By Darryl W. Stephens
“God is in all things, . . . and is, in a true sense, the soul of the universe.”
—John Wesley
The Revised Social Principles document approved by General Conference 2024 boosts The United Methodist Church’s environmental witness. From warnings about global warming and fossil fuel dependency to sustainable practices and affirmation of science and traditional wisdom, there is much to celebrate in this newest version of Methodism’s Social Principles.
The 2024 Social Principles is a complete revision of the UMC’s most prominent form of social witness. Initially prompted by a petition from Europe to General Conference in 2000, the task of rewriting was assigned to the General Board of Church and Society in 2012. The consultative process, led by Dean Emerita Mary Elizabeth Moore of the Boston School of Theology, involved thousands of United Methodists in the Philippines, Africa, Europe, and the United States.
Structure and Framing
The Revised Social Principles looks similar to its predecessor. The document begins with a Preface and Preamble followed by four main sections: Community of All Creation, The Economic Community, The Social Community, and The Political Community. Overall, the revision is about the same length as the 2016 Social Principles, though with greater attention to creation justice throughout.
The document immediately signals the importance of God’s creation beyond humanity, mentioning Wesley’s concern about the abuse of animals. The expanded Preamble devotes the first three paragraphs to our relationship with God, each other, and God’s good creation and elevates creation as a primary site of God’s love and our responsibility. Called into covenant with God, each other, and “God’s wonderfully diverse creation,” we are “to be stewards of God’s created world, to tend to God’s garden.” Care for creation is expressed through stewardship of the earth— “the skies and waters, soil and plants, and all beings.”
The document also admits our failure: “We have not been faithful stewards of God’s creation.” The Preamble performs as a communal confession, acknowledging that it is only through “God’s forgiving and sanctifying love” that we can respond to God’s call.
Community of All Creation
The Community of All Creation is the first main section of the Revised Social Principles. It addresses Creation in Peril (three subsections) and Stewardship of Creation (six subsections). It begins with an affirmation “that all creation belongs to God” and concludes with a recognition “that we are part of complex ecosystems, all valued by God.” Thus, “every part of creation” has a role “in healing the whole”—including “other sentient and non-sentient beings.” As people of faith, we are called “to live in right relationship with the Creator and with the whole of God’s creation.”
The document confesses the harm we have caused through three “unsustainable human activities” that put Creation in Peril:
- Destruction of ecosystems puts natural symbiotic relationships at risk through humankind’s overconsumption, shortsighted policies, and poor management of resources.
- Global warming and climate change, due to human activities such as “the buildup of greenhouse gases,” is causing rising sea levels, acidification of oceans, extreme weather events, and droughts and famines.
- Dependence on fossil fuels “is the greatest single contributor to the buildup of greenhouse gases and the consequent warming of the earth’s atmosphere.” To reverse global climate change, the document advocates for “increased investments . . . in the research, development, and distribution of alternatives to fossil fuels.” Furthermore, it warns against replacing fossil fuels with increased reliance on nuclear energy or proposals for “geo-engineering earth’s biospheres”—supposed solutions that entail considerable danger and unpredictable risks. Acknowledging the disruption that a transition away from fossil fuels will cause individuals and communities, the document advocates for “investing in strategies that support people in successfully transitioning” to an economy built on alternative sources of energy.
These perils lead to a consideration of humankind’s Stewardship of Creation. Because “God declares creation good,” we are called “to respect, protect, and care for the creation.” This stewardship is expressed in six ways:
- Resisting environmental racism;
- Promoting sustainable policies and practices;
- Addressing food justice, including local control of food production and “food sovereignty”;
- Caring for all creatures, for example, treating animals humanely;
- Protecting space by rejecting “the exploitation, commodification, and militarization of space”; and
- Affirming science and traditional wisdom.
Creation Justice Within the Economic and Political Communities
The theme of stewardship directly informs the discussion of The Economic Community. “We are temporary stewards of the resources and material goods that we have accumulated.” The Economic Challenges and issues of Economic Justice are manifold.
- In the context of globalization, our economic choices can contribute either to “environmental flourishing” or “weakened environmental protections.”
- Addressing the challenge of poverty and income inequality, the document identifies a connection between desertification and poverty: failed environmental stewardship causes direct harm to poor people.
- Turning to economic justice, the church advocates for responsible consumerism (for example, reducing waste and reliance on fossil fuels) and a “commitment to the dignity and worth of all beings,” not just humans.
- The subsection on farming and agricultural production is permeated with concern for creation justice: degradation of ecosystems and the environment, depletion of the soil, and protection of local habitats. “We urge . . . sustainable practices that preserve the integrity of the food chain . . . and protect the environment.”
- These concerns also arise under the topic of corporate responsibility, commending socially responsible investment and other means of defending the environment.
While the section pertaining to The Social Community focuses exclusively on human interactions, themes of creation reemerge in the final section of the document. The preface to The Political Community establishes “the inherent worth of all people” in “God’s gracious act of creation” and recognizes a call for everyone “to work for the well-being of all God’s creation.”
