Advocacy: Living a Public Faith

Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the United Nations

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“We are ambas­sadors for Christ.” Those words took on new mean­ing for me on March 11, 2011—when a tsunami and earth­quake hit Japan.

The Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the United Nations has two pri­mary tasks. We inspire and equip Pres­by­te­ri­ans for global dis­ci­ple­ship fol­low­ing Jesus Christ. We advo­cate for peace and jus­tice in Christ’s name within the UN com­mu­nity, guided by the poli­cies of the Pres­by­ter­ian Gen­eral Assembly.

Build­ing rela­tion­ships plays a key role in our work. Our min­istry involves vis­it­ing, lis­ten­ing, and net­work­ing with Pres­by­te­ri­ans and with UN pro­grams and agencies.

As I strug­gled on March 11 to come to terms with the pre­lim­i­nary reports of the dev­as­ta­tion the tsunami caused in Japan, I real­ized yet another dimen­sion to relationship-building min­istry. The Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the United Nations rep­re­sents the Pres­by­ter­ian Church (U.S.A), rep­re­sents the Church of Jesus Christ, within the UN com­mu­nity. Upon arriv­ing at the office, my col­league Ryan Smith and I com­posed and sent a brief fax:

His Excel­lency Ambas­sador Tsu­neo Nishida
Per­ma­nent Mis­sion of Japan to the United Nations

Ambas­sador Nishida:

Pres­by­te­ri­ans across the United States hold the peo­ple of Japan in our thoughts and prayers in the after­math of the earth­quake and tsunami. We grieve for the peo­ple who have been killed or injured. We trust that the spirit and strength of the peo­ple of Japan will pre­vail as your coun­try recov­ers and rebuilds.

Since that day, our min­istry has sent sim­i­lar mes­sages to mem­ber states that have known deep sor­row and to UN pro­grams that have had staff mem­bers killed in the line of duty.

We are Christ’s ambas­sadors. All of us. Wher­ever we are. Jesus came into the world not because God loved the church but because God so loved the world (John 3:16). Jesus calls and sends us into the world to live as his disciples.

A Pub­lic Faith
There are three dimen­sions to life as Christ’s ambas­sadors: per­sonal, com­mu­nal, and public.

Rooted in the affir­ma­tion that God is God of all of life, Reformed Chris­tians under­stand that fol­low­ing Jesus involves a deep, per­sonal spir­i­tual life of prayer—scripture read­ing, study and other spir­i­tual dis­ci­plines. Fol­low­ing Jesus involves a com­mit­ted, com­mu­nal spir­i­tual life—worshiping together, break­ing bread, shar­ing the cup, tak­ing part in the com­mu­nity. And, fol­low­ing Jesus involves an engaged, pub­lic spir­i­tual life—going into the world guided by our faith and engag­ing in polit­i­cal processes to help shape the poli­cies that guide our life together in our com­mu­ni­ties, our coun­try, and the global neigh­bor­hood. Acknowl­edg­ing the impor­tance of all three dimen­sions, let us focus for a moment on our pub­lic spir­i­tual life.

Exam­ples of peo­ple liv­ing their faith pub­licly fill the pages of scrip­ture. Con­sider three examples.

Joseph stored grain in Egypt for the com­ing famine (Gen­e­sis 41:37–57).

Jesus crossed the bound­aries of his day to wel­come all into com­mu­nity; he drove the mon­ey­chang­ers from the tem­ple; he taught by word and deed that God makes us for love and for each other.

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Pharaoh ordered death. Shiphrah and Puah responded with one of the first recorded acts of civil dis­obe­di­ence. Defy­ing the Pharaoh, Shiphrah and Puah prac­ticed a pub­lic faith.
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And there are Shiphrah and Puah,[1] the Hebrew mid­wives in Egypt. When the Pharaoh became threat­ened by the Hebrew peo­ple, he decided to elim­i­nate them. He instructed Shiphrah and Puah, “When you act as mid­wives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth-stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.”

Pharaoh ordered death. Shiphrah and Puah responded with one of the first recorded acts of civil dis­obe­di­ence. They refused to kill the babies and even came up with an expla­na­tion: “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egypt­ian women; for they are vig­or­ous and give birth before the mid­wife comes to them.”

Eric Law notes that as mid­wives, Shiphrah and Puah were “to bring lives into the world, not destroy them.”[2] Con­fronted by Pharaoh’s order, they refused. Defy­ing the Pharaoh, Shiphrah and Puah prac­ticed a pub­lic faith.

A His­tory of Hon­or­ing God in the Pub­lic Realm
Jesus’ peo­ple have done the same through the years. This is par­tic­u­larly true of those of us who stand in the Reformed tra­di­tion. We trace our the­o­log­i­cal roots to John Calvin. Calvin under­stood that God calls us and expects us to live a pub­lic faith.

As J. Her­bert Nel­son, direc­tor of the Pres­by­ter­ian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Pub­lic Wit­ness, wrote, Calvin believed “that the Church had a respon­si­bil­ity, on behalf of the gov­erned, to assist gov­ern­ment to become what God required it to be… The Church had a respon­si­bil­ity to pro­vide guid­ance to polit­i­cal lead­ers and struc­tures in an effort to assist them in the imple­men­ta­tion of Godly lead­er­ship.”[3] For Calvin every­thing in the pub­lic realm, be it com­mu­nity san­i­ta­tion or car­ing for refugees who arrived in Geneva, was an occa­sion to honor God.[4]

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Sooner or later, we real­ize that it is not enough sim­ply to bind up those who are wounded and left along the Jeri­cho roads of life. We have to address the con­di­tions that con­tribute to peo­ple being wounded. We have to live a pub­lic faith in the realm of pol­icy and advo­cacy: per­haps a neigh­bor­hood watch or improved light­ing or address­ing the eco­nomic con­di­tions that lead
peo­ple to rob.
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Spir­i­tual descen­dants of Calvin have fol­lowed his exam­ple. In our coun­try, John With­er­spoon helped orga­nize the Pres­by­ter­ian Church and had some­thing to do with a sem­i­nary in New Jer­sey. He also signed the Dec­la­ra­tion of independence—the only clergy per­son to do so. Stated Clerk Gradye Par­sons points out that, at the first Pres­by­ter­ian Gen­eral Assem­bly in 1789, com­mis­sion­ers approved a let­ter to Pres­i­dent Wash­ing­ton that “expressed their delight at his appoint­ment to the ‘first office in the nation.’”[5]

Pres­by­te­ri­ans have not always agreed with one another, but we have cared deeply about serv­ing God and neigh­bors in all of life. For us, engage­ment in issues of pub­lic pol­icy and gov­ern­men­tal deci­sions is never merely pol­i­tics, never sim­ply eco­nom­ics. It is a way we love our neigh­bors as our­selves; a way we answer Christ’s call.

We live a pub­lic faith. From PTAs and ser­vice clubs to congregation-based com­mu­nity orga­niz­ing groups to school boards, county com­mis­sions, city coun­cils, state assem­blies, and the Fed­eral gov­ern­ment, Pres­by­te­ri­ans serve. We engage in pub­lic wit­ness and civil dis­obe­di­ence. We chal­lenge cul­tural norms that deny our sis­ters and broth­ers the full­ness of life that God intends. And we advocate—calling gov­ern­ments and cor­po­ra­tions and other groups to become what God requires them to be.

Global Dis­ci­ples
Liv­ing a pub­lic faith does not stop at the bor­ders of this coun­try. Our con­cerns extend around God’s world. Christ’s call is a call to global discipleship.

As global dis­ci­ples, we inter­act with the United Nations. For prac­ti­cal and the­o­log­i­cal rea­sons, Pres­by­te­ri­ans have taken the United Nations seri­ously even from before its inception.

Prac­ti­cally
World events raise eth­i­cal and moral con­cerns that call the church to respond.

As we wit­ness to Christ around the world, events and poli­cies impinge on our mission.

In his Let­ter from a Birm­ing­ham Jail, the Rev. Dr. Mar­tin Luther King, Jr., reminded us that, we live in a web of rela­tion­ships: “What­ever affects one directly, affects all indi­rectly.”[6]

Sooner or later, we real­ize that it is not enough sim­ply to bind up those who are wounded and left along the Jeri­cho roads of life. We have to address the con­di­tions that con­tribute to peo­ple being wounded. We have to live a pub­lic faith in the realm of pol­icy and advo­cacy: per­haps a neigh­bor­hood watch or improved light­ing or address­ing the eco­nomic con­di­tions that lead peo­ple to rob.[7]

The­o­log­i­cally
We believe God is sov­er­eign, and God of all of life. We believe that our faith guides and shapes our liv­ing in all its dimen­sions. We believe that all peo­ple have inher­ent dig­nity and worth because they are God’s chil­dren, made in God’s image; that all peo­ples and races are equal in God’s sight; and that cre­ation is God’s, entrusted to our care. Our call­ing is to work, as God’s grace enables us, to make real those affir­ma­tions. We believe that we embody love as we seek to estab­lish justice.

We believe that the Bib­li­cal state­ment, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), is proven every day by each of us and by every human insti­tu­tion. We also believe that God sends Jesus with a mes­sage of redemp­tion, peace, and jus­tice. God invites us to wit­ness to God’s rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in a bro­ken and fear­ful world.[8]

Inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion and insti­tu­tions
Grounded in that the­ol­ogy, rec­og­niz­ing the inter­con­nected real­ity of the world, Pres­by­te­ri­ans have long sup­ported inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion and insti­tu­tions. Even as World War II began, Pres­by­te­ri­ans joined con­ver­sa­tions about the shape of the world after the war. Pres­by­ter­ian Elder John Fos­ter Dulles chaired the Com­mis­sion on a Just and Durable Peace of the Fed­eral Coun­cil of Churches. The Com­mis­sion made a num­ber of rec­om­men­da­tions about the future United Nations, includ­ing that it should empha­size jus­tice, human wel­fare, and human rights includ­ing reli­gious free­dom. It also called for mem­ber­ship for all coun­tries, a com­mis­sion to over­see the progress of colonies to free­dom, and the lim­i­ta­tion and reduc­tion of arms.[9] In 1943, the Gen­eral Assem­bly of the Pres­by­ter­ian Church in the United States of Amer­ica sug­gested the cre­ation of an inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tion that would serve human­ity, stating:

We believe that inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion should be orga­nized to pre­serve peace, main­tain inter­na­tional law, pro­vide adap­ta­tions to chang­ing con­di­tions, and that it should be directed towards cul­ti­vat­ing the will to peace and progress.”[10]

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The Pres­by­ter­ian Church has been present as a non­govern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion at the UN since its begin­ning. At that point in time, there were 51 Mem­bers States. Now there are 193. Pon­der that for a moment. We have been a part of the UN com­mu­nity for longer than over 2/3rds of the cur­rent Mem­ber States.
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As post-war plans con­tin­ued, the Pres­by­ter­ian Church engaged in a cam­paign of edu­ca­tion and advo­cacy that included con­fer­ences in sixty cities. Shortly before the United Nations con­fer­ence on inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tion (cre­at­ing the UN Char­ter) met in San Fran­cisco in April 1945, the mod­er­a­tor of the Gen­eral Assem­bly sent a telegram to every church call­ing for prayer and empha­siz­ing the need for an inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tion to work for peace.[11]

John Fos­ter Dulles served as a prin­ci­pal advi­sor to the U.S. del­e­ga­tion at that con­fer­ence. He and oth­ers from the faith-based and sec­u­lar NGO com­mu­nity helped draft the pre­am­ble to the UN Char­ter. The char­ter included many rec­om­men­da­tions made by the Com­mis­sion that Dulles had chaired. Dulles worked with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of other non­govern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions to ensure a role for NGOs in rela­tion to the UN.[12]

The Pres­by­ter­ian Church has been present as a non­govern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion at the UN since its begin­ning. At that point in time, there were 51 Mem­bers States. Now there are 193. Pon­der that for a moment. We have been a part of the UN com­mu­nity for longer than over 2/3rds of the cur­rent Mem­ber States.

Our Call­ing
Pres­by­te­ri­ans take part in min­istry related to the UN as indi­vid­u­als, as con­gre­ga­tions, mid­dle gov­ern­ing bod­ies, and as a denom­i­na­tion. We pray for the United Nations, the nations of the world, and issues of inter­na­tional import. We come to the Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the United Nations for sem­i­nars to learn about issues God has placed on our hearts. We Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF (a pro­gram Pres­by­te­ri­ans helped to cre­ate). We arrange meet­ings for our mis­sion part­ners with UN pro­grams and national mis­sions to the UN. We par­tic­i­pate in cam­paigns such as the Red Hands Cam­paign to address the use of chil­dren in sit­u­a­tions in armed conflict.

And we advo­cate. With ecu­meni­cal, inter­faith, and sec­u­lar part­ners, and guided by poli­cies of the Pres­by­ter­ian Gen­eral Assem­bly, we advo­cate within the UN com­mu­nity for peace and jus­tice and the well-being of the human fam­ily and God’s cre­ation. Read “Around the Global Round­table” by Ryan D. Smith, Pres­by­ter­ian Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the United Nations. In that arti­cle, Ryan details the mechan­ics of the United Nations, the Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the UN, and ways for peo­ple to get involved.

As fol­low­ers of Jesus, we seek a world where all are fed—where the human rights and per­sons of all are hon­ored and protected—where swords are beaten into plow­shares. We live in a world where chil­dren hunger, dis­ease stalks, peo­ple are made vul­ner­a­ble and exploited, wars rage, rumors of war abound, oppres­sion grinds, peo­ple sit unem­ployed and under­em­ployed, and cre­ation groans.

Our call­ing is to join God’s work of chang­ing that real­ity. It will not come easy. It may not come soon. But it is the call­ing of peo­ple of faith—the call­ing of Joseph, of Jesus, of Shiphrah and Puah. Our calling.

For that call­ing, God in Christ has gifted us with a faith that is at one and the same time per­sonal, com­mu­nal, and pub­lic. For the ways we live that faith, thanks be to God.

LEARN MORE—Get involved

Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the United Nations
Read Ryan D. Smith’s expla­na­tion of advo­cacy at the UN: “Around the Global Round­table“
Web page: www.pcusa.org/un
Swords into Plow­shares blog: www.pcusa.org/swords-plowshares
Face­book page: www.facebook.com/PresbyterianMinistryUN
Twit­ter: @PresbyUN
Call (212) 697‑4568 to arrange a sem­i­nar.
Visit the min­istry: 777 U.N. Plaza, 1st Ave. and E. 44th St., 7th floor, New York City