Monday, March 17, 2008
Great find from CAMERA's Dexter Van Zile: Methodist storybook indoctrinates children against Israel
...The book, "From Palestine to Seattle: Becoming Neighbors and Friends," is billed as a "storybook on Israel and Palestine" for children 6 through 12. This is no benign Sunday school text, however. It is a well-crafted bit of propaganda that portrays Israeli security checkpoints as the cause, not the result, of Palestinian violence. This message is underscored by the teacher's manual marketed along with the storybook.
The storybook describes adventures of two children from Seattle -- Allison and Matthew -- whose father, a Protestant minister, has just returned from a visit to Bethlehem.
The first part of the book describes the children's email correspondence with Tarek, a young Palestinian boy whose family's life has been disrupted by checkpoints on the West Bank and Miriam, a Jewish Israeli girl, who participates in a program that brings 9- to 12-year-old Israelis and Palestinians play together and learn about one another's religion and culture. Miriam's cousin, an Israeli soldier, has been put in prison for refusing to man checkpoints "because he thought they were wrong and were hurting people."...
...Miryam, the Jewish girl, provides some context to checkpoints by admitting that she's afraid "that one day a bomb will go off in my neighborhood," but this testimony is undercut by criticism of her Jewish friends who think she is "crazy" for meeting with "dangerous" Arabs. Miriam reports that she likes her "new Arab friends, especially Salim, he always makes everybody laugh with his jokes." Thus, the storybook offsets Miriam's fear of terrorism with Palestinian complaints about the checkpoints, the reassuring image of a Palestinian class clown and the depiction of her Jewish friends as unreasonably afraid of Arabs...
...The teacher's guide marketed alongside the storybook encourages instructors to have their students read the section on checkpoints and then have their classes play a game of "Stop and Go." Some children are given "STOP" passes and others are given "GO" passes. The children are then directed to form a single line and approach a refreshment table and attempt to get a cup of orange juice. Those with "GO" passes are given a drink, but those with "STOP" passes "must either wait in line or go back to their seats." Then the process is repeated with grapes. Children with "GO" passes are allowed to eat; those with "STOP" passes are not...
It's the kind of mushy thinking that makes divestment seem so appealing.
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The United Methodist Church is standing by their Mission Study guide -- the guide that has garnered so much criticism. See previous post: The Modern Medieval Disputation: Methodist Style. Reminder: ...Rev. Goldstein's narrative is in many ways, similar... Read More
What do you expect! Methodists are only "religion lite". Pure evil liberals.
Stories make me wonder how there is anyone left who is "pro-Israel". Our kids are being brainwashed to hate the country.
Occasionally, I get asked if I ever think that there will be another Holocaust. When I read stuff like this, I can't help but think that the answer is "yes".
Methodist - that'd be Bush.
(their underlying system of bible interpretation promotes both anti-israelism and antisemitism; oh, and Condi's denomination is even worse, amazingly)
Fortunately, Bush's politics are closer to Baptist than UMC.