Selections from the Book of Order and Book of Confessions

The TPPC Session reflected on selections from the Book of Order and Book of Confessions before voting on items related to the War with Iraq. These reading are produced below, together with a statement from the 181st General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church.

Selection from the Book of Order

God sends the church in the power of the Holy Spirit to share with Christ in establishing God's just, peaceable, and loving rule in the world. (G-3.0300) God's reconciliation in Jesus Christ is the ground of justice and peace. (Conf. 1967 9.45) The church in worship proclaims, receives, and enacts reconciliation in Jesus Christ and commits itself to strive for justice and peace in its own life and in the world.

Justice is the order God sets in human life for fair and honest dealing and for giving rights to those who have no power to claim rights for themselves. The biblical vision of doing justice calls for

dealing honestly in personal public business,
exercising power for the common good,
supporting people who seek the dignity, freedom, and respect that they have been denied,
working for fair laws and just administration of the law,
welcoming the stranger in the land,
seeking to overcome the disparity between rich and poor,
bearing witness against political oppression and exploitation,
redressing wrongs against individuals, groups, and peoples in the church, in this nation, and in the whole world.

There is no peace without justice. Wherever there is brokenness, violence, and injustice the people of god are called to peacemaking

in the Church universal fragmented and separated by histories and cultures, in denominations internally polarized by mutual distrust, and in congregations plagued by dissension and conflict;
in the world where nations place national security above all else, where the zealotry of religion, race, or ideology explodes in violence, and where the lust for getting and keeping economic or political power erupts in rioting or war;
in communities racked by crime and fear, in schools and workplaces marked by vicious competition and rebellion against order, and in households and families divided against themselves, scarred by violence and paralyzed by fear.

Selection from the Book of Confessions

God's reconciliation in Jesus Christ is the ground of the peace, justice, and freedom among nations which all powers of government are called to serve and defend. The church, in its own life, is called to practice the forgiveness of enemies and to commend to the nations as practical politics the search for cooperation and peace. This search requires that the nations pursue fresh and responsible relations across every line of conflict, even at risk to national security, to reduce areas of strife and to broaden international understanding. Reconciliation among nations becomes peculiarly urgent as countries develop nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, diverting their manpower and resources from constructive uses and risking the annihilation of mankind. Although nations may serve God's purposes in history, the church which identifies the sovereignty of any one nation or in any one way of life with the cause of God denies the Lordship of Christ and betrays its calling.

From 181st General Assembly (1969)

"The United Presbyterian Church does not teach a single response to war, which all members must accept, for God alone is Lord of the conscience, and not the state or church. God is the Lord of the conscience of those who, in good faith and sensitive spirit, conclude that military power must sometimes be employed to establish the preconditions for justice, order and freedom. God is also Lord of the conscience of those who conclude that they cannot support military action because they judge either that it is antithetical to order and justice or against the teachings of the gospel.

Both of these - the agonized participant in war and the pacifist who objects to war - can draw equally upon the Church's teachings in support of their position. And it is also clear that a third group - individuals who abject to particular wars which they judge to be unjust or unconscionable - are entitled to appeal to the teachings of the Church as the foundation of their moral stand. God is the Lord of conscience, not only of a participant in war for moral reasons, or the objector to all war on pacifist grounds, but also of those who conclude that a particular conflict is morally unconscionable and indefensible."

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