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| Fifth Column |
| Leftist Protestants Consider Israeli Divestment |
| 2004-10-24 |
| The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is pursuing withdrawal of investments from some companies with ties to the territories, following a vote this summer by its General Assembly. Separately, the Socially Responsible Investment panel of the Episcopal Church is researching the idea. New tensions arose last week when delegates from a Presbyterian policy committee on a fact-finding trip met in Lebanon with leaders of Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist group. One delegate said "relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders." Kirkpatrick said the comments "do not reflect the official position" of the church, which he says condemns terrorism. Relations between Jewish and mainline Protestant leaders were already poor when the divestment proposal surfaced at the Presbyterian national meeting. Corinne Whitlach, executive director of the Washington-based Churches for Middle East Peace, said she knows some Methodist and United Church of Christ representatives who have fielded request from congregants that they consider divestment as well. "The churches that I work with share the view that's very widely held that the very possibility of a two-state solution seems to be increasingly less possible," Whitlach said. "I think, in this point in time, the frustration is reaching such a high, that things like this get traction," said Antonios Kireopoulos, an international-affairs officer at the National Council of Churches, which represents 36 Protestant and Orthodox Christian denominations. U.S. Jewish leaders have told the Protestants their approach smacks of bias, since the Christians have made no concurrent demand that the Palestinian Authority work to end suicide bombings against Israelis. That the divestment campaign borrows from the 1980s movement against South African apartheid is even more unsettling for Jewish leaders. "Unless you think Israel represents nothing other than colonial imperialism, then there is no analogy to be made at all, and those who call Israel colonial imperialism - that's a form of blindness, as if Jews have no relationship to the land of Israel," said David Elcott, national head of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, based in New York. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, last month organized a meeting of Jewish and Presbyterian leaders, including the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the Presbyterian executive officer, to iron out differences, but they failed to reach any agreement on the issue. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #6 US citizens that meet with the leadership of terrorist organs should be arrested and put on trial. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-25 12:06:44 AM |
| #5 I'd say that the fact that an official delegation from Church Headquarters met with Hezbollah at all shows definitively how far from Christianity these persons have gone. This is beyond smacking of bias; this is Judenhass, plain and simple. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-10-24 11:54:54 PM |
| #4 If links can be shown between the Presbyterian Church and Hezbollah, the Prez's ought to lose their tax exempt status as a minimum. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-24 9:20:43 PM |
| #3 Big deal. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)is about half the size it was 25 years ago and will be half the size it is now in 25 years. It is the most liberal of the "split P's" and the most irrelavent. They are an embarassment to their Calvinist fathers. The National Council of Churches representing 26 Protestant and Orthodox denominations? Big deal. There are about 25-35,000 Protestant denominations in the US. In some parts of the south, there are more kinds of Baptist churches than there are Baptists. |
| Posted by: John J. Simmins 2004-10-24 8:37:11 PM |
| #2 "relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders Well, at first I was disappointed by the Presbyterian church's actions - but now I say good...let them die on the vine. Just like Air Amerikka, these performers are going to realize you can't perform if you don't have an audience and you can't disinvest if people stop filling your offering plate. Any church I've been to that has been a member of the National Council of Churches has sermons that reflect the dem talking points of the day. Lot's of touchy feely crap void of the teachings of Christ...so let them die. Christianity won't die with them. Adios Presbyterian Church. See how easy that is? Taa taa. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-10-24 8:31:21 PM |
| #1 Ah! The much talked about religious left.... scary! |
| Posted by: Wuzzalib 2004-10-24 7:39:34 PM |