Keith Swartzendruber

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…”

Philippians 2:3-5 (NRSVUE)

The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) calls for the passage of a bill that lifts the debt ceiling with no conditions to avert financial disaster and protect the millions of Americans who rely on social safety net programs.

Hundreds of millions of Americans—including families, children, seniors, and veterans—are at risk of going hungry, losing access to healthcare, and foreclosing on their homes because of the current irresponsible debate about whether the United States should pay its bills. It is unconscionable to refuse to pay a debt that has already been incurred, let alone hold the American people hostage for political gain. Millions of people who depend on monthly benefits to get by will be phased-out of nutrition, health care, and cash assistance programs due to unfair time-limits and other unreasonable requirements and will suddenly be at risk of falling into extreme poverty.

If Congress does not act before June 1st, the Treasury will run out of funds to pay America’s growing debt and default for the first time in our nation’s 247-year history. The potential damage of a breach is extensive. Millions of people who depend on monthly benefits to get by will be phased-out of critical assistance programs due to unfair time-limits and other unreasonable requirements and will suddenly be at risk of falling into extreme poverty. Those seeking medical care will be turned away because they will no longer be able to get health insurance. Others could find themselves on the street.

The scripture warns us about the high cost of inaction and turning a blind-eye to the plight of the vulnerable among us, saying, “Do not rob the poor because they are poor or crush the afflicted at the gate, for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them (Proverbs 22:22-23 NRSVUE).” It is morally reprehensible to put millions of people at risk. Congress must lift the debt ceiling without conditions.

If Congress refuses to act to pass a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling, then we urge President Biden to use whatever options are available to him to protect the full faith and credit of the United States of America.

The Governing Board of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) is pleased to announce that Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie has been elected to serve as President and General Secretary of the ecumenical organization. She is the first African American woman to serve as both President and General Secretary of the organization. The Governing Board made the announcement during its annual Spring meeting, held in Washington, DC, May 15–16.

Bishop McKenzie has served in the position as interim since April 1, 2022, and immersed herself in the work of the organization without delay. During her year as interim, she led an extensive review of NCC’s foundational documents, initiated Voter Empowerment 2022: A Church-Based Action Plan campaign, testified on Capitol Hill on behalf of low wage earners and poor children, and served as keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast.

She has also represented NCC internationally at the World Council of Churches’ Regional Ecumenical Officers annual meeting at the Ecumenical Center in Bossey, Switzerland as well as attended the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Germany.

Bishop McKenzie has reinstituted the NCC’s Health and Wellness Taskforce to dive deeper into health and healthcare priorities that impact persons of all races, ethnicities, and socio-economic and geographic status. As part of the taskforce relaunch, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy was the keynote speaker at the recent Governing Board Health and Wellness Taskforce Luncheon.

She also has initiated a new Policy Roundtable to create space for NCC’s communions and partners to speak to and with each other and hear from policy experts on critical issues that strengthen its impact on public policy.

“The National Council of Churches is excited that Bishop McKenzie has agreed to serve in this pivotal leadership role. She brings the necessary insight, expertise, and ecumenical commitment to the Council to lead us into the future,” said Board Chair Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, who is also the Ecumenical Officer of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

“The entire Board is excited about Bishop McKenzie’s vision and leadership. We are grateful for her willingness to use the full vessel of her ministerial gifts to lead the NCC,” added Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and NCC Governing Board Vice Chair.

“I am honored to serve the National Council of Churches and I look forward to building upon the strong foundation laid by the men and women who have led the way in ecumenism and advocacy work for more than seven decades. I look forward to engaging every communion within this great collaborative to serve the 100,000 congregations and the more than 30 million members that fall under its ecumenical umbrella,” said Bishop McKenzie, who has been active in social justice issues for more than three decades.

Bishop McKenzie served as the 117th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was the first female elected to episcopal office in the AME Church’s two centuries of operation. She is the first female to serve as President of the Council of Bishops and President of the General Board and has served as presiding bishop in Southern Africa—Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Lesotho—and in the United States in Tennessee, Kentucky and Texas.

Bishop McKenzie is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and Howard University School of Divinity, and has an earned doctorate from United Theological Seminary.

