Statement of Legislative
Principles
California Church IMPACT
The Rev. Dr. Rick Schlosser, Executive
Director
Elizabeth Sholes, Director of Public
Policy
Phone: (916) 488-7300
Fax: (916) 488-7310
E-mail: impactinfo@calchurches.org
Website: http://www.churchimpact.org/
This statement represents
the present thinking of the Board of Directors of California Church IMPACT,
(hereafter referred to as we) which includes 51 Protestant and Orthodox
judicatories, denominations and affinity groups in California. This statement
reflects the consensus of the California Church IMPACT Board and does not claim
to represent the viewpoints of all church members in California.
PREAMBLE
Our scripture and traditions
proclaim the efforts of God's people to seek harmony with the environment, to
proclaim justice and to learn how to live in peace in the human community.
(Micah 6:8)
We believe that the government,
as a legitimate arm of society, has a special responsibility to promote and
secure the well being of its most vulnerable members.
We recognize the difficulty of
giving specific social application to the truths of our faith, for there will
be honest differences of viewpoint among Christians.
We have therefore sought to
speak to current issues under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, believing that
these principles reflect the will of God as fully as we understand it at this
moment of history.
I. LIBERTIES
A. Religious Liberty
We affirm our support of the
special protection afforded to freedom of worship, freedom of conscience,
freedom of thought and freedom of religion, realizing that these freedoms are
the core of our American heritage and rights.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. maintain
the proper separation of church and state.
2. recognize
that congregations, and all agencies of the denominations are free from any
government secret investigations, surveillance, intimidation or any other acts
that attempt to interfere with God's call to justice and peace.
3. recognize
the privilege of clergy to refuse to disclose penitential communications.
4. guarantee
institutional residents the right to have religious services provided by chaplains
who have met standards of preparation and who are recognized by their
denomination.
5. guarantee
a trained, permanent and continuous civil service chaplaincy for residents of
publicly funded institutions.
We oppose policies that:
1. use
government resources to undo the Constitutional protection of the free exercise
of religion or to interfere with the free exercise of religion.
2. would
impose on all Americans the religious viewpoint of any one denomination or
religious group.
B. Civil Liberties
Freedom of thought, freedom of
association, and the right to privacy are basic to human dignity. Full access
to information, to diverse points of view, to religious, literary and artistic
communication, is essential in a free society.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. provide
the civil rights and equality of all persons in employment, state licensing,
public housing, and public services.
2. protect
the integrity of the family unit by providing necessary economic supports so
that parents are able to care for the basic well being of their children.
3. promote
citizen-supervised procedures for the public review of complaints against law
enforcement agencies.
4. protect
the right of dissent.
We oppose policies that:
1. allow
wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping except under court order in limited
circumstances.
2. allow
the maintenance by government agencies of secret files on lawful organizations
and individuals.
II. CHILDREN
We believe that society bears a
certain responsibility to ensure that every child has access to the benefits of
human provisions of intimate nurture, safety, health care, learning, guidance,
and reasonable economic support.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. protect
children from social, sexual, developmental or economic exploitation.
2. provide
services necessary to ensure placement of a child in a stable, functional home.
3. provide
adequate, convenient quality child care programs with uniform standards for
low-income families.
4. ensure
child support payments by a legally responsible non-custodial parent.
5. provide
programs of diagnosis and treatment for problems of child abuse and neglect.
6. provide
temporary shelters, group homes, foster homes, and other residential treatment
programs for children and youth in need of services.
7. provide
trained advocates for children within the juvenile justice system with the
child's interest in mind.
III. CIVIL RIGHTS
We believe that discrimination
due to age, race, nationality, gender or sexual orientation in employment, education,
housing, banking and the criminal justice system are fundamental civil rights
issues and of deep concern to people of faith.
A. Gender Issues
Both men and women are created
to grow into mature persons who develop their own particular abilities, choose
their own life plans, and accept others in a spirit of cooperation, becoming
both independent and interdependent. We believe that public policies should
encourage women to develop and exercise their full potential as persons created
in the image of God.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. include
women in decision-making roles and change behavior which treats women as
subordinate persons.
