Solomonia Archive: Exposing Sabeel

Monday, July 11, 2005

NGO-Monitor continues the expose of Palestinian-Christian group Sabeel -- a Christian group in service of a base political cause.

Sabeel - An Ecumenical Facade To Promote Hatred

...Ateek has been able to garner considerable international support for his activities. In 2002, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Laureate, signed on informally as an international patron for Sabeel, in order to "assist the Palestinian Christian organization in its outreach and development work with Christian Churches around the world." Likewise, Ateek himself has been referred to as "Palestine's Desmond Tutu" in Sojourners magazine, the publication of a self-described "social justice" Christian ministry.

Ateek's influence has been further amplified in the US and Canada by the Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) network of chapters that disseminate Ateek's rhetoric. It is also assisted by a broader and looser network of supporters in mainstream Protestant churches across America, who in turn reach the broader public audience through their own considerable individual and collective influence.

The result, as is now clear, is displayed in the divestment campaign, which is the latest form of political warfare against Israel and the Jewish people, and as far removed as possible from the claimed ecumenical objective.

Posted by Solomon at 6:48 PM on Monday, Jul 11, 2005 | Comments (2)
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#1 Diana | July 11, 2005 7:38 PM

Sabeel: Yahweh is a biogot and a genocidal maniac...

Dr. A. Clare Brandabur, an anti-Israel activist, speaking at the Ecumenical, anti-Israel, Sabeel Center Conference in Bethlehem, chose to vilify the Old Testament. "We must liberate God from the Old Testament. To me this is in fact the real meaning of a theology of Liberation for the Palestinian crisis.... your Old Testament Yahweh is a bigot and a genocidal maniac, and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as you understand him, is not my God."

Dr. A. Clare Brandabur, speaking at the Sabeel Center Conference in Bethlehem, said "We must liberate God from the Old Testament. To me this is in fact the real meaning of a theology of Liberation for the Palestinian crisis.... your Old Testament Yahweh is a bigot and a genocidal maniac, and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as you understand him, is not my God."

Sabeel is just a tad over the top on the Jew-hating thing.

The Sabeel Conference in Bethlehem: Hoping Against Hope, Sabeel Center website, http://mideastchristians.virtualactivism.net/newsarticles/conferencesabeel.htm

#2 Jonathan Edelstein | July 12, 2005 10:24 AM

Given that Brandabur apparently gets her notions of Jewish religion from Israel Shahak, I don't find this very surprising. (And did you know that in Brandabur's world, the Lebanese civil war was started by Israel, the US and Opus Dei?)