Posted on 07/22/2004 8:32:59 AM PDT by SJackson
(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA), under fire from Jewish groups for its funding of messianic Jewish congregations and a move to divest from Israel, is appealing to both faiths to respect whatever "fragility of trust" still exists between them.
In a three-page statement issued late Tuesday, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick defended recent church votes that one prominent Jewish group called "hostile and aggressive." "I encourage Presbyterians to maintain their relationships with people of other faiths, with sensitivity to the fragility of trust in the present climate of violence and terror," said Kirkpatrick, the church's highest elected official.
Church headquarters in Louisville, Ky., has been "inundated" with hundreds of angry phone calls and e-mails from Jews who protested votes on Jewish evangelism and the Israeli-Jewish conflict during the church's recent General Assembly in Richmond, Va. Delegates narrowly voted -- 260-233 -- to maintain funding for churches, including one in suburban Philadelphia, that are geared toward Jewish converts to Christianity.
The Philadelphia congregation, Avodat Yisrael, received $260,000 from various church agencies and has been called offensive by Jews for its use of Jewish ritual music and sacred objects such as Torah scrolls and menorahs in Christian worship.
Delegates also voted 431-62 to study whether the church should divest from companies doing business in Israel. The last time the church altered its portfolio in protest of a foreign country was in the 1980s against South Africa.
Recent articles in the Jewish press had reported that the church approved a blanket divestment. Rather, a decision will not be made until next March when a committee reports back with recommendations to church leaders.
In a separate 471-34 vote, delegates said the controversial Israeli security wall "ghettoizes the Palestinians and forces them onto what can only be called reservations," the church said.
In his statement, Kirkpatrick refused to apologize for any of the votes. Kirkpatrick said the votes on Israel were taken "as part of a larger commitment of the PC(USA) to human rights and social justice all around the world. It should be noted that the (church) is not singling out Israel and Palestine alone for observation and critique."
Funding decisions are handled by local bodies called presbyteries, and church leaders trust the projects that receive money have been vetted and are appropriate, he said.
B'nai B'rith International, in a statement issued Tuesday, said the "hostile and aggressive" votes "shattered 50 years of interfaith dialogue" between Jews and Presbyterians. The group said talks must be suspended until church leaders "recant."
Joel Kaplan, president of the international humanitarian group, demanded an apology for the "absolutely horrifying" statements by the Presbyterians that he said ignored the ongoing terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. "I think the Presbyterian Church on this issue totally departed from anything real, rational or fair, and has in a great way debased itself and its reputation," Kaplan said in an interview.
Last week, the Anti-Defamation League said "targeting Jews for conversion to Christianity is an insult to the Jewish people."
The Rev. Jay Rock, the church's interfaith affairs director, acknowledged that relations with Jewish groups have hit near rock-bottom. "Its certainly a very tense point, but I don't think it's going to break the relationship," Rock said. "At least we don't have any intention of doing that on our side."
Rock pointed out, however, that a 1987 statement that discouraged targeting Jews for evangelism because they "are already in a covenantal relationship with God" remains unchanged. Because national-level funding was preserved, more local bodies could still request money for messianic congregations. "But frankly, given the amount of outcry there's been, I don't think very many presbyteries would want to walk into such a hornet's nest," Rock said.
The church's coordinator of Middle East affairs, the Rev. Victor Makari, acknowledged that the three separate votes could be viewed as hostile to Jews, but insisted they were not. "If we must generalize, they might perceive the one action about the particular congregation in Philadelphia and the rumored action on divestment to be a collaborative campaign against the Jews, but that's not the case," Makari said in an interview.
The Rev. Susan Andrews, who ended her term as moderator at the Richmond assembly, said the church needs to "rethink" how it funds evangelism so as not to offend Jews. Andrews' church in Bethesda, Md., shares space with a Jewish congregation. "I do not believe the Presbyterian Church is backing off in any way, shape or form from its historic relationship with American Jews," she said, "and we continue to respect and understand that the Jewish people are already in covenant with God."
PCUSA is out of its friggin' mind.
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
It almost makes me want to convert to Christianity just so that I could mean it when I tell them to go to hell.
If Jesus came back in Bethlehem, his Jewish co-religionists would take care of him just fine, while the Presbyterians would let him starve rather than support Israel.
Well, it's nice to the see leftists (i.e., PCUSA and ADL) at each other's throats.
I hope Freepers will keep in mind that Presbyterian (USA) is just one, and does not speak for all, of the several Presbyterian denominations. I am with a Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) denomination. We know how to read the Bible and we know that God will bless those who bless Israel.
I know my neighborhood presbyterian church is going to have several thousand reasons to regret this.
Are the various Presbyterian hospitals (Rush in Chicago, NY Presbyterian in NY) affiliated with one of the Presbyterian denominations?
If they are affiliated with PCUSA, does that mean that they will no longer hire Doctors who received training in Israel or work on clinical trials of drugs or medical devices developed by Israeli companies, or work with Beilinson or Hadassah or Shaare Zedek or other top Israeli hospitals?
This is going to create an interesting rift which will marginalize and perhaps destroy the Presbyterians. Too bad. A very ill-considered decision, IMHO. As ill-considered as the suicide bombings.
Noted. Between the Presbyterians and Anglicans, something tells me that some schisms are coming up fast.
Most of the theologically conservative Presbyterians left years ago for the OPC, PCA, and some other, smaller groups. Even some of the moderates left and formed the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. There aren't a whole lot of congregations left which are disposed to leave, although they are losing over 40,000 members a year.
Freaking apostates! PCUSA does not speak for Christianity.
Does the PCUSA list their membership numbers online? I was looking for this the other day and couldn't find them.
Unofficial chart of losses 67-2002 (selected years)
http://www.layman.org/layman/news/2003-news-articles/pcusas-reasons-for-staggering-loss.htm
Official numbers, 1960-2001
http://www.pcusa.org/research/reports/trends.htm
Lots of other official statistics can be reached from here:
http://www.pcusa.org/research/statistics.htm
Losses have been over 40,000 for each of the last two years.
Thanks.
Count me as one of the losses. PCA now.
Too bad that the OBJECTS are 'sacred'!
Have these fools forgotten #1?????
THIS guy obviously does not know the OT; or the New, either!!!!
NIV Jeremiah 34:17-18
17. "Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom for your fellow countrymen. So I now proclaim `freedom' for you, declares the LORD--`freedom' to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.
18. The men who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.
NIV Jeremiah 31:31-32
31. "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
32. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, " declares the LORD.
NIV Luke 22:13-20
13. They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
14. When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table.
15. And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
16. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."
17. After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you.
18. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
19. And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."
20. In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
I don't understand your point.
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