O THOSE NASTY RESOLUTIONS!

For the last couple of days I have been slogging through our Disciples Year Books from 1971 until 2006.

My purpose has been to look at controversial resolutions voted on from Assembly to Assembly. A couple of things immediately come to mind: First, no matter what we say about the serious issues facing the world, hardly anybody outside either reads them or pays the slightest attention to anything we have concluded.

Secondly, practically every decision we made has proved to be prophetic. What we approved has been affirmed by secular history. Those things we disapproved have widely been seen as unworthy. While we might have sweat blood and risked serious division, we have almost always been on the side of the angels.

This brace of observations leads me to two conclusions:

1-When we speak it has been to ourselves, not to society. I came out of seminary almost totally unformed outside my parochial boundaries. What did I know about war, justice, civil rights, prisons, labor relations, economic equity, the Equal Rights Amendment, conscientious objection, farm workers, the United Nations, gays and lesbians, nuclear proliferations on and on and on? Nada!!

On those occasions when I did ponder what God probably wanted, I believed I was far removed from anything the church had to say. And then I began to attend our Assemblies, and what a shock! I was in the main stream of the church’s best thinking. I was formed by what we had to say! There were clear ethical imperatives, and when I articulated them back in my congregations, it was with the support of the denomination.

While it may not matter whether anybody out there pays attention to what we say in our Assemblies, it is critical that inside the church a clear direction is being articulated. Not only young ministers but also an increasing number of lay folk have returned from these gatherings supported by what they heard to be God’s will for the world.

2-While our decisions may have risked ecclesial divisions, we have managed to articulate a clear sense that God has a purpose in the world and that the church is called to carry that vision. We are part of that dynamic march. We have been on the side of what is right.

Here are some of the things we voted to reject or "disapprove":

• Suspension of our nation’s financial support of the United Nations.
• Against amnesty for those who fled to Canada in opposition to the war in Vietnam.
• Deploring the Supreme Court’s decision easing abortion laws.
• Removal of our support for farm workers.
• The sole use of male terms when referring to God.
• A repudiation of liberation theology.
• Declaring homosexuality to be sin.
  

And here are a few of the things we voted to support:

• Ministry to persons in prison for conscience’s sake.
• Rejecting a governmental threat to our civil liberties.
• A call for economic justice.
• Support of farm workers (at least twice).
• Civil rights for all--(a number of resolutions).
• Rejecting “systems of death” in our national budget.
• Deploring capital punishment (twice).
• Support of the Equal Rights Amendment.
• Support of the United Nations.
• Civil liberties for gay and lesbian persons.
• Ending the arms race.
• Witnessing for world peace (a number of resolutions).
• Support of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.
• Against torture as a national policy.
• Support for undocumented persons.
• A pledge of resistance concerning the invasion of Latin American nations.
• Dismantling the School of the Americas (which trains right-wing terrorists for Latin American dictators to use as killers in order to maintain political power).
• Support of pacifism as a way of life.
• Opposition to Star Wars (The strategic defense initiative).
• Opposition to AK-47s ands Uzis in the hands of civilians.
  
• For handgun control.
• Calling for health-care reform.
• Support for gay/lesbian participation in the life of the church.

And there is much more!! (As one of the founders of DJAN, I am proud to say that many of the prophetic social resolutions over the last 12 years have come from congregations related to and working with this much-needed justice ministry).

While the Year Books do not record the number of votes for and against, memory tells me that almost all of these issues were hotly debated and the vote mixed. I believe that the implication of doing away with controversial resolutions may leave us spiritually and ethically impoverished, and well behind the positive flow of history so necessary to the mission of a living church.

What if, when called to speak out, the prophets had said nothing, since it might be this or it might be that--and, God help us, it might even be controversial?

But that’s just my opinion.

So what do you think?

Charles Bayer