The new Social
Creed
for the 21st Century
by Gene TeSelle,
Witherspoon Society Issues Analyst
This article
is being published in the Witherspoon Society's Network News,
which is being sent shortly (we hope!) to all General Assembly
Commissioners and Advisory Delegates.
For more discussion of the
proposed Social Creed, you might
visit the Witherspoon website.
[posted here
on 5-26-08]
The 1908 Social Creed became part of the mainstream of the Presbyterian
Church. In an altered version it was adopted by the General Assemblies of
1910 (the one that also adopted the five “fundamentals”!) and 1920. Being
Presbyterians, they wanted more biblical and theological grounding, and five
Presbyterian churches jointly adopted a statement in 1914. Here are the
essential texts:
The 1910
Statement by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
A
Special Committee on Social Problems made its report in 1910. It noted that
“the industrial organization of society” had created new problems, and that
moral and religious ideas “have not kept pace with industrial and commercial
progress.” “Conscience is aroused, but perplexed,” it went on to say. And
yet it is Christianity, or more precisely the gospel that it preaches, that
“has largely created the present demands for social and economic justice.”
After a prefatory statement of beliefs (that Jesus is the
final authority over all aspects of life; that righteousness in the midst of
the complexities of modern conditions is realizable only through the
principles of the kingdom of God; that the church must show how these
principles apply to human affairs; that the church’s teaching should be
related to “present practical conditions,” and that “the time has come” for
the Presbyterian Church to “speak its mind concerning particular problems
now threatening society”), it made fourteen declarations, based on those of
the Federal Council but thoroughly rewriting them.1
We hold that our Church ought to declare:
1. For the acknowledgment of the obligations of wealth. . . .
2. For the application of Christian principles to the conduct of industrial
organizations, whether of capital or labor.
3. For a more equitable distribution of wealth. . . .
4. For the abatement of poverty. . . .
5. For the abolition of child-labor — that is, the protection of children
from exploitation in industry and trade, and from work that is dwarfing,
degrading, or morally unwholesome.
6. For such regulation of the conditions of the industrial occupation of
women as shall safeguard the physical and moral health of themselves, the
community, and future generations.
7. For adequate protection of working people from dangerous machinery and
objectionable conditions of labor, and from occupational disease.
8. For some provision by which the burden imposed by injuries and deaths
from industrial accidents shall not be permitted to rest upon the injured
person or his family.
9. For the release of every worker from work one day in seven. . .
10. For such ordering of the hours and requirements of labor as to make them
compatible with healthy physical, mental and moral life.
11. For the employment of the methods of conciliation and arbitration in
industrial disputes.
12. For the removal of unsanitary dwellings and the relief or prevention of
congestion of population, so that there may be the proper physical basis for
Christian family life.
13. For the application of Christian methods in the care of dependent and
incapable persons, by the adequate equipment and humane and scientific
administration of public institutions concerned therewith.
14. For the development of a Christian spirit in the attitude of society
toward offenders against the law. . . .
These were followed by recommendations for church action at every level.
The 1914
“United Declaration” of the
Presbyterian Churches
A joint committee was appointed by the General Assemblies of
the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., the United Presbyterian Church, the
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Synod, to give biblical and theological grounding to social concerns. Its
report was approved by all of the General Assemblies in 1914.2
V. We believe that the social conditions of our day
require emphasis upon the divine message for
the following reasons:
1. The tremendous advance in our time of scientific discovery and invention
and of commercial, industrial and civic enterprises by which men have been
brought into closer relations of reciprocal dependence and service towards
one another as individuals and towards society as an organized body.
2. The vast increase of wealth, its unequal and often unjust distribution,
and the consequent increase of the power of the privileged few to exploit
their fellow-men for private and selfish ends.
3. The development of great business corporations which discharge many of
the functions once belonging to individuals, and as a result of this the
weakening of the sense of individual responsibility for social wrongs.
4. The fostering or protection of vice as an instrument to private gain or
to selfish ambition for place and power.
