Friday, February 1, 2008
This is a follow-up to the post below, Methodists Discuss Divestment: Video, which contains links to video and some of the objectionable material noted in this Forward article.
Sounds grave. Some people haven't figured out that the divestment horse is not only dead, but been flogged to the bone, had its ribs cracked for soup stock and its hooves ground up for glue (hopefully then used to construct the "separation barrier"). Someone please take control and put a bullet in this zombie's brain-case.
The Forward: Methodist Church Renews Drive For Divestment From Israel (lengthy quote)
Tensions are re-emerging between Jewish organizations and some mainline Protestant churches in the wake of a renewed drive for churches to divest from companies doing business with Israel.
The United Methodist Church opened discussions last Friday on a resolution calling for divestment from Caterpillar, the tractor manufacturer, because the company supplies Israel with bulldozers used in building the separation barrier and in demolishing Palestinian homes. The divestment resolution comes only months after the publication of a church-sponsored report referring to the creation of the State of Israel as the "original sin."
Relations with the Presbyterian Church (USA) are also strained, following remarks by church officials criticizing Israel because of the Gaza closure. A recent study by an affiliate of the Presbyterian Church called on American Jews to "get a life" instead of focusing on defending Israeli policies.
"This reflects a very disturbing trend in these churches," said Ethan Felson, assistant executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. "These developments are a result of work of several very wicked forces that play in the church."...
...What prompted Jewish activists to take action was not only the renewed divestment drive but also a report from the women's division of the Methodist church, which addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The 225-page report, compiled by the Rev. Stephen Goldstein, attempts to outline the historical and current contours of the conflict, but according to Felson, the report amounts to "the most egregious thing that has crossed my desk that was not put out by an overt hate group."
Among the statements in the report that irked Jewish community activists are a reference to the founding of the State of Israel as "the original sin," a passage calling Israeli founding father David Ben-Gurion an "extremist" and a passage defining Israeli actions as acts of "terror."; Discussing the impact of the Holocaust on Israeli society, the Methodist report claims it has been the cause for "hysteria" and "paranoiac sense" among Israelis.
"Are we not called to testify when oppressors use their identity as the oppressed with stories of sixty years ago but through some failure of perception cannot see what transpires now in the shadow of the Holocaust?" the report goes on to ask.
After letting four months pass without a formal response, last week four Jewish women's groups sent a letter to heads of the Methodist church, calling the report "inflammatory, inaccurate, and polemical." Hadassah and women's groups affiliated with Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism and United Jewish Communities signed the letter...
...This exchange [between the Presbyterian Church's Clifton Kirkpatrick and Jewish Community leaders] came shortly after a presentation of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network, a group chartered by the Presbyterian Church though not formally speaking for it. In a slideshow presentation calling for "reframing the debate," the group argued that the "Jewish community in the Diaspora must get a life," referring to Jewish reactions to Christian groups' calls for changes in policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Have we gotten the message that "Right Wing Evangelicals" are not our biggest problem?
[h/t: Sophia]
Update: Will Spotts has one of his usual thoughtful posts on this where he notes that the source of the "Get a life" quote presented by a PC(USA) entity was none other than ICAHD's Jeff Halper.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Presbyterian Affiliate: Jews Should 'Get a Life'. Methodists: Israel the 'original sin' (Update).
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/14105
CAMERA's Dexter Van Zile does an excellent job of combing through the 'Mission Study' guide issued by the United Methodist Church to help members understand the Arab/Israeli conflict: Methodist Manual Maligns Israel, Stereotypes Jews. This guide and it... Read More
Rev. Stephen Goldstein? Hmmm.....
Thank you Sol - I think the Jewish community as a whole does need to reconsider our relationship to the Evangelical community - but also - we must somehow try to reach out to mainstream Christian groups and tell them, in plain words, why this sort of thing is wrong-headed, offensive and dangerous.
The comments quoted above, and the general thrust of these arguments, are deeply biased. Again, we need to be aware that the Left isn't the only group capable of distorting history and telling Big Lies. But their deeply patronizing attitude toward an obviously brutalized and beleaguered minority is also just about insupportable.
Perhaps, since WWII, we had thought that mainstream Western Christians were done with victimizing Jews, and had built up a certain, obviously illusory, comfort zone here in America. And perhaps, we want to take Christians at their word - that they are, you know, "Christian" and wouldn't hurt us.
I feel these historical distortions and exhortations to "get a life" are cause for alarm, given our actual and very unhappy history in the Christian world. The idea that we could simply abandon the people of Israel, adopt an obviously erroneous view of history and force the Israelis into a suicidal corner, is just horrendous.
Between this stuff and the recent hit piece by Arun Gandhi in the Washington Post, which was absolutely hateful, and of course the non-stop chatter on the 'net, the resurgent far Right, the Arab and Iranian media and in the UN and left wing "academia", I think the Jewish community is in big trouble.
Again.
From the Jargon Dictionary: Get a life! imperative: ..a way of suggesting that the target is taking some obscure issue of theology too seriously.
Israel's existence and security are hardly an abscure point of theology, and Jews have every right to be deeply concerned in the future of their co-religionists in that beleaguered land. Those Christians who use this expression to mock and belittle Jews for their worry are actually telling them: We don't really care about the possibility of Israel's demise, because we have a good and full life here, in bounteous America. Why don't you follow our example, discard your fears about Holocaust phase II, and just join us in our good and full life in America the beautiful. We'll reward you you by getting off your case.. for a while.
If I understand Christian ethics properly, this is not a Christian way of relating to one's neighbours.
This is not the golden rule.
Thank you Noga, and amen.
I think we should all take it upon ourselves to write these people and express our concerns.
I really worry that, a few decades hence, people will be telling Jews to "get over" Holocaust II.
All I can say as is these Christians are not of the same strain as our founding fathers. Our founders were Judeo-Christians, and so am I.
Maybe it's time to start calling the Presbyterian Church a hate group. Hello, ADL? B'nai B'rith? They glad hand it up with Hezbollah and hate everything Israel. What else should they be called?
The ICAHD, mentioned in the update, is the "Israeli Committee Against House Destruction"(www.icahd.org). The only Israelis with whom the Presbyterian Church seems to be in contact with are Palestinian Christians and extreme left-wing Israelis, so it is understandable how it develops the positions it does. Of course it is more than likely that there is no attempt to communicate with a broader spectrum of Israelis