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Dershowitz On Presbyterian Anti-Israel Decision
Israel National News ^ | 10 Aug 04

Posted on 08/10/2004 1:30:41 PM PDT by xzins

Dershowitz On Presbyterian Anti-Israel Decision 18:19 Aug 10, '04 / 23 Av 5764

The Presbyterian Church (USA) resolved last month to condemn Israel's anti-terror partition/wall, to continue to fund the Avodat Yisrael church in Philadelphia that engages in missionary work towards Jews, and to divest from companies that do business with Israel. Excerpts from an article in the Los Angeles Times by Law Prof. Alan Dershowitz in response to the Presbyterian Church's anti-Israel decisions:

"The Presbyterian Church (USA) has committed a grievous sin. The General Assembly of that church has voted to divest from only one country in the world. No, it was not China, which has occupied Tibet for half a century and continues to deny basic human rights to its own citizens. No, it was not Iran, which threatens nuclear holocaust, executes dissenters and denies religious freedom to Christians and Jews. No, it was not North Korea, Libya, Russia, Sudan, Cuba or Belarus. It was - you guessed it - Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and America's most reliable ally in a troubled part of the world.

"The way it will work is simple: A blacklist will be prepared for the church's leaders, showing companies that earn more than $1 million annually from investments in Israel or that invest more than $1 million a year in Israel. The Presbyterians plan to divest from any company on the list - with a handful of exemptions for companies that deal in education, social welfare programs and construction.

"How did the church come to such a ludicrous, wrongheaded position? Just look at the resolution itself, which bursts with bigotry and ignorance. It effectively blames the Israelis for Palestinian slaughter of civilians by asserting that the occupation is the "root" of terrorism. This canard ignores the reality that the Palestinian leadership opted for murder and violence as the tactic of choice well before there was any occupation, and that the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad have vowed to continue murdering Jews after the occupation ends, as long as the Jewish state exists.

"The Presbyterian resolution effectively calls for the end of Israel by insisting on "the right of [Palestinian] refugees to return to their homeland." This is a well-known euphemism for turning Israel from a Jewish state into another state with a Palestinian majority. (Jordan is the other.)

"The Presbyterian resolution also condemns Israel's military actions taken in defense of its civilians. It claims, without an iota of proof and against all the available evidence, that Israel commits "horrific acts of violence and deadly attacks on innocent people," when the truth is that Israel, like the United States, goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid killing innocent people. It equates Israel's targeting of terrorists with Palestinian targeting of civilians.

"...Divestment also encourages the continued use of terrorism by Palestinian leaders, who see that when Israel responds to their terrorism, it causes an important church to punish Israel. I do not believe that a majority of the 2.5 million Presbyterians in the U.S. want their church used to support terrorism. But they are now on notice that their church has been hijacked and its name misused in the service of an immoral tactic.

"...Unless the church rescinds this immoral, sinful and bigoted denigration of the Jewish state, it will be "participating in" and "contributing to" anti-Jewish bigotry and the encouragement of terrorism [in the words of a Presbyterian resolution of 1987]. ...Will grassroots Presbyterians overthrow and prune the rotten branches to prevent the rotting for the next generation under their influence, or will they passively allow the desecration of their faith by leftist radicals?"

In response to much criticism of the decisions, the Church released a statement of justification. Regarding the criticism of its claim that occupation is the "root" of terrorism, the Church said only that its position was not new: "In previous Assemblies, the church has called for an end to the occupation, as the principal cause of the conflict."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dershowitz; divest; investments; israel; palestine; pcusa
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To: Tulane

"Since when is it "bigoted" to excercise a right to do business with whom one (in this case the church) chooses?"

We used to have signs in this country's businesses which said "Whites Only" and job announcements which said "No Irish Need Apply."

The PCUSA's bigotry is self-evident, the conscious, intentional decision to do evil against a nation solely on the basis of its faith.

The proof of this is manifest: no sanctions against the non-Jewish perpetrators listed by Dershowitz, all of whom have authored obscenities which by comparison render Israel's acts of self-defense imperceptibly insignificant, and which endanger our and the world's peace much more severely.

It is plain anti-Jewish hate, and that is bigotry pure and simple, no matter how you, and they, attempt to rationalize it.

Equally great a crime however is the adoption of a policy based deliberately and consciously on lies. Goebbels never did worse than what the Presbyterians have done in this statement of their apostasy. They as a corporate church have left the Christian faith and plunged into the outer darkness.


41 posted on 08/10/2004 5:37:17 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: Montaignes Cat

As for PCUSA being a dying denomination, I searched the Western Pennsylvania 152XX zipcodes at their website (pcusa.org) and found a long list of churches, including two of the wealthiest and most powerful churches in this area, Shadyside Presbyterian and Fox Chapel Presbyterian .




