Preamble
We acknowledge our complete dependence upon God in birth, in life, in death, and in life eternal. Secure in God’s love, we affirm the goodness of life and confess our many sins against God’s will for us as we find it in Jesus Christ. We have not always been faithful stewards of all that has been committed to us by God the Creator. We have been reluctant followers of Jesus Christ in his mission to bring all persons into a community of love. Though called by the Holy Spirit to become new creatures in Christ, we have resisted the further call to become the people of God in our dealings with each other and the earth on which we live.
Grateful for God’s forgiving love, in which we live and by which we are judged, and affirming our belief in the inestimable worth of each individual, we renew our commitment to become faithful witnesses to the gospel, not alone to the ends of earth, but also to the depths of our common life and work.
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I. The Natural World
Preamble
All creation is the Lord's, and we are responsible
for the ways we use and abuse it. Water, air, soil, minerals, energy
resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved
because they are God's creation and not solely because they are useful
to human beings. God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should
meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect.
Economic, political, social, and technological developments have
increased our human numbers, and lengthened and enriched our lives.
However, these developments have led to regional defoliation, dramatic
extinction of species, massive human suffering, overpopulation, and
misuse and overconsumption of natural and nonrenewable resources,
particularly by industrialized societies. This continued course of
action jeopardizes the natural heritage that God has entrusted to all
generations. Therefore, let us recognize the responsibility of the
church and its members to place a high priority on changes in economic,
political, social, and technological lifestyles to support a more
ecologically equitable and sustainable world leading to a higher quality
of life for all of God's creation.
A)Water
We support and encourage social policies that serve to reduce and
control the creation of industrial byproducts and waste; facilitate the
safe processing and disposal of toxic and nuclear waste and move toward
the elimination of both; encourage reduction of municipal waste; provide
for appropriate recycling and disposal of municipal waste; and assist
the cleanup of polluted air, water, and soil. We support measures
designed to maintain and restore natural ecosystems. We support policies
that develop alternatives to chemicals used for growing, processing,
and preserving food, and we strongly urge adequate research into their
effects upon God's creation prior to utilization. We urge development of
international agreements concerning equitable utilization of the
world's resources for human benefit so long as the integrity of the
earth is maintained.
B)Energy Resources Utilization
Affirming the inherent value of nonhuman creation, we support and
encourage social policies that are directed toward rational and
restrained transformation of parts of the nonhuman world into energy for
human usage and that de-emphasize or eliminate energy-producing
technologies that endanger the health, the safety, and even the
existence of the present and future human and nonhuman creation.
Further, we urge wholehearted support of the conservation of energy and
responsible development of all energy resources, with special concern
for the development of renewable energy sources, that the goodness of
the earth may be affirmed.
C)Animal Life
We support regulations that protect the life and health of animals,
including those ensuring the humane treatment of pets and other domestic
animals, animals used in research, and the painless slaughtering of
meat animals, fish, and fowl. We encourage the preservation of all
animal species including those threatened with extinction.
D)Space
The universe, known and unknown, is the creation of God and is due the respect we are called to give the earth.
E)Science and Technology
We
recognize science as a legitimate interpretation of God’s natural
world. We affirm the validity of the claims of science in describing the
natural world, although we preclude science from making authoritative
claims about theological issues. We recognize technology as a legitimate
use of God’s natural world when such use enhances human life and
enables all of God’s children to develop their God-given creative
potential without violating our ethical convictions about the
relationship of humanity to the natural world.
In acknowledging
the important roles of science and technology, however, we also believe
that theological understandings of human experience are crucial to a
full understanding of the place of humanity in the universe. Science and
theology are complementary rather than mutually incompatible. We
therefore encourage dialogue between the scientific and theological
communities and seek the kind of participation that will enable humanity
to sustain life on earth and, by God’s grace, increase the quality of
our common lives together.
F)Food Safety
We support policies that protect the food supply and that ensure the
public’s right to know the content of the foods they are eating. We call
for rigorous inspections and controls on the biological safety of all
foodstuffs intended for human consumption. We urge independent testing
for chemical residues in food, and the removal from the market of foods
contaminated with potentially hazardous levels of pesticides,
herbicides, or fungicides; drug residues from animal antibiotics,
steroids, or hormones; contaminants due to pollution that are carried by
air, soil, or water from incinerator plants or other industrial
operations. We call for clear labeling of all processed or altered
foods, with premarket safety testing required. We oppose weakening the
standards for organic foods. We call for policies that encourage and
support a gradual transition to sustainable and organic agriculture.
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