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."
A 1950 statement described gambling as "an unchristian attempt to get something for nothing or at another's expense." Twenty-five years later, a Presbyterian General Assembly adopted a statement calling upon its members "to exert influence on local, state and national legislative bodies to oppose all forms of legalized gambling, e.g., lotteries, bingo, pari-mutuel betting, dog racing, horse racing, betting on sports games, casino games and numbers." A 1992 statement petitioned civic and government leaders to resist state sanctioned gambling and the false promises for fiscal benefits from such and encouraged state councils of churches and related public policy advocacy groups …
As a result of its research and study, the Task Force on Pornography is convinced that pornography is a powerful symptom of injustice and alienation in human society. Through words and images, pornography debases God's intended gifts of love and dignity in human sexuality. Although humankind was created male and female, equally and fully in the image of God, the history of humanity reveals a fundamental pattern of dominance and subjugation. While this historic pattern of systematic oppression has been exposed more fully in our time than ever before, we live in an age also marked by the shattering of …
The church works for changes in society so that violence is not accepted or in any way legitimated by the social and cultural realities. This means working for systemic change to the end that, while immediate needed care is provided to victims and survivors and abusers are held to strict accountability, changes are made in society to prevent future victims of violence and abuse. In addition, the church is responsible to engage in ongoing reflection and repentance regarding its own complicity in violence and to model by its life and witness, a nonviolent and Christ-centered way of relating to one …
This resolution explores what the ministry of caregiving means as an aging population rapidly increases. People of faith and the congregation in which they serve must assess the needs of the aging population in their community and seek ways to support and sustain family caregivers. The church can play a vital role in developing models that provide caregiving to all who are in need.
As our Book of Order states concerning the church's mission, "God's redeeming and reconciling activity in the world continues through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who confronts individuals and societies with Christ's Lordship of life and calls them to repentance and to obedience to the will of God" (G- 3.0103). The sovereign love of God, the gracious lordship of Jesus Christ, and the empowering fellowship of the Holy Spirit ground our lives as Christians; yet we are also rooted in family structures that evidence the corrosive pressures around and within us, as well as the failed relationships …
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