 WCC leader urges church to oppose capitalism The Layman Online Friday, June 16, 2000 The World Council of Churches has been urged by one of its former general secretaries to speak out against the "unjust structures of global capitalism."
Potter was speaking to a gathering in Hofgeismar, Germany, organized by the WCC, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and Pax Christi International, a Roman Catholic group that has been in the forefront of protests against U.S. military forces. Potter's remarks reflected some of the current agenda of the WCC, to which the Presbyterian Church (USA) is the leading contributor among U.S. denominations. At its 50th anniversary meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe in December 1998, the delegates enacted a resolution condemning "globalization," its term for free-market economies, and calling for "global governance" of transnational corporations, making them accountable to an international body. PCUSA Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and the other 10 Presbyterian delegates to the 1998 meeting voted in favor of that resolution. The WCC's continuing anti-capitalism agenda could be a factor in the discussion and vote on an overture from the Presbytery of Savannah during the PCUSA's General Assembly in Long Beach, Calif., June 24-July 1. The overture seeks to reduce annual PCUSA support for the WCC to about 20 percent of the current level. All eleven delegates of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted for the resolution. Potter called for a "new theological education" to equip the church to speak against global capitalism. He also said, "We should all have the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. A newspaper without the Bible doesn't make sense, and the Bible without a newspaper is irrelevant." |
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