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Well, I’m back. Swine flu is mostly gone, and I’m finally feeling up for some posting. Sorry for the long delay.
While reading around on Wikipedia about creeds, I came across another creed more focused on ethics than metaphysics: the Social Creed of the United Methodist Church. According to the UMC website, it came into being in 1908 “to express Methodism’s outrage over the miserable lives of the millions of workers in factories, mines, mills, tenements and company towns”. The creed has been revised several times, but here it is in its current form:
We believe in God, Creator of the world; and in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of creation. We believe in the Holy Spirit, through whom we acknowledge God’s gifts, and we repent of our sin in misusing these gifts to idolatrous ends.
We affirm the natural world as God’s handiwork and dedicate ourselves to its preservation, enhancement, and faithful use by humankind.
We joyfully receive for ourselves and others the blessings of community, sexuality, marriage, and the family.
We commit ourselves to the rights of men, women, children, youth, young adults, the aging, and people with disabilities; to improvement of the quality of life; and to the rights and dignity of all persons.
We believe in the right and duty of persons to work for the glory of God and the good of themselves and others and in the protection of their welfare in so doing; in the rights to property as a trust from God, collective bargaining, and responsible consumption; and in the elimination of economic and social distress.
We dedicate ourselves to peace throughout the world, to the rule of justice and law among nations, and to individual freedom for all people of the world.
We believe in the present and final triumph of God’s Word in human affairs and gladly accept our commission to manifest the life of the gospel in the world. Amen.
A couple weeks ago I wrote about the “creed on health-care reform” published by Sojourners, which is similarly oriented around social/ethical concerns. However, in that post I expressed doubt about whether the “health-care creed” was genuinely a creed, or merely a political statement in creedal form. The Methodist document has no such ambiguity: it is both formally and functionally a creed, for it is actually used in UMC worship services (unlike the health-care creed, which has no liturgical function in any faith community, to my knowledge). In other words, the Social Creed is formative for the Methodist community in an important way.
Needless to say, this increases my growing interest in the United Methodist Church, especially as I have recently decided to permanently leave the Southern Baptist church I’ve been attending for the last couple years. In less than a month I head off to Yale; if anyone has any recommendations for good churches in the New Haven are (UMC or not), I’m all ears. More on that later.
A couple months ago I wrote and posted a “narrative creed” designed to foster a greater emphasis on ethics within the context of narrative faith. Last week I posted a “creed for community” written by guest author Joey Fuson. Today, I encountered an even more explicitly ethical (even political), and much more narrowly-focused, creed.
It’s called “A Christian Creed for Health-Care Reform”, produced by the Christian social justice magazine Sojourners. The online page containing the creed includes an invitation to sign it; apparently a copy is to be sent to Congress.
As one of God’s children, I believe that protecting the health of each human being is a profoundly important personal and communal responsibility for people of faith.
I believe God created each person in the divine image to be spiritually and physically healthy. I feel the pain of sickness and disease in our broken world (Genesis 1:27, Romans 8:22).
I believe life and healing are core tenets of the Christian life. Christ’s ministry included physical healing, and we are called to participate in God’s new creation as instruments of healing and redemption (Matthew 4:23, Luke 9:1-6; Mark 7:32-35, Acts 10:38). Our nation should strive to ensure all people have access to life-giving treatments and care.
I believe, as taught by the Hebrew prophets and Jesus, that the measure of a society is seen in how it treats the most vulnerable. The current discussion about health-care reform is important for the United States to move toward a more just system of providing care to all people (Isaiah 1:16-17, Jeremiah 7:5-7, Matthew 25:31-45).
I believe that all people have a moral obligation to tell the truth. To serve the common good of our entire nation, all parties debating reform should tell the truth and refrain from distorting facts or using fear-based messaging (Leviticus 19:11; Ephesians 4:14-15, 25; Proverbs 6:16-19).
I believe that Christians should seek to bring health and well-being (shalom) to the society into which God has placed us, for a healthy society benefits all members (Jeremiah 29:7).
I believe in a time when all will live long and healthy lives, from infancy to old age (Isaiah 65:20), and “mourning and crying and pain will be no more” (Revelation 21:4). My heart breaks for my brothers and sisters who watch their loved ones suffer, or who suffer themselves, because they cannot afford a trip to the doctor. I stand with them in their suffering.
I believe health-care reform must rest on a foundation of values that affirm each and every life as a sacred gift from the Creator (Genesis 2:7).
Amen.
My gut reaction is that the creed could be improved were the last paragraph (the one explicitly referencing “health-care reform”) removed, as it seems to overly particularlize the otherwise general tone of the statement. On the other hand, the last part does have the effect of emphasizing the creed’s contextual origin and nature, rather than making it into a “universally orthodox” statement of faith/ethics which it cannot hope to be (and which, I would argue, no creed can hope to be). So I suppose my feelings are mixed.
The statement as a whole, regardless, is an interesting one. It certainly contains a number of valid theological and ethical ideas that are relevant to the current health-care debates. However, the creed departs from the more or less standard conception of the purpose of a creed: rather than being intended as a formative statement for a particular community of faith, this “health-care creed” is explicitly designed to double as a “petition” and to be submitted to Congress as such!
Thus, this creed not only goes beyond the standard sort of content that historical creeds comprise, but also challenges traditional notions of what function creeds are supposed to serve and what sort of communities or organizations in which they are to be put to use. Arguably, it would be more appropriate to regard the present document not as a creed at all, properly speaking, but rather as a call to action that takes the form of a creed as a rhetorical strategy. Again, I have mixed feelings on the matter, though I would tend to regard it as a legitimate creed, albeit an unusual and perhaps boundary-pushing one.
I would be interested to know, first, whether other people regard this document as really being a creed, and second, whether or not other similar petitions-via-creed-rhetoric exist.
I’ve been reading the blog Resident Theology by Brad East for a while now. Every week, Brad posts “Sunday Sabbath Poetry,” highlighting poetry (generally religious) by himself or other authors. This week’s entry may be the best yet. It’s an intertwined, almost liturgical reading of Psalm 51 and Romans 7.14-8.1. Go check it out.
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me…
I was gone a lot this week.
One of the things I did was go to Atlanta for the Alumni Reunion of the Youth Theological Initiative, which I attended last summery and which was one of the most transformative and important experiences of my life. I just returned today from the reunion, and it’s hard for me to describe just how significant it was. I am blessed to have been able to experience again a taste of the amazing YTI community, which is a true inbreaking of the Kingdom of Heaven into the world. I really needed that right now, with my struggles at church. Having come back to Augusta, I feel like like I’ve left my home to return to the place where I live (and it’s quite a letdown). Homesickness is setting in already.
Last night, as I reflected on my experiences of the reunion and of YTI more generally, I felt led to compose this responsive reading, even though I’ve never really attended any particularly liturgical churches (though I want to, and YTI gave me a taste of that in some of the chapel services). I share it now.
One: The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor in spirit.
All: Blessed are they.
Those who mourn shall be comforted.
Blessed are they.
Those who are meek shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they.
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be satisfied.
Blessed are they.
Those who show mercy shall receive mercy.
Blessed are they.
Those who are pure in heart shall see God.
Blessed are they.
Those who make peace shall be called God’s children.
Blessed are they.
The Kingdom of Heaven of belongs to those who suffer for righteousness’ sake.
Blessed are they.
Blessed are they.
Blessed are they.
Amen.
