Social Creed of the CME Church

Our Heritage

The concern of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church for the social well-being of humankind springs from the act of God in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Gospel, and from the life and witness of John Wesley and other fathers of Methodism who ministered to the physical, intellectual, and social needs of the people to whom they preached the gospel of personal redemption.

The interest and activity of the CME Church in the improvement of the human condition parallels the very history of our Church. In the opening editorial of the Gospel Trumpet published in 1897, Bishop Lucius H. Holsey stated that its purpose would be to “discuss without hesitation, any phase of the civic, social, and those economic and political questions that may affect the well-being of the Church and race.” This policy of active participation in the solution of social problems has not been restricted to literary and journalistic endeavor. It can be seen in the individual contributions of some of the leaders of our church during its history— Lucius H. Holsey, Isaac Lane, C. H. Phillips, Randall A. Carter, J. A. Hamlett, J. A. Bray, J. A. Martin, and Channing H. Tobias. It can be seen in those official programs and practices at the local, regional and national levels that were designed to eradicate crime, disease, ignorance, poverty and racial injustice. It has been demonstrated by unknown thousands who are members of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church as they have resisted oppression, and pursued liberty and justice for all humankind.

This is the historical tradition that undergirds and challenges our accomplishments in this day.

Theological Perspective

We believe that the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is a part of the body of Christ, and that it must express itself in the world in the light of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught us many things both by word and example—to be concerned for the welfare and the well-being of others, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to be concerned for justice. For the Church to be silent in the face of need, injustice, and exploitation is to deny the Lord of the Church.

We believe “out of one blood God made all the nations who dwell on the face of the earth,” that Jesus is most uniquely His Son, that all persons are brothers and sisters, and each person is of infinite worth, and a child of God. Thus, to exploit, to dehumanize any person through pride or arrogance is thoroughly unbiblical and unchristian.

We believe that all things come from God —the earth and its fullness, our own capacities and all we possess. We believe that all things should be held and used in joyous stewardship to Him to help God in His redemptive purpose in the world. The Church, then, must always be in the world actively obeying God’s purpose for it. As a redeemed and redeeming fellowship, the Church must seek to serve and save society. This redemption is a continuing necessity.

We also test all institutions and practices by their effect upon persons. Since Jesus died for the redemption of all people, we believe that we should help save them from sin and from every evil influence which would harm or destroy them.

We believe that whatever is of interest and concern to the people— physical, intellectual, social, economic, and political — should also be of interest and concern to the Church. Primary among such concern should be an emphasis on the family as the foundational institution of care and nurture. The purpose of our worship is to prepare the participants for their divinely ordained redemptive witness in every place and circumstance.

Economic Life

With full acknowledgment of stewardship under God and accountability to Him, we stand for the acquisition of property by moral processes and the right to private ownership thereof. We are thus obligated to evaluate each aspect of every economic order by the commands of Christ and judge its practices by the Christian gospel.

We believe that it is not only our duty to bring Christ to the individual, but also to bring the increasingly technological society in which we live more nearly into conformity with the teachings of Christ.

(a) Inflation. The Christian community is concerned with maintaining economic stability. We affirm that there exists a fundamental ethical challenge in inflation itself. We believe that inflation is detrimental to equality and casts an uneven burden upon our citizens, the greatest burden often falling upon those who are weakest politically and economically.

(b) Health Services. We stand for the provision of adequate medical care for all people, with special attention being given to the aging, the young, and low-income individuals and groups. We support our government, individuals, and foundations in required research in public health; and we support legislation to meet these needs.

We believe that adequate support and appropriate accommodations must be made available for persons who are physically and/or mentally challenged.

(c) Wages and Working Conditions. Free collective bargaining has proved its values in our free society whenever the parties engaged in collective bargaining have acted in good faith to reach equitable and moral solutions of problems dealing with wages and working conditions. We do not support the opinion voiced in some quarrels that strikes should be made illegal. To declare strikes illegal would be to deprive workers of their right to collective action and, even more seriously, would place in the hands of government the power to force workers to remain on the job.

(d) Automation. Through automation a greater number of people face job displacement, economic loss, and jeopardy of their skills. We affirm that it is a Christian’s duty to provide for all persons opportunity to earn an adequate livelihood, to avoid unemployment and waste of personal and economic resources. We believe that workers who are displaced by automation should be given opportunity for retraining.

