BWA General Council Resolution 1988.3

The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in the Bahamas, July 1988:

Gives thanks to God for the comfort and well being brought to multitudes through the medical use of drugs;

Views with alarm the tragic growth of illicit drug trafficking, the subsequent victimizing of vast numbers of people, especially youth, through these addictive substances and the resulting explosion of drug-related crises;

Recognizes alcohol as the world’s most abused drug and decries the tragedy of this problem neglected by governments and churches around the world in their own Baptist family;

Acknowledges the non-medical use and abuse of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs as a curse on human life, exacting a terrible toll with increasingly tragic effects on people and societies all over the world;

Exhorts all Baptist churches faithfully to teach children youth and adults to regard the body as the temple of the holy Spirit, life itself as the gift of God and drug abuse as a denial of our creation in the image of God and of our responsible freedom under the Lordship of Christ; and

Urges that Baptists work together and with other responsible groups and organizations for effective education, social controls and legal constraints toward the elimination of drug trafficking and all forms of drug abuse.

Citations

Original Source Bibliography: Lotz, Denton, editor. Baptist World Alliance 1988 Yearbook: Minutes of the General Council Meeting and Directory. McLean, VA: Baptist World Alliance, 1988.

Original Source Footnote/Endnote: Denton Lotz, ed., Baptist World Alliance 1988 Yearbook: Minutes of the General Council Meeting and Directory (McLean, VA: Baptist World Alliance, 1988), p. 70.

Online Document Full Citation: BWA General Council Resolution 1988.3 Illicit Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Addictive Chemical Substances; https://baptistworld.org/resolutions.

In-text Online Document Citation: (BWA General Council Resolution 1988.3).