2. facilitate
equal rights for women, specifically in these areas:
a. Equal pay for work of comparable value;
b. Protection against sexual harassment at home, in the
work place, and through media and advertising;
c. Affirmative action programs for women;
d. Family leave for both parents;
e. Supportive handling of victims and full prosecution in
rape assault cases;
f. Provision of shelters for battered women and their
children;
g. Job training and placement for displaced homemakers;
h. Credit and loan opportunities;
i. Conversion rights for previously-covered dependents of
group health insurance plans.
B. Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual
and Transgender Persons
Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and
Transgender persons are created in the image of God and are to be treated with
dignity and as valued members of society.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. affirm civil rights and equal protection under the law in housing, health care, and employment.
2. establish
state recognition of domestic partnership, with full legal rights and
responsibilities, as the means for promoting stable, monogamous, life long
relationships among couples of the same gender.
3. advocate
for full state and federal marriage rights for same-gender couples, including
immigration rights, tax rights, and all other rights and privileges guaranteed
to legally married persons by the state and federal governments.
C. Aging
We believe that society has a
responsibility to make adequate provision for aging people.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. ensure
older persons are not deprived of affordable housing.
2. provide
adequate and appropriate health care.
3. support
the right of older persons to employment without discrimination on the basis of
age.
D. Race and Ethnicity
All human beings, regardless of
ethnicity, are created in God's image and represent the full expression of
God's creative diversity.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. respect
treaties and support the rights and opportunities of American Indians,
particularly in relation to their land, water, treaties, culture and religious
heritage.
2. ensure
the rights and opportunities of African, Asian, and Hispanic Americans and all
other racial and ethnic groups to full participation in California life.
3. promote
affirmative action programs for persons of color.
4. support
equal pay for equal work.
5. provide
equal protection under the law and equal access to adequate legal counsel.
E. Disabled Persons
As God's creations, we are
fashioned uniquely; each endowed with individuality of body, mind and spirit.
Each has abilities; each seeks fulfillment and wholeness. Each of us has
disabilities; each knows isolation and incompleteness.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. provide
adequately for the basic needs of persons with mental, developmental, physical
and/or emotional handicapping conditions.
2. bring
down barriers that inhibit persons with disabling conditions to fully
participate in California's social, economic, spiritual, and cultural life.
IV. IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES
We believe that God's love
embraces every member of the human race, and therefore we are called to extend
help to those in need without regard to nationality, ethnic origin, religion,
culture or legal status. "Welcome one another as I have welcomed
you." (Rom 15:7) "I was a stranger and your welcomed me." (Mt.
25:35) Biblical stories relate that encounters with strangers may have divine
significance. Because we believe that all people are made in God's image and
exist under the reign of God, nations and their borders do not claim our
ultimate allegiance. We support policies that promote the value and dignity of
immigrants and refugees, recognizing the many and important contributions they
make to our diverse state.
Therefore, we support policies
that ensure:
1. adequate
housing, nutrition, health care, safe working conditions and schooling for
children on the move.
2. access
for permanent residents to the same benefits citizens receive
3. full
protection of human rights for all.
V. PUBLIC EDUCATION
We affirm the importance of
quality public education for persons in California requiring all levels of
government to comply with constitutional guarantees of equal educational
opportunity for all children, youth and adults. We support the right of free
quality public education for every child in California.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. provide
for preschool child development programs with trained, certified teachers to
ensure that children will be ready for elementary education.
2. provide
funding for reduced class room size in all elementary grades.
3. provide
funding for free before- and after-school programs for students attending
schools which qualify for free and reduced school lunch programs.
4. ensure
that special resources exist so that children may successfully move from grade
to grade.
5. require
teachers to be trained and qualified to teach and be required to demonstrate
competence in the subjects they are assigned to teach.
6. mandate
all classrooms be equipped with current textbooks, technology, instructional
materials and supplies.
7. ensure
that school building are renovated and brought up to basic state and local
building codes.
8. provide
sufficient funding so that each school district may offer equal education to
its students regardless of the level of wealth in the district.
9. allocate
funding for professional and competent counselors for students.
10. allocate
funding for social and health services.
