The National Conference of the SACC acknowledges as the one and only God him who mightily delivered the people of Israel from their bondage in Egypt and who in Jesus Christ still proclaims that He will 'set at liberty those who are oppressed' (Luke 4:18). He alone is supreme Lord and Saviour and to him alone we owe ultimate obedience. Therefore 'we must obey God rather than men' in those areas where the Government fails to fulfil its calling to be 'God's servant for good' rather than for evil and for oppression (Acts 5:29;Romans 13:4).

In the light of this the Conference:

1. Maintains that Christians are called to strive for justice and the true peace which can be founded only on justice;
2. does not accept that it is automatically the duty of those who follow Christ, the Prince of Peace, to engage in violence and war, or to prepare to engage in violence or war, whenever the state demands it;
3. reminds its member Churches that both Catholic and Reformation theology has regarded the taking up of arms as justifiable, if at all, only in order to fight a 'just war';
4. points out that the theological definition of a 'just war' excludes war in defence of a basically unjust and discriminatory society;
5. points out that the Republic of South Africa is at present a fundamentally unjust and discriminatory society and that this injustice and discrimination constitutes the primary, institutionalised violence which has provoked the counter-violence of the terrorists or freedom fighters;
6. points out that the military forces of our country are being prepared to defend this unjust and discriminatory society and that the threat of military force is in fact already used to defend the status quo against moves for radical change from outside the white electorate;
7. maintains that it is hypocritical to deplore the violence of terrorists or freedom fighters while we ourselves prepare to defend our society with its primary, institutionalised violence by means of yet more violence;
8. points out further that the injustice and oppression under which the black peoples of South Africa labour is far worse than that against which Afrikaners waged their First and Second Wars of Independence and that if we have justified the Afrikaners' resort to violence (or the violence of the imperialism of the English) or claimed that God was on their side, it is hypocritical to deny that the same applies to the black people in their struggle today;
9. questions the basis upon which chaplains are seconded to the military forces lest their presence indicate moral support for the defence of our unjust and discriminatory society.

The Conference therefore;

1. deplores violence as a means to solve problems;
2. calls on its member Churches to challenge all their members to consider in view of the above whether Christ's call to take up the cross and follow him in identifying with the oppressed does not, in our situation, involve becoming conscientious objectors;
3. calls on those of its member Churches who have chaplains in the military forces to reconsider the basis on which they are appointed and to investigate the state of pastoral care available to the communicants at present in exile under arms beyond our borders and to seek ways and means of ensuring that such pastoral care may be properly exercised;
4. commends the courage and witness of those who have been willing to go to jail in protest against unjust laws and policies in our land, and who challenge us by their example;
5. requests the SACC's Task Force on Violence and Non-Violence to study methods of non-violent action for change which can be recommended to its member Churches;
6. prays for the Government and people of our land and urgently calls on them to make rapid strides towards radical and peaceful change in our society so that the violence and war to which our social, economic and political policies are leadinag us may be avoided.

Adopted by the 1974 National Conference of the SACC