This denomination, while it has about $6 billion in assets stashed away in pension funds and "foundation" money, has been declining drastically in recent decades. Don't mistake residual wealth for healthy future prospects:


http://www.layman.org/layman/news/2004-news/former-moderator-rogers.htm

Former Moderator Rogers puts
positive spin on PCUSA shrinkage

By John H. Adams
The Layman Online
Tuesday, July 13, 2004 Despite the largest loss in membership in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 25 years, former General Assembly Moderator Jack B. Rogers has declared that the newly released Comparative Statistics for 2003 include "much to encourage us … They are a testament to the evangelism of generations of Presbyterians."

The title of his essay is "Encouraging Figures."

"Our statistics show the unifying power of Christ's message that cuts across human boundaries," said Rogers, whose comments about the data are posted on the PCUSA's Web site. "It demonstrates the exciting variety of people and programs that are called Presbyterian. We are a marvelously diverse group in age, gender, and ethnicity. From that comes notable creativity."

Rogers was moderator of the 213th General Assembly (2001-2002). He attacked the Confessing Church Movement and evangelicals (calling them "militant fundamentalists" and comparing them to Osama Bin Laden) and advocated same-sex marriages. Consequently, membership losses in 2002 and 2003 were the highest two-year decline since before the 1983 reunion of the two mainline Presbyterian denominations that became the PCUSA.

But in his assessment of the 2003 Comparative Statistics, Rogers found little to lament. And his spin on the data was to turn negatives into positives.

"What catches the future pastor's eye is the fact that almost 4/5ths of our smallest congregations are without an installed pastor," he said. "That could mean opportunities for mid-career people to have 'tent-making' vocations."

He delighted to discover that, "In 2003, there were 733 women candidates under care out of a total candidate pool of 1,371.The number of women in seminary and in active ministry has shown steady growth over the last nine years."

He also gleaned from the data that the PCUSA includes "a rainbow of ethnicities."

Rogers goes beyond the Comparative Statistics to find other positive news – the denomination's $40-million Mission Initiative Campaign, which is trying to raise money for new church development and foreign missions.

He links the campaign, a.k.a., "Joining Hearts & Hands," to a spike in new church development in 2003 – increasing from a five-year average of 27 to 38 in 2003. But Rogers omitted any reference to the campaign's status. So far, according to a second-quarter report posted on the PCUSA Web site, the campaign's expenses have exceeded its cash contributions by $802,626.

He also omitted any reference to the loss of 46,658 members in 2003 and 41,812 in 2002, the years in which membership fluctuations might have been influenced by his leadership.

Rather, he declared, "In some ways Comparative Statistics is like a snapshot of a really big family. It increases our appreciation of the goodness of God to us. These numbers reflect our achievements and our challenges."


42 posted on 08/10/2004 5:56:56 PM PDT by Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek
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To: xzins; Tulane
No, it's not anti-semitic.

Jesus...these PCUSA Presbys are just your run of the mill Birkenstock lefties who think the Palis are oppressed because the PCUSA leaders are plainass nutjobs. They like abortion and homosexual sodomy and probably like JINOS quite a bit as brothers in arms (spiritually). They are very ecumenical.

Lumping them into bed with National Alliance or Christian Identity is unfair.

I hate defending them cause I loathe them.

For what it's worth....I'm an Evangelical Believer and Culture Warrior bordering on militant...lol
43 posted on 08/10/2004 6:03:11 PM PDT by wardaddy (Support the Swifties!)
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To: PresbyRev

Hey, PR, just to put things in perspective...I am a MethoREV....so I know the B.S. you have to put up with. My denom is probably worse.


44 posted on 08/10/2004 6:10:20 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army and Supporting Bush/Cheney 2004!)
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To: xzins

The Palestinian terrorists, led by the Godfather of modern terrorism,Yasser Arafat, supports Islam-Fascists and their attacks against Jews and Christians, and have wreaked havoc on the Palesrinian Christian population.

I have taken note that the only groups who are actually
questioning the tenets of Zionism are anti-Israel, anti-semites and their Islamo-fascist allies who are not seeking a world with a peaceful Israel, they are seeking a world with NO Israel.


45 posted on 08/10/2004 6:39:26 PM PDT by Cincinna (Beware the RED QUEEN)
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To: Cincinna

I just read something that I didn't know. Arafat isn't a Palestinian....he's Egyptian...

Did you know that???


46 posted on 08/10/2004 8:53:26 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army and Supporting Bush/Cheney 2004!)
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