Emphasizing "actual consequences" is spot on. (Try imagining legal structures without enforcement mechanisms.)

There's much weariness under the sun, but it's heartening to see consequences of some moment being effected in cases like this. What has prospects of being accomplished (e.g., assessing and effectively confronting the PC/USA) vs. what is impractical (e.g., utopian schemes) is, and will ever be, a debateable and reasonably contested set of themes. But at some level, however gauged or assessed, if people refrain from thoughtfully and responsibly acting on the social/political stage, then eventually it will need to be concluded that a pronounced moral apathy and negligence is at work. To imagine otherwise is to be willing to be deluded.

I chose to frame this in broad, highly generalized terms because, not only do we need to distinguish between what can reasonably be hoped to be accomplished vs. that which is impractical and vain, such as utopian imaginings and schemes, but we also need to distinguish between what can be accomplished in the short term vs. what can only be accomplished within a longer, more strategically conceived view, a broader and more distant horizon, but practical nonetheless.

Repetition. Repetition can serve both malignant as well as benign and beneficial propaganda purposes. Repetition can serve, can help to emphasize important, indeed critical and pivotal, themes. With that in mind, once again, I'll take the liberty to cite some of Matthias Kuntzel's critical and well documented work (and especially so since an adjacent post references the theme of Arab/Muslim holocaust denial). More specific examples:

European Roots of Antisemitism in Current Islamic Thinking
Islamic Antisemitism And Its Nazi Roots
National Socialism and Anti-Semitism in the Arab World
Abbas and Hamas

This is no mere and no common obsessiveness. Without recognizing the problem, responsibly assessing and articulating it, framing it within a broadly conceived horizon and then, finally, beginning to execute it, however haltingly and imperfectly at times, without all that the problem will never be overcome. Some problems (and I strongly suspect this is one such, similar to the Cold War, though on a different scale and involving different parameters) are inter-generational problems and will not be surmounted within a truncated span of time or within a narrowly conceived framework. In the end this problem will either be recognized for what it is, elemental and pivotal, or we will fail in that recognition and continue to delude ourselves with Oslo-like imaginings and mellifluous, Clintonian styled maunderings and Orwellian news-speak. Choices will be made, and each choice made will have its own set of ramifications. Oslo-like delusions, however rationalized, are no longer a viable option. This too is why Left and Left/Dem initiatives and imaginings and corrosives have the very real potential to undermine some long-term prospects which are critical, not merely peripheral.

After John Buchanan had a letter in the NY Times defending the church's actions, I e-mailed him and asked if he could point me to any statements or actions the Presbyterian Church has taken with respect to oppression of its co-religionists in Egypt and all over the Middle East.

I'll let you all know the instant I get any response.

I won't be holding my breath. Heh.