Proposed Resolution #5 for the U.S. Congress and the Legislatures of the Several States:
Affirmative Action
There are people in our nation who have suffered racial, sexual and/or class prejudice, and thus, the deprivation of civil rights. We believe the only way to serve them is by the radical affirmation of their equal humanity in the sight of God and the social order.
All human beings are created equal, and thus entitled to the unalienable rights of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. The government’s role is to affirm these rights for all people according to due process of law, and such affirmation should never be to the denigration of other people as a consequence.
Affirmation cannot happen without a definition of what is affirmative. The biblical order of creation gives definition as to what is affirmative, and the Declaration of Independence is based on the same.
The principle affirmation in the order of creation is the power to give, which is the nature of the Creator. In the Declaration we celebrate the unalienable rights given by God. This means that true civil rights are given by the One who has the power to give. It means that human rights are not attained by the power to take from oppressors, but unalienable rights are acknowledged and honored by those who, as stewards of God’s image, employ their power to give to others.
We celebrate these rights as preceding the intrusion of human sin and broken trust; and the evils of racial, sexual, and class bigotries are manifestations of broken trust. To demand rights from oppressors is to condescend into racial, sexual and class warfare, pitting certain groups against others, in a contest of take before you taken. Negation does not remedy negation, thus any “affirmative action” which participates in this power to take will only further fracture U.S. society.
We need instead to celebrate the power to give and it will be given, as the means for securing unalienable rights for all people. What we need are actions and laws based on the biblical definition of redemption which means “to buy back out of slavery.” It means that we who have inherited blessings which have positioned us for social, educational and financial success, hold an incumbency to be thankful for those blessings. It also means that our talents and resources should be employed as redemptively as possible toward those who have inherited various deprivations of civil liberties.
On this basis:
- We embrace all proactive strategies and laws which affirm unalienable rights, and we seek redemption of all people who have inherited the evils of racism, sexism, and/or classism.
- We reject all actions and laws which carry with them any negations, such as quotas, and we reject any denigration of groups or individuals who are not in need of such redemptive actions or laws.
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