National Council Opposes Nuclear Power
Episcopal News Service. May 17, 1979 [79163]
SAN ANTONIO, Tex. -- The Governing Board of the National Council of Churches has called for a new national energy policy that will not need to utilize nuclear power.
The final vote on the statement, "The Ethical Implications of Energy Production and Use," was 120 to 26, with one abstention.
The Episcopal Church is one of 32 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox bodies which make up the National Council, the nation's largest ecumenical organization. In general, the members of the Episcopal Church delegation, along with representatives of Antiochian Orthodox and the Greek Orthodox Churches, voted against the approved policy statement.
The statement supports conservation and development of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, while opposing any long-term increase in reliance on coal. It defines ethical criteria by which energy technologies must be judged, such as sustainability, fairness and openness to democratic input on policy decisions.
The precise wording passed on nuclear power reads: "We support a national energy policy which will not need to utilize nuclear fission. Secure handling of nuclear wastes over thousands of generations and safe operation of nuclear plants require that humans and their machines operate without endangering human beings or their environment. Human beings are not infallible; they will make mistakes, and machines will fail. The result may be irreversible damage to the environment and to the human genetic pool."
("Fission" is the present means by which all nuclear energy is produced.)
"The board clearly expressed the sentiment that we were not advocating that tomorrow morning nuclear plants will be shut off," explained NCC President William Howard. "But there is a clear intent of this policy statement that serious moves begin immediately toward the complete cessation of dependence on nuclear fission as a source of energy."
Debate on the policy statement centered almost entirely on the wording of the section on nuclear energy, with a series of extremely close and tie votes on various options.
The body also considered an entire alternative policy statement proposed by the Antiochian Orthodox Church, which supported the use of nuclear power "with the utmost sensitivity to the health and environmental requirements of the sustainability of man and nature." Though defeating the measure -- by a vote of 108 to 30 -- the board members voted to express their gratitude to the Antiochian Orthodox Church for its useful contribution to the debate.
Passage of the original policy statement marked the end of a three-year process of council research and debate on energy.
In a related action, the board passed a resolution opposing President Carter's recent decision to decontrol oil prices as too heavy a burden on the poor. The statement also requests Congress to pass a "windfall profits tax," from which revenues would be allocated "to programs designed to enable persons of limited income to spend no more than 10 percent of their income on essential energy."
The resolution asserts that "while middle-income households spend 9.6 percent of their income on energy, the average U.S. low-income household spends 30 percent...."
Turning to foreign policy, the board unanimously hailed SALT II as a first step "in the direction of general and complete disarmament" and called on Congress to ratify it at the earliest possible moment.
The statement, first issued in March by a consultation of religious leaders from the Soviet Union and the U.S., also calls for a total ban on nuclear arms testing, new nuclear weapons systems and the development of chemical and radiological weapons. Plans are already underway for a meeting with President Carter to discuss working together for ratification of SALT II.
Another resolution dealing with an issue currently facing the Congress supports continued U.S. compliance with United Nations sanctions against Rhodesia and opposes diplomatic recognition of the new government there.
It argues that the recent elections in Rhodesia took place under martial law, involved coercion, denied free choice by excluding the Patriotic Front and will not affect white-minority control of any government institutions.
In its last action before adjournment the board also passed a resolution commending President Carter for his leadership in bringing Israel and Egypt together in peace, expressing its deep regret about "repeated Palestinian raids into Israel and massive retaliation by Israel against Palestinians," and urging the U.S. and other nations to provide economic support to Egypt so as to overcome attempts to isolate it and disrupt the peace process.
Board members had earlier heard and discussed the "first reading" of a lengthy policy statement entitled "The Injustice of the Criminal Justice System." Arguing that the present system "does more to perpetuate violence and conflict than to halt them and engenders more disrespect than respect for law," the statement presents a sharp indictment of the status quo in criminal justice and supports a wide array of reforms.
Member communions will have six months to consider the statement and suggest amendments before it is presented in rewritten form for a second reading and vote at the next Governing Board meeting.
Early in the meeting the board also heard and discussed a major report decrying the lack of commitment to ecumenism -- or Christian unity -- among the council's member communions.
The Council's Panel on Ecumenical Commitment and NCC Purposes, which has been at work for two years, called upon the member churches to move from "a cooperative agency to a communion of churches. "
Over the next six months the panel will draft a revised statement of purpose for the Council, to be introduced at the November board meeting and given thorough consideration during the following year.
In other actions the Governing Board:
- unanimously approved a resolution urging its member communions "to devote special attention and resources" to the needs of undocumented immigrants and mandating staff to develop a policy statement on immigration;
- unanimously passed a resolution asking the churches to aid refugees from the fighting in southern Africa, particularly those fleeing conscription in the armies of white-minority regimes;
- recommended that the churches organize a "week of prayer and action" on South Africa, to include a letter-writing campaign to the South African Council of Churches, local South African parishes and the U.S. government;
- unanimously passed a resolution expressing its concern over the expropriation of five Greek Orthodox churches in Turkey, calling the matter to the attention of the Carter administration as a human rights issue;
- asked NCC member churches to participate in a nationwide "affirmative action Sunday" in 1979 -- possibly Labor Sunday, September 2 -- to celebrate their commitment to social justice and to re-examine their will "to be involved in significant ways in the struggle for equal opportunity;"
- and reaffirmed its concern for the Soviet Christian refugees residing in the U.S. embassy in Moscow, asking the member churches to use their good offices to help their cause.
The Governing Board is the policy-making body of the National Council of Churches.
Members of the Governing Board delegation from the Episcopal Church are:
- The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop
- the Rt. Rev. John H. Burt
- Bishop of Ohio and chairman of the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations
- the Rt. Rev. William H. Clark, Bishop of Delaware
- the Very Rev. Elton O. Smith, Buffalo, N.Y.
- the Rev. William James Walker, St. Louis, Mo
- the Rev. John H. Bonner, Chattanooga, Tenn.
- George McGonigle, Houston, Tex.
- Eric Scharf, Portland, Me.
- Dr. Willard Day, Reno, Nev.; Mrs. Owanah Anderson, Wichita Falls, Tex.
- Mrs. Lewis James, Des Moines, Iowa
- Dr. Helen Louise White Peterson, Portland, Ore.
- Mrs. Charles Duke
Also, from the Episcopal Church Center staff: Peter Day, ecumenical officer; Mrs. Alice Emery, Executive for Church in Society; the Rev. Winston Ching, Staff Officer for Asiamerican Ministries; and Sonia Francis, Radio-Television Officer and chairperson of the National Council of Churches' Communications Commission.