- The church asserts that Indigenous, Native, and Aboriginal Communities “are entitled to control their land, water, and resources.”
The church also recognizes the role of global warming and climate change in contributing to the crisis of displaced persons across the globe, impacting Migrants, Immigrants, and Refugees.
Continued Work Needed
The Revised Social Principles document provides vital support for the UMC’s creation justice ministries, and there is more to be done. I offer a few items for further reflection and continued work.
1. How should science, reason, traditional wisdom, and theology inform
our shared work of creation justice?
The Revised Social Principles errs on the side of romanticizing indigenous peoples and their “traditional wisdom” of “living in harmony and balance with the earth” (§F, pp. 12–13). Such idealization risks “othering” indigenous persons and their cultures (see discussion in Stephens 2023, pp. 128–29). Furthermore, the previous statement about science and theology as compatible and complementary ways of interpreting God’s natural world (Book of Discipline 2016, ¶160.F) is absent in the revised version. United Methodists can make a stronger witness on these points. We need much more discussion of these terms and issues.
2. Our witness against environmental racism would be stronger if we defined racism.
The process of revising the Social Principles left us without a clear definition of racism. The 2016 Social Principles document included a robust statement against racism, defining personal and systemic racism and naming them as sin (Book of Discipline 2016, ¶162.A). However, the Revised Social Principles offers no definition (§A, pp. 10–11). Antiracist commitments could have been communicated with references to the UMC’s constitutional commitment to racial justice (¶ 5), the Act of Repentance for Racism (adopted in 2000 and renewed in 2008), and numerous resolutions on race relations and racial justice. If United Methodists sincerely want to address the problem of environmental racism, we will have to address and define race and racism more directly in our Social Principles.
3. Remember and share about our Methodist tradition of environmental witness.
United Methodism, including the Evangelical United Brethren tradition, has a long history of environmental witness. Care for the natural world is a consistent aspect of our witness, taking on the language and concerns of each generation. From family farms and conserving the values of rural life to calls for ecological conservation and population control, Methodists have understood that our relationship to creation is a matter of discipleship. We owe it to ourselves to learn about this history of advocacy regarding energy policy, pollution, mountaintop removal coal mining, and other issues. Methodists have recognized that the work of creation justice must address a complex, interrelated set of problems, such as economic consumption, warfare, poverty, and racism. We cannot afford to forget this part of our tradition. I introduce this history of engagement in Chapter 7 of Reckoning Methodism (pp. 140–69).
4. Let’s develop a United Methodist theology of creation justice.
The Preamble to the new Social Principles provides a beginning for developing a substantive theology of creation justice, and much more is needed. Such an effort could refer to several recent statements generated with the UMC, drawing them together theologically and thematically. For example, the General Board of Global Ministries theology statement speaks of “God’s mission from creation to completion.” The Council of Bishops coined the term “environmental holiness” in their 2009 foundation document, God’s Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action. United Women in Faith have published books and other resources, such as Climate Justice: A Call to Hope and Action (2nd ed., 2022). The Book of Resolutions 2016 contains several valuable environmental statements, including “Caring for Creation: A Call to Stewardship and Justice” and “Climate Change and the Church’s Response.” Together, these resources can help us communicate more clearly about the theological basis for the work of creation justice and its part in God’s mission.
These four discussion points deserve further attention in our creation justice work. The Revised Social Principles will help with this effort. As we witness to our faith in “the soul of the universe,” it is vital to reclaim our Wesleyan heritage of environmental concern. Wesley was right: God is indeed in all things.
The Rev. Darryl W. Stephens, PhD, teaches at Lancaster Theological Seminary and is an ordained deacon in The United Methodist Church. He is author of Reckoning Methodism: Mission and Division in the Public Church, which includes a history of Methodist environmental witness. You can read more about his work at http://www.ethicsconsidered.com/. He is also the author of Methodist Creation Justice: An Evolving Tradition of Beautiful Words and Actions.
Resources
The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2016. Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 2016.
The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church 2016. Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 2016.
Council of Bishops, UMC. God’s Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action. 2009.
General Board of Global Ministries. Our Theology of Mission. https://umcmission.org/our-theology-of-mission/.
Quick, Beth. “‘The Natural World’: An Eco-Justice Case Study, 1972–1992.” Methodist History 62, no. 1 (April 2024): 1–38. https://doi.org/10.5325/methodisthist.62.1.0001.
Stephens, Darryl W. “A Global Ethic for a Divided Church.” In Methodism and American Empire: Reflections on Decolonizing the Church, edited by Filipe Maia and David W. Scott, 111–33. Nashville: Abingdon, 2023.
———. Reckoning Methodism: Mission and Division in the Public Church. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2024.
United Methodist Revised Social Principles, https://www.umcjustice.org/documents/124.
Watkins, Pat, ed. Climate Justice: A Call to Hope and Action. 2nd ed. New York: United Women in Faith, 2022.