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Dear Friends,
No doubt the buzz of the 2008 election
year has reached you. It will be an important year: a race for the White House
with no incumbent President, campaigns for a third of the U.S. Senate seats,
re-election bids for every member of the House of Representatives and countless
state and local elections and ballot initiatives. No one knows what Washington,
D.C., or the state capital cities will look like on November 5, 2008 — the
day after Election Day.
As this year of campaigning moves forward we invite
you to the use the resources on this page to enable your communities and your
ministries. In particular, the “Christian
and Citizen” booklet can guide you in answering the
challenge of a political life and provide quick access to many of the Presbyterian
General Assembly’s
policy statements on current issues. This policy section was compiled by staff
at the General Assembly level of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and will be
updated after the next General Assembly, which will take place in June 2008.
In addition, we hope you find the other materials on
this page useful. Among them are worship resources, a five-session adult study
curriculum on “Christians
and Government,” several “how-to” guides, links to advocacy
and electoral resources, and many others.
While discerning each of our roles in this year's political
process, it is important to keep in mind a statement from our 1983 General Assembly
entitled, "The
Reformed View of Politics and of Church and State:"
… We observe in our neighbors and ourselves a political
apathy that cuts the nerve of social reform. We still believe we are a socially
reforming church committed to the transformation of society. Our apathy stems
from the nature of a bureaucratic society, from recent disappointments over political
scandals, from distraction with self-satisfaction, from a trivialization of political
scandals, from discourse, and from our reluctance to handle issues of political
responsibility in the local church.
However, we are still called to overcome our apathy and be involved in the
political process. The above General Assembly citation is preceded by the following
from the same statement:
The Gospel and the Scriptures have meaning for the whole
of human life. The ministry of the church, while beginning with "the equipping
of the saints," must
concern all those ties that link humans together in a society. God sends the
church on a mission, to be light and salt to all society … Church and
government are both called to "serve the Lord." … The individual
Christian serves God in both the church and the rest of society. Discipleship
consists in the awareness that "during one's whole life one has to do with
God" (Calvin).
But such discipleship is not only a personal, individual calling. The sovereign
Lord works not only in the depths of individual souls but also in the organizations,
the institutions, and the movements of human history … (Minutes,
1983, Part I, pp. 776-778)
This resource is a cooperative effort of The Public Policy Advocacy Team:
Advisory Committee On Social Witness Policy, Office
of the Stated Clerk, Presbyterian
Hunger Program, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, Racial
Justice Policy Development Office, Social Justice Ministries, Washington Office and Women's
Advocacy Office.
It is edited by Rich Houston. If you have questions concerning the packet, please
contact the Washington
Office at (202) 543-1126, or any of the programs
listed above by calling (888) 728-7228.
Additionally, we invite you to visit
the Faithful Democracy Web site,
a non-partisan online resource that provides tools for you and your community
to engage, educate and inform others, especially those from historically disenfranchised
communities, about their voting rights in the 2008 election season.
Sincerely,
Catherine Gordon
Representative for International Issues
Washington Office
Leslie
Woods
Representative
for Domestic Poverty and
Environmental Issues
Washington Office |
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