She was appointed in 2009 by President Barack Obama to serve on the inaugural White House Commission of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. This group worked on behalf of Americans committed to improving their communities, regardless of religious or political beliefs. In 2014, she was named one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Religious Life in the World by Huffington Post.

She is the author of six books, including Not Without a Struggle, Journey to the Well, and The Big Deal: Taking Small Steps to Move Closer to God.

In response to the incessant gun violence and mass shootings rocking our nation, the Governing Board of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC), at its annual Spring Meeting, passed a hard-hitting resolution on the issue, committing to increase its efforts to end the devastation and calling on its member congregations to do the same.

“As faith leaders in America, it is incumbent on us to address the escalating plague of gun violence in our nation,” starts the resolution. “Since the beginning of 2023 alone, mass shootings from coast to coast have resulted in the devastating loss of hundreds of lives. Appallingly, it feels as if no one and nowhere is safe – not our schools, colleges and universities, medical facilities, grocery stores, movie theaters, social halls, financial institutions, shopping malls, homes, churches, or other houses of worship…It is necessary and reasonable to act quickly and decisively because we do not have to live like this,” states the resolution.

NCC Governing Board Chair Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton of the CME Church, lamented the weak efforts to address gun violence: “It is unconscionable that more has not been done to keep our children and families from being massacred. The time is long past for real, meaningful action to better control weapons of war.”

Further, the resolution calls for congregations to use all their available resources to end the scourge of gun violence, to work across political lines and with faith and secular partners to find solutions to end gun violence and mass shootings, and to create safe spaces for those inundated with violence and provide care for victims/survivors.

“It is a national disgrace that we consistently choose assault weapons over protecting our children at schools, customers at malls, banks, markets, Bible study and too many other places, “ said Bishop Vashti McKenzie, President/General Secretary of NCC. “ We have failed as a nation to adopt common sense gun safety and keep assault-style weapons or firearms equipped with high-capacity magazines out of the hands of those who could abuse them.”

The resolution also calls for NCC member communions and congregations to “be attentive and offer a public witness and care to those in our communities who are susceptible to being perpetrators of gun violence, showing them grace and mercy, and attempting to put them in contact with resources that may help them choose a different path.”

In addition, the resolution calls on the President and Congress to quickly introduce and pass legislation that would end “the massacres from weapons of war in our communities,” and to hold public officials accountable for the lackluster and negligent legislative responses that occur after mass shootings. NCC has repeated calls for comprehensive gun violence reform and the banning of military-grade weapons in our communities.

Full Text of Resolution: https://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/common-witness-ncc/ncc-resolution-on-rampant-gun-violence-and-mass-shootings/

The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA is deeply concerned about the numerous and widespread efforts to ban books in many localities across the country. This disturbing and alarming trend stands in opposition to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, American values of liberty and freedom, and our faith tradition as Christians, which urges us to tell our stories and testimonies to our children, as is evident in scripture, including Psalm 78:4, “…We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done.” (NRSVue)

Disappointingly, these efforts have mostly targeted books written by authors from marginalized communities, in effect silencing their voices, history, and experiences. We stand against these efforts and encourage those in our member congregations to do the same. 

According to the American Library Association, book banning increased by 38 percent in 2022, and more than 1600 books were banned in 86 school districts and 26 states. However, this is not the first movement to ban books in our nation. Similar efforts have taken place in America’s past to limit and manipulate access to education and maintain the status quo. Notably, laws prohibited enslaved persons from learning how to read to limit their progress as well as to prevent them from knowing their history and contributions to society. Globally, in 1933, what is thought to be the largest ever book burning took place in Nazi Germany to silence the voices of Jews and to send a message to those who opposed their racist, genocidal regime.

Assuredly, banning books is no means to “protect” our children or control what they may learn. In fact, the opposite is true. Restricting access to reading material is a strategy to control people’s thinking and discourage oppressed people from advocating for their freedoms and standing against injustice.

“Banning books is reminiscent of a past we should do everything in our power to safeguard against repeating,” said Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, NCC’s Governing Board chair. “It is born out of fear, an abuse of power, and a repugnant lack of tolerance that, unchecked, can lead to violence against those not like us and with whom we may disagree.”