11. promote
equal access to higher education for all by affirmative outreach and support
for students from low income status.
VI. ECONOMIC JUSTICE
A. Employment
We believe that all people are
created in the image of God and have the right to economic resources necessary
to enable them to live with dignity.
Therefore, we support polities
that:
1. ensure
decent, safe jobs with livable wages sufficient to support a household's basic
needs.
2. ensure
adequate protections for vulnerable workers such as seasonal farm workers.
3. ensure
equal employment opportunities for all people without regard to race, age,
creed, national origin or ancestry, gender, martial status, disability, or
sexual orientation.
4. advocate
the right of workers to bargain collectively.
B. Food and Nutrition
We believe that adequate food
and basic nutrition are essential for human existence. It is the responsibility
of society to provide these necessities for low income persons.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. improve
nutrition, especially for children, the elderly and those who are disabled.
2. provide
for distribution of food among the most marginalized.
C. Housing
We believe that everyone has a right
to decent shelter.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. increase
very low, low and moderate income housing development and preservation.
2. enable
renters to become homeowners.
3. provide
funding for transitional housing programs for homeless families and individuals
and adequately fund shelters as a temporary measure for California's homeless
population.
4. provide
adequate, affordable supportive housing for people with mental and physical
disabilities, and the elderly.
D. Public Assistance
We believe that adequate support
services which enable people to move from public assistance to employment must
be created and maintained. When jobs are not available or people are unable to
work, society has a responsibility to provide adequate income for a minimal
living standard.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. provide
quality child care and health care for parents and children which continues
into employment until such time as wages support living costs.
2. provide
adequate job training and employment supports to assist individuals moving from
assistance to livable wage jobs.
3. provide
transportation for people in job training programs.
VII. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The earth is the Lord's and all
that is in it...(Ps. 24:1a) Earth-keeping today means insisting on
sustainability--the ongoing capacity of natural and social systems to thrive
together. This requires human beings to practice wise, humble, responsible
stewardship, after the model of servanthood that we have in Jesus. No
interpretation of justice and sustainability is complete without an emphasis on
frugality as a norm for all, especially the prosperous.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. fund
research to determine population levels that can be adequately sustained.
2. protect
human health and the environment from pollution, particularly in vulnerable
communities.
3. promote
planned urban and regional development with a priority of preserving prime
agricultural land.
4. provide
for balanced, diversified transportation systems.
5. promote energy
conservation and research for alternative energy sources.
6. defend natural resources
from degradation.
We support the principle that
California may establish environmental regulations which are more protective of
human health and the environment than federal laws require.
VIII. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
The world is becoming a holistic
system of interdependent social, economic, and environmental systems. Though
many social, economic and ecological problems can be resolved locally,
regionally, or nationally, an increasing number are transnational in scope, and
demand new expression of human solidarity that defy the political realities of
sovereign independence.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. recognize
human solidarity as essential to a sustainable global economy requiring new
levels of international cooperation and responsibility.
2. recognize
that our global economic interdependence places a premium on coordinated
thought and action that puts a primary focus on just and sustainable human
development.
3. call
for debt cancellation with countries where that public debt is creating
poverty.
IX. CRIMINAL JUSTICE
A. Incarceration
"Then they...will answer,
'Lord, when was it that we saw you...sick or in prison, and did not take care
of you?'" (Matthew 25:44)
We are concerned for people who
are inmates of prisons. A large percentage of these people are poor, people of
color, friendless, young, uneducated, unskilled, and products of unstable
families.
We are concerned for people
employed by federal, state, and local agencies to confine, supervise, and
correct criminal offenders.
We are concerned for the general
public. Most prisoners return to society. Surely it is in the best interest of
our society that these persons return motivated and equipped to live useful and
constructive lives.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. offer
alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders as a viable option to
incarceration.
2. improve
institutional treatment, environment, rehabilitative and correctional programs
at all levels of incarceration.
3. raise
the standards for employment of correctional officers and other personnel to
include psychological screening and appropriate training in the area of human
behavior.
We oppose policies that:
1. incarcerate or house
juvenile offenders with adult inmates.
2. try juveniles as
adults.
