Policy Statements
The United Methodist Church has a long history of concern for social justice.
Its members have often taken forthright positions on controversial issues
involving Christian principles. Early Methodists expressed their opposition to
the slave trade, to smuggling, and to the cruel treatment of prisoners.
A social creed was adopted by The Methodist Episcopal Church (North) in 1908.
Within the next decade similar statements were adopted by The Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and by The Methodist Protestant Church. The Evangelical
United Brethren Church adopted a statement of social principles in 1946 at the
time of the uniting of the United Brethren and The Evangelical Church. In 1972,
four years after the uniting in 1968 of The Methodist Church and The Evangelical
United Brethren Church, the General Conference of The United Methodist Church
adopted a new statement of Social Principles, which was revised in 1976 (and by
each successive General Conference).
The Social Principles are a prayerful and thoughtful effort on the part of the
General Conference to speak to the human issues in the contemporary world from a
sound biblical and theological foundation as historically demonstrated in United
Methodist traditions. They are intended to be instructive and persuasive in the
best of the prophetic spirit. The Social Principles are a call to all members of
The United Methodist Church to a prayerful, studied dialogue of faith and
practice. (See ¶ 509.)
We, the people called United Methodists, affirm our faith in God our Creator and
Father, in Jesus Christ our Savior, and in the Holy Spirit, our Guide and Guard.
We acknowledge our complete dependence upon God in birth, in life, in death, and
in life eternal. Secure in God’s love, we affirm the goodness of life and
confess our many sins against God’s will for us as we find it in Jesus Christ.
We have not always been faithful stewards of all that has been committed to us
by God the Creator. We have been reluctant followers of Jesus Christ in his
mission to bring all persons into a community of love. Though called by the Holy
Spirit to become new creatures in Christ, we have resisted the further call to
become the people of God in our dealings with each other and the earth on which
we live.
Grateful for God’s forgiving love, in which we live and by which we are judged,
and affirming our belief in the inestimable worth of each individual, we renew
our commitment to become faithful witnesses to the gospel, not alone to the ends
of earth, but also to the depths of our common life and work.
(From The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church - 2000. Copyright
2000 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.)
Find more detail on
Policy Statements from the UMC website.