While stories, historical context, and information can be empowering, there is grave danger in picking and choosing the stories we allow to be told, effectually suppressing the history and experiences of those that differ from our own. America is not a monolith and trying to ensure that only one perspective is lifted up is appalling. Attempts to silence the voices of marginalized people present the greatest risk and are antithetical to core American values and the tenets of our Christian faith. This is no way for a democracy to survive, much less thrive. 

On Wednesday, May 3, NCC joined the Freedom to Learn coalition, which consists of civil rights, faith, and other leaders representing a broad spectrum of American society and culture for a National Day of Action.

Together we will stand against this dangerous and short-sighted move that is divisive at its core and seeks to diminish the image and likeness of God that our faith teaches is within each person. Proscribing the literary works we are allowed to read is a way to deceptively hide the truth of our collective histories when our sacred texts inform us that knowing the truth will make us free (John 8:32)—not fearful of others, not full of hate, not something we are not, but free.

This is our moment to stand up and speak out. We cannot be silent or complicit in the face of such a full-scale affront to our freedoms and our faith.

The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) joins the nation in grieving the senseless loss of life of six people—three 9-year-olds and three adults—in a mass shooting at Covenant Presbyterian School in Nashville on Monday, March 27, 2023.

We lament and are horrified by what seems to be a never-ending, cyclical nightmare. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States, and it is long past time for us to take decisive and urgent action to bring an end to this scourge on our society. Our children deserve better from us.

Tragically, as a nation we find ourselves in an all-too-familiar position. The dates and places and faces change, but it is the same story, one that leaves us exhausted, frustrated, and distraught. Families are left shattered, and communities are devastated, as they search for answers and work to pick up the pieces of their lives.

Appallingly, we continue to respond with thoughts and prayers to circumstances that require collective and immediate action to end the gun violence wreaking havoc in our communities. The sacredness of prayer is diminished when we ask God to miraculously intervene in what is within our power to change, yet we refuse.

Comprehensive, common sense gun reform, including a ban on assault weapons, is the least we can do to change the trajectory of destruction that has visited innocent lives of all ages and ethnicities.

We don’t have to live like this. Children should never be afraid to go to school for fear they will be killed. Seniors should not hesitate to go grocery shopping for fear they will be shot. Parishioners should not be afraid to go to houses of worship in fear of imminent death.

We pray that this is the last statement we must write about a mass shooting. But it is up to us. Let’s get to work!

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live….”
Deuteronomy 30:19 (NRSVue)

Washington, D.C.—The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) abhors the rise of active shooter incidents plaguing American schools and neighborhoods. Once again, we are compelled to respond to another mass shooting, this time at a downtown Louisville bank, leaving six dead, including the shooter and eight others injured.

When this tragedy struck, it had only been just a couple of weeks since three children and three adults were gunned down at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. Now, more families of innocent gun violence victims are grappling with the sudden loss of their loved ones as well as the horrific manner in which they were murdered.

“There is a real and present danger that America is normalizing gun violence,” said Bishop Vashti McKenzie, NCC Interim President and General Secretary. “If something is not done soon, school shootings and gun violence in sacred, work, and recreational spaces will become just another day in the neighborhood.”

More than 11,500 persons have died because gun violence, according to the Gun Violence Archives. So far this year, there have been 147 mass shootings and 14 mass murders…totaling more than the number of days that have passed in 2023. The number of children and teens dying of gun violence is quickly inching toward 500, and it is only April!

“We don’t have to live like this. We reiterate our call for Congress to take urgent and decisive action to ban assault rifles and other weapons of war from our streets,” said NCC’s Governing Board Chair, Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton.

The NCC has been consistently vocal on the need to end gun violence. In its August 2019 statement, concerns were expressed that elected officials would not respond in any meaningful way to the proliferation of this violence: “…for they are collectively and shamefully within the captivity of the gun lobby. Our elected leaders are guilty of negligence and cowardice.”

Today, NCC renews its call for comprehensive, common sense gun reform that focuses on safety. We can strike a balance between firearm safety and Second Amendment rights. We can increase the well-being of children with child protection and child prevention safety. We can ban assault weapons, establish universal background checks, and keep guns out of the hands of high-risk people, while putting time between the purchase and the receiving of a weapon.

We must put an end to the gun violence pandemic by choosing people over profits. We choose the well-being of innocent people and not the profits of the National Rifle Association or the idolatry of the Second Amendment.

We choose life! America, we do not have to live like this.