| Statement on our National Fate by the
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan - Motivation Based on Faith and Theology
by
Rev. C.M. Kao
After the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
published its Statement on Our National Fate on the 29 December
1971, we received responses from many quarters. In my capacity as Secretary-General of the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, I would like to express deep
gratitude to all those inside and outside the Church who have offered us their comments.
In order that all our friends, who are concerned about the "National Fate"
statement, may have a better understanding that the Church's motive in producing the Statement on Our National Fate was founded on faith and theology, I
am taking this opportunity to report and explain several points:
- We are extremely grateful to many friends, who, by their
positive support of the Statement, have given us great encouragement and comfort.
Certainly, Christians living in a time of national distress should be able to speak out in
more than simply polite terms. In the past we have usually accepted "Thou shalt
not offend anyone" as the first commandment, and have disregarded the
responsibility which Christians ought to have to society and the nation. This Statement is
founded on the conviction of our Christian faith that Christians have such a
responsibility.
- Should the Church get involved in political matters? After
the Statement was issued it caused many people to raise this question. Since the
Reformation, the development of modern history and the trend toward the separation of
politics and religion, the Church has indeed not become bound up in politics again as it
was in the Middle Ages. Except for a few extremely conservative groups, however, most
orthodox Protestant churches have encouraged their members to be responsible citizens and
to participate in constructive activities in society and politics, and thus to be "the
light of the world" and "the salt of the earth." This shows that
individual Christians do have a responsibility in the rise and fall of nations.
But should the corporate Church, which
acts in the name of Christ, keep absolute silence on social and political issues? Not
necessarily, as in the following two situations:
- When political power from without violates the nature of
the Church and the carrying out of her mission on earth, and
- When, similarly, political power from without violates
human rights, that is, the dignity of human existence.
Therefore, looking at it from the point
of view of Christian faith and ethics, if the two situations cited above should occur (or
even have the possibility of occurring), that is, if the Church's life and human rights
are violated, then (i) the Church cannot but contend vigorously for the truth of the
Gospel and its own life, and (ii) also fight to protect God-given human rights, for the
origin of human rights lies in man's having been created in the image of God (Gen.
1:26-27). When the Church of Christ in either of these two cases produces a statement,
this kind of statement is not basically political, but is a confession of faith. It is
like the Bremen Declaration of the Confessing Church in Germany under the Hitler regime,
and, more recently, the statements issued by Churches in South Africa and Rhodesia.
Even this proposal that the government
"hold elections of all representatives to the highest government bodies" is
motivated by the belief that human rights are given by God. For we believe that only in
this way can there be any internal reforms. The government can then merit the respect of
people at home and abroad, we can recover from our national decline, and so receive the
blessing of God.
To sum up, the Presbyterian Church in
Taiwan, in producing the Statement on Our National Fate in this
present time of crisis, has done so from the standpoint of our Christian faith, and so it
is essentially a confession of faith rather than a political action.
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