(e) Poverty and Unemployment. We believe that the economic development which makes possible material plenty for all imposes upon us great moral responsibility, in that physical, emotional and spiritual development of millions of people throughout the world is hindered by poverty. We, therefore, stand for the eradication of poverty everywhere.

(f) Urban Life. We believe the inner city to be a mission field crying out for bold, new creative ways of witness. Therefore, we call our urban congregations to a deeper involvement in neighborhood life.

(g) Christian Vocation. We believe that every employable person so far as possible should be engaged in some vocation to enhance the common good. Every such vocation should be viewed as a Christian calling for those who pursue it as well as by those who receive its benefits, and our daily work should be regarded as a sphere of service to God.

The Church and General Welfare

We believe that in order for the Church to fulfill God's purpose in the world it must concern itself with persons in every phase of their historical and social existence by defining the meaning of that existence in terms of moral and social significance, by promoting those institutions and causes which strengthen the forces for good in society, and by using its influence to combat those forces in society detrimental to the fulfillment of life under God.

(a) Peace and World Order. We believe that it is God’s will that peace and goodwill prevail among people and nations. Therefore, we consider all war as evil and oppose war as a means of reaching agreements between nations. Our Church must be on the side of every effort seeking to remove those conditions of heart and mind, of social, economic, and international injustice and of ideological conflict out of which wars arise. Further, our church must actively and constantly seek to promote understanding, reconciliation and goodwill to relieve suffering and raise living standards over the world.

1–United Nations. We believe that the United Nations with its related agencies should be supported by all nations as a vital and necessary instrument for discussing international problems and seeking ways of resolving conflict.

2—Christian Military Service. Jesus Christ teaches us both love of country and love of all people. Thus, respect for properly constituted civil authority is a part of our tradition. When there is genuine conflict between one's conscience and one's duty to bear arms in defense of one’s country, we believe that nations ought to exempt persons from such duties in the face of conscientious objections.

(b) The Liquor Problem. We condemn the use of alcoholic beverages, and feel it imperative to minister to those persons who are victims of alcohol. We condemn the sale and use of liquor as that which imperils the abundant life to which Christ calls us.

(c) Crime. We recognize individual, and personal responsibility to society. Yet we recognize that in many instances the growth of crime and delinquency is the result of family failure, and economic and social deprivation. When persons are found to be lawbreakers, we feel that every effort should be made to rehabilitate them and return them to society. We are unalterably opposed to capital punishment.

(d) Gambling. Gambling is a menace to society, destructive of good government and deadly to the best interest of moral, social, and spiritual life. We stand for the achievement of community and personal standards which make unnecessary the resort to petty or commercial gambling as a recreation, escape, or producer of public or charitable revenue. As an act of faith and love, Christians should abstain from all acts of gambling and should participate in efforts to minister to those victimized by the practice, including compulsive gamblers.

(e) Human Rights. Since all persons are endowed by God with certain inalienable rights, we believe that no individual should be denied these rights because of race, creed,culture, national origin or social class. Further, we believe that persons should have freedom under law to petition for these rights.

(f) Sex and Christian Life. We believe that human sexuality as created by God is for the good of human life and is sacred, marriage is the context and the relation in which sexuality is to be expressed. Sexual relations between men and women united in holy wedlock is a means of personal and interpersonal communion, an expression of mutual love, and the means of procreation. Sexual relations outside of marriage are contrary to the will of God, and constitute a blasphemous disregard of God’s purposes for men and women. Marriage shall be defined as a union between a man and a woman and under no circumstances shall the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church either perform same sex marriages or bless same sex unions.

(g) Moral and Ethical Behavior. We believe that through the grace of Jesus Christ, God calls all persons into covenant with God and one another. Sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, and other like actions such as child molestation, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, and any forms of sexual perversion disrupt the sacred covenant of God with us and each other and are unacceptable in the church where God's grace in Jesus Christ is proclaimed and experienced.

(h) Sexual Harassment and Abuse. Sexual harassment and sexual misconduct as a matter of Christian principle are totally unacceptable. Therefore, all Christians are called to identify and prevent sexual harassment and sexual misconduct wherever, however, and whenever it is encountered. Accordingly, sexual harassment and/or sexual misconduct by any person in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is a prohibited form of personal behavior.

(i) Slave Holding and Sex Trafficking. We believe that human trafficking and forced labour existing in extreme levels are contrary to the will of God; and we strongly stand against the slave holding and sex trafficking that is so prevalent in many parts of the world in the buying, trading, bartering, selling, kidnapping, and/or prostituting of children, women, and men.