The World Council: From the Sacred to the Secular

The Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches took place in 1961; in mood and spirit, it might have been 50 years away from the Fourth Assembly. At New Delhi, World Council delegates were still primarily concerned with the ecclesiastical and theological problems of church union. The marching orders issued by the Fourth Assembly in Uppsala, which ended last week, were primarily secular rather than sacred. In a series of concrete, specific resolutions, the 700 delegates from 235 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches at the Uppsala meeting called upon their fellow Christians to redirect their attention to the social, political and economic problems facing mankind.

To a large extent, the worldly orientation of the messages reflected the growing influence of churchmen from the "third world" of Africa, Asia and Latin America, who are less concerned with theological niceties than with committing the church to support of the poor and the underprivileged. There were 32 delegates from developing nations, for example, on the 105-man committee that drafted the document on peace and international justice, which not only condemned the use of nuclear weapons in war but also gave support to the idea of selective pacifism. Traditionally, Christian moral theology has accepted conscientious objection only on the all-or-nothing basis of opposition to all warfare. Reflecting a new consensus of pacifists, both religious and secular, the council's resolution declared that churches should "give spiritual care and support to those who object to participation in particular wars they feel bound in conscience to oppose."

Dangerous Innovation. The measure was not passed without opposition. Governor Harold Le Vander of Minnesota, an American Lutheran delegate to the council, called selective pacifism "a very dangerous innovation." He argued that "the conscience is a quite elastic thing, and we may find ourselves endorsing people who feel they should stay out of a war because they have a family or think they have an important job."

Third-world delegates also had a large hand in shaping the council's statement on world economic and social devel opment, which underscored the gap between rich and poor nations. The document declared that it was the "duty" of churches in industrialized nations to influence their governments on behalf of increases in foreign aid and trade agreements favoring underdeveloped lands. One proposal that is likely to get lukewarm response was that individual Christians, through voluntary donations, give a percentage of their own income to development aid, making up the difference between what their governments spend on this cause and what they should spend.