5. The submergence of large classes in ignorance and poverty so that the
difficulty of reaching them with the message of Christ is greatly increased.
These reasons require that the Church of Jesus Christ, which takes its stand
as Christ did against the sins of social injustice and tyranny, as well as
against other forms of sin, should emphasize:
1. The duty of man towards his fellow-men as individuals and toward society,
with reference to the life that now is as well as to the life which is to
come.
2. The duty of men to put into practice the Christian principles of love,
justice and truth in all their social relations, economic, industrial or
political; as officials or citizens of the state, as employers and
employees, as capitalists and laborers, as stockholders or officers in
corporations, and in all similar relationships.
3. The responsibility of men both for the manner in which they acquire
positions, possessions and power in their social relations, and for the
manner in which, as stewards of God, they use these, lest, in the great day
of judgment, they be found unfaithful.
4. The responsibility of every individual not only for those social wrongs
to which he may be a contributing cause, but for those which, by his prayers
and efforts, he could assist in abolishing.
5. The duty of Christian citizens to observe those principles of our
religion which require that every man do his full share of the world’s work;
which oppose injustice and tyranny, even when these are entrenched in the
usages of our civilization; which lead men to endeavor to maintain
themselves in a self-respecting, God-fearing way, this self-maintenance
being understood to include a fair return for labor, sufficient to support
the man and his family, conditions of labor that are safe and healthy,
opportunity to provide against illness and old age, and relief from labor on
one day in seven; which lead to movements to secure childhood against forced
labor and woman against conditions degrading to womanhood.
6. The duty of every man to accept Jesus Christ and obey His teachings as
the only cure for the injustice, tyranny and sins now looming so large upon
the world’s horizon.
The 1920
Statement of the General Assembly of
the
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
The 1919 General Assembly had
directed the Board of Home Missions to make a report on “the church and
industry”; this was submitted the next year and was approved by that year’s
Assembly.3 It reaffirmed
the 1910 statement, which had already been reaffirmed in 1914, prefixed a
doctrinal declaration about the ground and goal of social concern and the
Christian approach to social progress. Then, under the subtitle “The Social
Creed,” the Assembly made additional statements on subjects “regarding which
recent and contemporary developments seem to require the Church to speak”:
We hold that our Church ought to declare:
1. For the Christian social obligation resting upon every man, for his
family, his community, his nation and the whole world.
2. For the Christian obligation to use wealth and power as trusts from God
for fellowmen.
3. For the application of Christian principles to the conduct of industrial,
agricultural and commercial organizations and relationships. Among these
Christian principles are:
(a) The sacredness of life and the supreme worth of personality, so that a
man must always be treated as an end and never as a means.
(b) The brotherhood of man, demanding for every worker a democratic status
in industry, and mutual understanding, good will, coöperation and a common
incentive among all engaged in it.
4. For the right and duty to work, since human society cannot endure unless
each of its members has the opportunity and feels the obligation to serve
the common good to the extent of his ability.
5. For a worthy and just return to every man according to his contribution
to the common welfare, and for a social order in which no man shall live on
the fruits of another man’s labor and no man shall be denied the fruits of
his own labor. “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” Worthiness of return for
honest work is measured today first of all by the standard of “a living
wage,” by which is meant a wage adequate to maintain the worker and his
family in health and honor, and to enable him to dispense with the
subsidiary earnings of his children up to the age of sixteen.
6. For the abatement of poverty, some of which is due to vice, idleness or
improvidence, but much also to low wages, preventable disease, uncompensated
accidents, insufficient education and other conditions for which society is
responsible; and the Spirit of Christ requires that society shall make
provision for adequate education for all, for public health and for the
relief of those in want.
7. For the protection of children from exploitation in industry, agriculture
or trade and from work that is dwarfing, degrading or morally unwholesome.
8. For such regulation of the conditions of occupation of women as shall
secure an adequate living wage and at the same time safeguard their physical
and moral health and that of the community and of future generations.