B. Restorative Justice
We affirm the concept of
restorative justice which seeks to repair injuries to victims, communities, and
offenders, resulting from crime. Restorative justice requires these parties to
work with government, and be actively engaged in the criminal justice process.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. encourage
community access to institutions of detention in support of the rehabilitation
process of those detained.
2. provide
better services of physical, emotional and financial support of victims of
violent crime.
C. Death Penalty
We believe that capital
punishment cannot be condoned by an interpretation of the Bible based upon the
revelation of God's love in Jesus Christ; that as Christians we must seek the
redemption of evil doers and not their death; and that the use of the death
penalty tends to brutalize the society that condones it.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. abolish the death
penalty.
2. expand the use of
clemency.
We oppose policies that:
1. would expand the use
of the death penalty.
2. criminalize the
poor.
X. GAMBLING
We believe gambling is not a
viable means of raising public revenues and is not a substitute for a progressive
system of taxation.
Therefore, we oppose policies
that:
1. expand legalized
gambling in California.
2. attempt to support
the public structure through gambling & taxes.
XI. HEALTH
A. Health Care
We believe that health and
wholeness are central to the well being of society. In the Christian tradition,
"health" is much more than mere physical well being; it is harmony
and balance in life, encompassing the physical, emotional, and spiritual
dimensions of human existence.
Therefore, we support public
policies that:
1. establish
a universal health care system for all citizens of California and provide
quality health care for every person, a choice of providers, and is focused on
the needs of patients rather than on the profits of health care institutions.
2. provide
adequate substance abuse treatment for those persons who cannot afford it.
3. view
gun violence as a public health epidemic and seek to curtail the production and
sale of all weapons designed to harm human life.
B. Abortion
We endorse the 1973 decision of
the U.S. Supreme Court on abortion recognizing the responsibility of the state
to protect the life and health of the woman and of fetal life.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. provide public
funding for access to reproductive health care.
2. provide
accessibility to abortion services for low-income women.
We oppose policies that:
1. seek
to restrict or limit the legal option of abortion for any woman who, in
consultation with her physician, chooses to exercise her right to that option.
2. require
parental consent for reproductive health care.
C. End of Life Issues
We affirm the right of all
persons to die with dignity.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. encourage
doctors and their patients to openly discuss medical issues surrounding the end
of life.
2. empower
patients to make appropriate decisions about living wills and pain management
in consultation with appropriate medical professionals.
D. Stem Cell Research
Because we believe that health and healing are fundamental parts of our faith, and because the outcomes of stem cell research are as yet undetermined but hold enormous promise for the eradication of many diseases and afflictions, we recognize the importance of stem cell research to ascertain possible medical therapies and to prevent cell-related diseases,
Therefore we support public policies that:
1. Provide funding for research that uses adult, cord blood, and donated embryonic cells including the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer (therapeutic cloning).
We oppose policies that:
1. Fund or permit the implanting of cloned eggs to produce human fetuses.
XII. GOVERNMENT AND THE
PUBLIC
A. Tax Reform, the State
Budget, and State Investments
The annual state budget is the
collective public instrument which is vitally important in addressing many of
the problems of our society. The state budget is a statement of our values and
is the fiscal avenue for addressing challenges to the common good.
Therefore, we support policies
that provide:
1. adequate
funding for programs that will help all of California's population live as
contributing citizens in a just society.
2. safeguards
to prevent waste and irresponsible spending.
3. tax
reforms to ensure that all citizens pay a fair and equitable tax in accordance
with their ability to pay.
4. ensure
that the investment of public and private funds honor human rights and peace
with justice in local, national, and global markets.
We oppose policies that:
1. Permanently encumber, through initiative or referendum, present or future general fund revenues or revenue streams for single programs.
B. Campaign Finance Reform
The influence of money in
political campaigns and abuses of the campaign laws has become a grave concern
for California's citizens.
Therefore, we support policies
that:
1. seek
to improve the election process.
2. allow
a combination of public and private funding to finance campaigns.
3. provide
incentives for free political advertising as a community service by local TV,
radio, and print media
4. designate
a state income tax check-off system for a specified amount for political
campaigns.