Past and Present, The Church Speaks on Economic Matters and New Challenges

Economic Crisis: We Have Been Here Before
The Church has faced economic crisis before. This policy review examines social witness policy affirmations from previous General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that address topics identified for study and recommendation by the 219^th General Assembly (2010). Those topics are contained in “Living Through Economic Crisis,” A Social Involvement Report included in Unbound, Vol. 1 Sept/Oct. It is the usual practice of the Assembly to draw on earlier wisdom when possible; in the current economic crisis, we look particularly to the Church’s reflections during the “Great Depression” of 1930’s and period of de-industrialization of the late 1970’s into the mid-1980’s. At the same time, a policy review also seeks to identify new areas unaddressed by earlier Assemblies or in need of up-dating. That work of updating was explicitly done in terms of the broad “social contract” of the United States in “A Social Creed for the 21^st Century,” adopted in 2008 in the Centennial year of the first ecumenical social creed.[1] The Presbyterian Church’s national programmatic response to concerns for the working and immigrant poor dates back to 1903, with the formation of the Workingmen’s Department, so today’s call to apply the Gospel to a new kind of economic crisis for both society and church has much to draw upon.

The Reformed Ethos in the Church’s 20^th Century Economic Witness
Calvin’s views are frequently cited, often drawing on the definitive work of Swiss scholar Andre Bieler, to indicate the tradition’s deeply biblical and post-feudal approaches to vocation, money (and usury), commerce and government.[2] The accountability of all power to the common good or whole society is to be embodied in democratic structures, particularly in political life, but the 20^th Century statements produced by the Church also track the growth in the power of industry, the market, and corporations, and corresponding changes needed in the role of government and witness of the church. The roles of other institutions are sometimes noted, but none are seen to play the government’s overarching role in social protection and correcting for business cycle and other market limitations.

The Industrial Revolution
Presbyterians responded to the industrial revolution, in part, by leading it, and the names of Presbyterian industrialists like Andrew Carnegie remain etched on church plaques in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, and many other cities. At the same time, Presbyterians were active in the Social Gospel movement of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, in opposition to Social Darwinism, and in social reform movements; the longtime head of the Socialist Party, Norman Thomas, came out of the Presbyterian pastorate. The General Assembly’s initial ethical statements in the 20^th Century were made in conjunction with the ecumenical movement, as in the adoption of the Social Creed and subsequent updating of it, particularly the 1932 version. Alongside the movements of moral welfare (prohibition, anti-gambling, Sabbath-preservation), women’s suffrage, and anti-lynching efforts in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and the United Presbyterian Church in North America (which united in 1958), the ecumenical movement kept a witness for what became social security, workplace safety regulation and the end of child labor. The mainline Protestant and historic African-American churches kept up their advocacy for these economic reform measures from the turn of the century through their successful enactments in the 1930’s and 1940’s, joining with Roman Catholic leaders at times in support of workers’ rights to organize.[3]