9. For the safeguarding of working people from harmful conditions of labor,
dangerous machinery and occupational disease, and for the education of the
workers in avoiding hazards in connection with their employment.
10. For the assumption by industry of the burdens entailed by industrial
accidents, disease and death, and for the training of injured workers for
continued production and self-support.
11. For the release of every worker for rest one day in seven, which,
wherever possible, should be the Lord’s Day.
12. For the ordering of the hours of labor to secure at once sufficient
production and sufficient leisure for the physical, mental and moral
well-being of the workers.
13. For the employment of the methods of investigation, conference,
conciliation and arbitration in industrial disputes.
14. For the inviolability of agreements, both in letter and in spirit, since
good faith is the foundation of social and industrial stability and
progress.
15. For the right of wage-earners to organize and to deal, through their
chosen representatives, with the management of the industries in which they
work, because an adequate representation of all parties (Labor, Capital,
Management and the Public) in industry is needed for production and to
secure attention for the human factors involved.
These affirmations were followed by recommendations for action by the
General Assembly, ministers and congregations, and educational institutions.
A climactic statement was formulated this way:
That the General Assembly urge Christians everywhere to insist that labor is
encumbent upon all; that idleness, whether among the rich or poor, is
sinful; that it is wrong to take advantage of the necessities of the public,
to adulterate goods or to charge exorbitant prices for them; that such
industries as can only be carried on by methods which degrade human beings
ought not to be carried on at all; that if an institution or an organization
is socially harmful no vested interest in it is a valid plea for its
maintenance.
The
Presbyterian Confession of 1967
The reconciliation of humanity through Jesus Christ makes it plain that
enslaving poverty in a world of abundance is an intolerable violation of
God’s good creation. Because Jesus identified himself with the needy and
exploited, the cause of the world’s poor is the cause of his disciples. The
church cannot condone poverty, whether it is the product of unjust social
structures, exploitation of the defenseless, lack of national resources,
absence of technological understanding, or rapid expansion of populations.
The church calls each of us to use our abilities, our possessions, and the
fruits of technology as gifts entrusted to us by God for the maintenance of
God’s family and the advancement of the common welfare. It encourages those
forces in human society that raise people’s hopes for better conditions and
provide them with opportunity for a decent living. A church that is
indifferent to poverty, or evades responsibility in economic affairs, or is
open to one social class only, or expects gratitude for its beneficence
makes a mockery of reconciliation and offers no acceptable worship to God.4
With an urgency born of . . . hope the church applies itself to present
tasks and strives for a better world. It does not identify limited progress
with the reign of God on earth, nor does it despair in the face of
disappointment and defeat. In steadfast hope the church looks beyond all
partial achievement to the final triumph of God.5
Notes
1
Minutes of the General Assembly (1910), pp. 229-33.
2
Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United
States of America (1914), pp. 52-56; Minutes of the General Assembly
of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (1914), pp. 161-64.
3
Minutes of the General Assembly of the P.C.U.S.A. (1920), pp. 181-86.
4
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Book of Confessions, 9.46 (II, A, 4,
c).
5
Book of Confessions, 9.55.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Social Creed for the Twenty-First Century
Click
here for the full report to GA Committee 9,
Social Justice Issues,
including the rationale for this proposed Social Creed.
We churches of the United
States have a message of hope for a fearful time. Just as the churches
responded to the harshness of early twentieth century industrialization with
a prophetic “Social Creed” in 1908, so in our era of globalization we offer
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. Inspired by Isaiah’s vision of a “peaceable
kingdom,” we honor the dignity of every person and the intrinsic value of
every creature, and pray and work for the day when none “labor in vain, or
bear children for calamity” (Isa. 65:23). We do so as disciples of the One
who came “that [all] may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10),
and stand in solidarity with Christians and with all who strive for justice
around the globe.
In faith, responding to
our Creator, we celebrate the full humanity of each woman, man, and child,
all created in the divine image as individuals of infinite worth, by working
for:
