A Social Creed for the 21^st Century

Catholics, concerned with social justice and with creating awareness of the relationship between religion, liturgy and peace and justice activism, owe a debt of gratitude to Methodists and other Christian Churches who have sponsored what is referred to as a Social Creed since the first one was produced in 1908. The Social Creed was a product of the Social Gospel movement among Protestant Churches, which was particularly strong in the first two decades of the twentieth century. 

Walter Rauschenbusch, a Baptist minister of German descent, was a powerful force in the Social Gospel movement. He was trained in economics and theology at the University of Berlin.  When he ministered in an area of Manhattan known as Hells Kitchen, Rauschenbusch was appalled at the brutal working conditions imposed on factory workers who were mainly German and Irish. He witnessed dangerous work places, overcrowded tenements, unsanitary conditions, unemployment, poverty, and abuse of alcohol. He denounced “godless capitalism” in terms not unlike those used by Pope John Paul 11 in his condemnations of “raw capitalism” almost a century later. Rauschenbusch attacked individualistic religion and argued that anyone “who uncouples the religious and social life has not understood Jesus.” Martin Luther King Jr., declared that he was deeply influenced by Rauschenbusch’s Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907).

The thrust of the Social Gospel movement, in which other Protestant denominations and ministers were involved, was to work for all round social improvement which they tended to identify with the Kingdom of God on earth and they all argued, as John Wesley had done, for an inseparable relationship between individual and social holiness. Given the social convictions and concerns with which Wesley had imbued Methodism, it is no surprise that Methodists took a leadership role in the Social Gospel movement.  In 1908 The Methodist Federation for Social Service (formed in 1907) convened a General Conference on the social crisis and the report that resulted “The Church and Social Problems” contained an eleven point summary that soon became known as the Social Creed.

The summary began “The Methodist Episcopal church stands- For equal rights and complete justice for all men in all stations of life.”  It called for the abolition of child labor and the sweating system” (sweat shops). Demands were made for “a release from employment one day in seven” and for a “living wage in every industry.”

The Federal Council of Churches representing 33 denominations soon adopted a slightly enlarged version that became known as “The Social Creed of the Churches.”

During the one hundred years of its existence the Social Creed has been expanded, and new issues have been added as they emerged. In 1939 respect for conscientious objection to war was included and later, denunciations of discrimination based on class, race or gender were included.  This makes the Creed a living document with continuing social relevance as times and conditions evolve

A version for the 21^st century.

In celebration of 100 years of the United Methodist Social Creed the General Conference published a new version on May 2, 2008.

This new version is arranged for use at worship services with music provided for a sung version.  Here is the text:

God in the Spirit revealed in Jesus Christ

calls us by grace

To be renewed in the image of our creator,

That we may be one

In divine love for the world

Response:And so shall we.

 

Today is the day

God cares for the integrity of creation,

wills the healing and wholeness of all life,

weeps at the plunder of earth’s goodness.

And so shall we.

 

Today is the day God embraces all hues of humanity,

delights in diversity and difference,

favors solidarity transforming strangers into friends.

And so shall we.

 

Today is the day

God cries with the masses of starving people,

despises growing disparity between rich and poor,

demands justice for workers in the marketplace.

And so shall we.

 

Today is the day

God deplores the violence in our homes and streets,

rebukes the world’s warring madness,

 humbles the powerful and lifts up the lowly.

And so shall we.

 

Today is the day

God calls for nations and peoples to live in peace,

celebrates where justice and mercy embrace,

exults when the wolf grazes with the lamb.

And so shall we.

 

Today is the day

God brings good news to the poor,

proclaims release to the captives,

gives sight to the blind, and sets the oppressed free.

And so shall we.

(    Text available at: www.umc-gbcs.org)

I have used this creed at Mass on a few occasions and many people found it refreshing and inspiring.  Unlike the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creeds which are affirmations of faith, this Creed might be described as a praxis– creed that is oriented to social action and social holiness.  A social creed, biblically and theologically inspired, is entirely appropriate in a communal meal recalling the death and resurrection of Jesus, who was politically challenging because of his emphasis on inclusive community and justice for children, women, outcasts and all the oppressed.  Participants in the Eucharist are transformed and are meant to carry a transforming message into their communities and beyond.

National Council of Churches

The National Council of Churches, successor since 1950 to the Federal Council of Churches, has also issued a new social creed describing it as “a message of hope for a fearful time.”  In an era of globalization they offer a “vision of a society that shares more and consumes less, seeks compassion over suspicion and equality over domination, and finds security in joined hands rather than massed arms.”

The NCC Creed is also titled “A Social Creed for the 21^st Century” and it resembles the Methodist Creed in some respects but it also has a pronounced globalization dimension and states the social issues in a clear, more blunt fashion. Here is the text:

In faith, responding to our Creator, we celebrate the full humanity of each woman, man, and child, all created in the divine image as individuals of infinite worth, by working for:

• Full civil, political and economic rights for women and men of all races.
• Abolition of forced labor, human trafficking, and all the exploitation of children.
• Employment for all, at a family-sustaining living-wage, with equal pay for comparable work.
• The rights of workers to organize, and to share in workplace decisions and productivity growth.
• Protection from dangerous working conditions, with time and benefits to enable full family life.
• A system of criminal rehabilitation, based on restorative justice and an end to the death penalty.

In the love incarnate in Jesus, despite the world’s sufferings and evils, we honor the deep connections within our human family and seek to awaken a new spirit of community, by working for:

• Abatement of hunger and poverty, and enactment of policies benefiting the most vulnerable.
• High quality public education for all and universal, affordable and accessible healthcare.
• An effective program of social security during sickness, disability and old age.
• Tax and budget policies that reduce disparities between rich and poor, strengthen democracy, and provide greater opportunity for everyone within the common good.
• Just immigration policies that protect family unity, safeguard workers rights, require employer accountability, and foster international cooperation.
• Sustainable communities marked by affordable housing, access to good jobs, and public safety.
• Public service as a high vocation, with real limits on the power of private interests in politics.

In hope sustained by the Holy Spirit, we pledge to be peacemakers in the world and stewards of God’s good creation, by working for:

• Adoption of simpler lifestyles for those who have enough:  grace over greed in economic life.
• Access for all to clean air and water and healthy food, through wise care of land and technology.
• Sustainable use of earth’s resources, promoting alternative energy sources and public transportation with binding covenants to reduce global warming and protect populations most affected.
• Equitable global trade and aid that protects local economies, cultures and livelihoods.

(Text available at: www.nccusa.org/news/ga2007.socialcreed.html)

(Cited with permission.)

Comment

Readers will notice that neither social creed mentions the sexual issues: abortion, homosexuality, birth control, remarriage after divorce without an annulment (a predominantly Catholic concern), or stem cell research, and wisely so.  These issues are highly divisive both within and between religious communities. They often function as wedge issues and make major social issues invisible.  In the Catholic Church, constant reiteration of the sexual agenda, particularly harsh and absolute condemnations of direct abortion and any use of the most primitive stem cells for medical research, convinces many that these are the only issues Catholics care about, and the broad range of social justice issues, addressed over a period of one hundred years, goes ignored or is even unknown.  And this, in turn, leads Catholics in some countries to turn elections into referendums on the single issue of abortion and often one sees the election of candidates who ignore global climate disruption, degradation of the environment,  who are defenders of preventive war, even torture, and who promote policies favorable to the rich and powerful while ignoring burning issues like poverty, lack of health care, lack of affordable housing, and the payment of wages that are far from living wage standards. And because of calling themselves ‘right to life’ these candidates win approval from those for whom abortion is the issue while promoting policies and legislation that increase the immiseration of women and actually increase the incidence  of abortions often resorted to in situations of desperation.

At present around 30% of U.S. legislators in both houses are Catholic, followed by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Jews with a few Muslims and Buddhists. If legislators, of whatever religion, were regularly exposed to the recitation of a social creed in worship services, then without violating in any way the separation of Church and State, legislators would feel impelled to favor policies serving the common good with a preferential option for the poor.  Of course, this would have to be attempted against the wishes of profit-oriented interests, especially corporations and their stock holders, whose voting patterns are often determined by the desire for ever-increasing profit, the very central, iron law of capitalism. Recitation of a social creed on a regular basis while at worship would at least raise consciousness on social concerns and would challenge the authenticity of the privatized religious practice and orientation that are all too common even among devout believers.

 

A Social Creed for Catholics and World Religions?

If relationships between the Churches had been warm rather than hostile in the first 50 years of the 20^th century perhaps Catholics, too, would have developed their own social creed.  If they had done so after Rerum Novarum, and if they had revised and extended it after each subsequent significant social document from the papacy, council, synod or bishops’ conference, Catholic Social Teaching would be better known today and no longer perhaps described as “our best kept secret.”

At least now, Catholics should give serious thought to adopting one of the existing social creeds from our Protestant friends (with permission and acknowledgement), or a common creed suitable for worship could be created in joint exercises between major religious bodies not exclusively Christian churches.  Jews and Christians share the legacy of First Testament Scriptures, especially the prophetic books, which are social in ways that are still profoundly relevant. It has been observed that concern for justice is treated as the religious equivalent of a sacrament in Islam.

All the major world religions contain social messages that have much in common.  Religious social creeds would inspire not only better relations between adherents, but they would inspire billions of believers to address the planetary issue of global warming and degradation of the environment, and also global issues like world hunger, poverty, disease, especially HIV-AIDS and malaria.  Religious creeds, addressing peace making through working for justice, would provide powerful witness against war, torture and violence in all its forms, especially violence against women and children.  Incorporating social creeds into worship services and the social agendas of all religions, would supplement the great work being done by the World Council of Churches and would counter the false impression that religion is a force making for violence and division, and the view some, even some believers, hold that religions are in competition with each other rather than divergent ways of serving the Divine Mystery by promoting the well being of persons especially the poor, vulnerable and oppressed of the world. The glory of the Divine Mystery is human persons fully alive in communities transformed and at peace.

I wish to thank the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society for permission to cite the new Creed for the 21^st Century.

Fr Paul Surlis

1684 Albemarle Drive

Crofton, MD 21114.

Paul Surlis taught Catholic Social Teaching and theologies of liberation at St. John’s University, New York (1975-2000). He is now retired.

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