vote of 112 to 95 an overture which calls on 218^th General Assembly “to advocate for, educate about, and work toward single-payer universal health care reform through national health insurance that is privately provided (improved Medicare for all in principle) and publicly financed.”

Arguments against passage of this overture generally cited instances where the British, French, or Canadian systems have catastrophically failed individuals. These arguments overlook the social benefits of universal health care and obscure the devastation our current system visits on people of limited means, through bankruptcies, denial of service for the underinsured, and the reluctance of people to seek treatment because of the cost.

Furthermore, unlike other national health systems, this overture recommends leaving the private sector providers, physicians and hospitals, intact. A national insurance pool brings low risk people into the system to balance costs. It removes the burden of healthcare from business, reducing labor costs. In terms of Christian ethics it provides for a fairer, more equitable sharing of health care resources. I am pleased to report my presbytery passed the overture making it available for consideration in San Jose this summer.

Darcy Hawk

The full text of the overture:

An Overture to the 218th General Assembly 2008 in support of Single Payer Universal Healthcare Reform

PHEWA working group: Elder Hal Sanders; Elder Tom Graham; Elder Claudia Detwiler; Ken Love, CLP; Rev. Darcy Hawk; Rev. Bill Thomas, Rev. Bruce Mounts, Rev. Don Dutton Rev. Bebb Stone, Staff: Rev. Karen Battle.

January 2008

Whereas Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us to God, healed all kinds of sickness (Matthew 4:23, par) as a sign of God’s rule; Whereas Isaiah speaks God’s word to say ‘No more shall there be….an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime’ (Isaiah 65:20a).

Whereas we, as Reformed Christians, bear witness to Jesus Christ in word, but also in deed; Whereas as followers of our Great Physician Jesus, we have a moral imperative to work to assure that everyone has full access to health care;

Whereas our nation is in a crisis in health care which presents an unprecedented opportunity for our nation to provide healthcare affordable for all;

Whereas in this country there is a baby born every 51 seconds to a family with no health insurance;[1] Whereas in this the wealthiest nation in the world our infant morality rate is second highest in the industrialized world;[2]

Whereas 47 million Americans are uninsured[3] (50% employed; 25% children; 20% out of labor force as students, disabled, et.al.; 5% unemployed);[4]

Whereas the US spends nearly twice as much per capita as than any other country on health care, but we rank poorly in the 37 categories of health status measured by the World Health Organization;[5]

Whereas the rise in childhood obesity, asthma, diabetes, and other chronic diseases indicates that the overall health status of people of this country is declining;[6]

Whereas we are warned by the prophets not to heal the wounds of God’s people lightly; yet in 2006 the aggregate profits of the health insurance companies in the United States were $68 billion. During that same year more than 15,000 families were forced into bankruptcy because of medical expenses.[7]

Whereas our business employers operate at a competitive disadvantage internationally because health care costs are assumed by the governments of other industrialized nations;

Whereas the General Assemblies of the PCUSA and its predecessors since 1971 have called for reform of health delivery systems in the United States to make them accessible to the entire population;[8]

Whereas our federal government already operates efficiently and with low overhead[9] the health delivery programs of Medicare and Medicaid; and yet at the same time insurance companies spend nearly 1/3 of every premium dollar on marketing and other administrative costs and in fact, several such companies spend less than 60% of premium dollars they receive on health care services.

Whereas the American College of Physicians, the nation’s second largest physician group, has endorsed a single payer healthcare system;[10]

Whereas only a single-payer system of national healthcare coverage (privately provided; publicly financed; not socialized medicine) can save what is estimated to be $350 billion wasted annually on medical bureaucracy and redirect those funds to expanded coverage;[11] And

Whereas single-payer universal healthcare reform would increase coverage from the 60% of Americans already covered by Medicare (over 65) or Medicaid (severely limited wealth) to 100% of Americans, a net increase of only 40%:

Therefore be it resolved that Pittsburgh Presbytery overture the 218th General Assembly to advocate for, educate about, and work toward single-payer universal health care reform through national health insurance that is privately provided (improved Medicare for all in principle) and publicly financed;

Be it further resolved that the General Assembly through its Council actively pursue the goal of obtaining legislation that enacts single-payer, universal national health insurance as the program that best responds to this moral imperative of the gospel; and that the General Assembly Council monitor progress made toward this goal without regard to political party and report back to the church through its National Ministries Division on an annual basis;

Be it further resolved that the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly send a copy of this resolution to the appropriate committee chairs of the U.S. Congress and to the Washington and United Nations offices of the PCUSA;

Be it further resolved that $25,000 be directed from the Mission budget of the PCUSA to the PACT Network of PHEWA for the purpose of holding ten regional, one-day seminars supporting single payer universal healthcare reform, monies to be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

________________________________

[1] Healthcare Now Conference, Chicago, Illinois, November 10, 2007, Elder Hal Sanders.

[2] Chuck Pennachio, PhD, Executive Director, Health Care for All Pennsylvania.

[3] “The Uninsured, A Primer: Key Facts about Americans Without Health Insurance,” Kaiser Family Foundation, October 2007.

[4] Himmelfarb & Woolhandler tabulation, p. 13 “Medicare for All! A Guide to Single Payer National Health Insurance, B.S. Rosen, Chicago, Illinois.

[5] Healthcare Now Conference, Chicago, Illinois, November 10, 2007, Elder Hal Sanders.

[6] Elder Hal Sanders, Presbytery meeting, September 2007 at Camp Crestfield.

[7] Ibid.

[8] 1971 General Assembly of the PCUSA called for a national health insurance ‘single payer’ plan; and “the 200th General Assembly challenged the church by adopting ‘Life Abundant: Values, Choices, and Health Care—the Responsibility and Role of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’ in which the church was called to act upon the basic values of compassion, caring love, community wholeness and well-being, and justice that we hold to be fundamental in understanding and addressing the health issues and crises that confront the church and the nation.” Health E-News, National Health Ministries, December 21, 2007.

[9] Report of The National Bipartisan Commission on the future of Medicare, 2002, cites Medicare administrative costs at 3% of payments to providers for services to Medicare beneficiaries.

[10] Philadelphia Inquirer, December 5, 2007.

A major
Ghost Ranch event this summer!

July 28 - August 3, 2008

Paths toward Peace and Justice:
Spirituality, Earth-Care, and the Prophetic Word in a time of Violence

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