Several trends affecting the uninsured are then explored followed by an examination of the challenges ahead as Presbyterians seek to be responsible in both their public and private lives in the quest of furthering God's intention of health (shalom) for the earth and its people. The final section presents the recommendations approved by the 214th General Assembly as it met June 15-22, 2002, in Columbus, Ohio. In addition, Appendix I, "The Challenge to Presbyterians from the 214th General Assembly: Adequate Health Care for Everyone" offers concrete ways for individuals and their congregations to respond in advocacy for the uninsured. It …
The purpose of the recommendations included in this report and the background to follow is to enable churches to welcome people with disabilities and to advocate with them for justice both within the church and in society. Justice in the Reformed perspective is marked by the exhibition of social righteousness in conduct, covenant, and relationships. It takes form in social structures that permit the flourishing of all of God's people. Therefore, full inclusion for people living with disabilities requires compassion and the establishment of a just social reality. The church exhibits its love for neighbor in the full participation of …
A study of homelessness, it's causes, and faithful, holistic and hopeful ministry responses of local congregations and higher councils of the denomination. Drawing upon biblical calls to create spaces of radical hospitality, sustainable communities and relationships, and honoring God's gift of the earth and all of creation.
This report focuses on two major themes. The first theme is "The Land of Exile," which explores the difficulties and injustices endured by people with serious mental illness. The experience of mental illness disorders people's lives in ways that exile them from themselves, their families, and their community. The second theme, "God's Call to Comfort," focuses on appropriate ways congregations can minister with and to people with a serious mental illness. Throughout this report, people are understood from a Christian incarnational perspective, called to be delivered from chaos and disorder into the wholeness and communion of salvation.
This report presents the PC(USA) with a concise but comprehensive look at HIV and AIDS thirty years after it made its first blip on our epidemiological radar screens. We begin with an overview of the development of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the United States and globally and the church's response. From this overview, we report on the present context of the global pandemic as it appears in the U.S. and other regions of the world.
Women's access to health care, generally, and to reproductive health care in particular, is one of the bases of women's equality, especially as women have entered the workforce. Since the 1970s, equal and adequate access to reproductive health care has been repeatedly supported by Presbyterian General Assemblies as essential to the exercise of our God-given responsibilities for family life. The church has encouraged marriage and parenthood as part of God's covenant of life and family planning as integral to family wellbeing.
Drug use and abuse are two different things and both affect the spiritual life our nation. In response to overtures from seven presbyteries, this report was requested by the 221st General Assembly (2014) to provide advocacy "for effective drug policies grounded in science, compassion and human rights" (Minutes, 2014, Part I, p. 630). The report analyzes the urgent and ongoing tragedies of mass incarceration and drug-related violence in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. It presents a Christian framework for reform but is not primarily a study of addiction and recovery, though these necessarily receive attention.
This report begins by showing that the war on drugs is not working. While we can’t know what the world would look like if we had not declared war on drugs, attempts at eradication have become at least as destructive as the drugs themselves. This report comes at a time when the public’s acceptance of marijuana is propelling efforts to decriminalize and legalize cannabis for medical and recreational use. this report advocates a therapeutic approach to the problems associated with psychoactive drug use and abuse. This includes effective campaigns to discourage drug use and an expansion of harm reduction programs, …
Those who face reproductive problems tend to focus their lives almost totally on the desperate desire to bear children. Those who vehemently oppose abortion in the name of the fetus's "right to life" elevate the significance of fetal life to the exclusion of any other factor or person in the particular situation of pregnancy. Physicians, confronted with a tiny premature newborn, may struggle more with competitiveness than compassion to salvage the fragile life, despite almost certain and catastrophic impairment should they "succeed." Life is sacred, but its sanctity lies not in its biological basis but in its source: God."