NCC warns against uncivil debates

NEW YORK (RNS/ENI) Fearing that civic debate in the United States is becoming increasingly acrimonious and even ugly, the National Council of Churches is urging civility in national discussions on public issues, including health care reform. “Too much is at stake for the good of our society for us to continue down this dangerous path,” […]

NEW YORK (RNS/ENI) Fearing that civic debate in the United States is becoming increasingly acrimonious and even ugly, the National Council of Churches is urging civility in national discussions on public issues, including health care reform.

“Too much is at stake for the good of our society for us to continue down this dangerous path,” the NCC’s governing board said in a statement after recent meetings in New York. “The essential nature of our national compact, to enfranchise the views of all, is imperiled in a hostile and suspicious environment.”

The statement comes during a time of growing concern about the tenor of debate over health care reform. There is also growing concern about attacks on President Obama, some of which have been called racist and which emerged over the summer in large-scale protests and at public town hall forums.


While NCC leaders did not specifically address the attacks on Obama, they raised concern about a climate it said was “all too often … the product of racism and xenophobia.”

“In this moment, then, we call the members of our churches, our political leaders, and all people of good will to somber reflection on the ways we might restore dignity and civility to our national discourse both as a matter of social ethics and to bolster the highest traditions of democratic process.”

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