Posted on 01/26/2008 4:14:25 AM PST by fweingart
Methodist renewal advocate Mark Tooley says United Methodist Church officials are urging church agencies and members to divest their holdings in Caterpillar Incorporated, for doing business with Israel.
Tooley, who directs the United Methodist Committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, says the UMC has about $15 million of Caterpillar stock in its pension fund. But he says the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society has unveiled a proposal to divest from Caterpillar ahead of the church's governing General Conference in April. Several United Methodist regional conferences have endorsed anti-Israel divestment, according to Tooley.
"It's another example of the anti-Israel bias of the mainline churches," he argues. "[They] tend to turn a blind eye towards the human rights abuses and support of terrorism of Arab regimes, but yet are very critical of and hostile towards Israel."
Tooley says the Methodist recommendation only targets Caterpillar because of the controversy that stemmed from the Presbyterian Church USA's divestment policy in 2006. "That was rather disastrous. The Presbyterians fairly quickly revoked their policy," he says. "So I think the Methodist lobby office is trying to avoid that example by simply going after one company in a symbolic way. But nonetheless, the intent is the same -- which is to punish Israel."
The Methodist renewal advocate says he is fairly hopeful that most Methodists will not go along with this divestment plan, and thinks most Americans will remain friendly toward Israel.
So this is how the Methodist church plans to bring about “renewal”? Good grief.
This is what happens when you hire professional Methodists. They need to justify their existence with this crap
“Another example of the decline of the Methodist Church into the mire of secular humanism. Any good ones left in congregations should be embarrassed enough by this action to leave.”
Many local Methodist congregations are very conservative. My Mom, Sister, and several nieces are devout Methodists and all are strong conservatives. The support the local church but send no funds to the national Methodist organization.
I stopped attending our local United Methodist Church after the Elian Gonzalez episode.
Well, I guess this is one way for the Methodist Church to ignore all those empty pews on Sunday.
And people wonder why church participation is down. It’s not that less people believe in God’s Word = it’s that they believe less in man’s organizations.
Churches devolve more and more into just another business enterprise. Seems nothing in the hands of man can stay uncorrupted for long
I’ve been a Methodist for many years. I keep hearing more and more bad things about the church. I’ve never seen or heard of anything by the churchs I’ve gone to like I keep hearing about on this site. Maybe its because I have always gone to smaller churches in a small town. I don’t know if this is a widespread problem or just everytime a few idiots do something stupid they make a big deal about it.
I used to live down the road from a Caterpillar factory. Its a pretty good company and everyone I know who works there love working there.
Mark Tooley and United Methodist Church officials, you are NOT the boss of me!
Church politics are very similar to national politics. Not enough people pay attention to what is actually going on day-to-day. If they did, they would throw out most of the bureaucrats.
LLS
I hope their pension fund goes broke with decisions like these.
“I’ve been a Methodist for many years. I keep hearing more and more bad things about the church. I’ve never seen or heard of anything by the churchs I’ve gone to like I keep hearing about on this site. Maybe its because I have always gone to smaller churches in a small town. I don’t know if this is a widespread problem or just everytime a few idiots do something stupid they make a big deal about it.”
Like the Episcopals, Presbyterians, and apparently the Lutherans now the Methodists have allowed certain radicals to obtain positions of leadership at the national level. Usually these people work their way in from an extremely liberal congregation in San Fran, Boulder, or parts of Wisconsin. Once in position they manipulate the system to push their liberal agenda.
Most Congregations have limited access to the information which IMO is intentional. Each church provides some monetary support and in many cases their property is actually owned by the national organization. They also exercise economic control over the clergy. For example Presbyterian ministers will lose their retirement if they move to another denomination.
And the media, academia, and our government bureaucracies, Federal, state, and local. It's Gramscian socialism - infiltration into the root institutions of our society so that they can drive our agenda. I believe Antonio Gramsci died in jail. At least I hope so.
No kidding! They have confused religion and politics to the point that they can't tell the difference any more.
Liberal Church “leadership” can kill a Church. Liberals always find a way to worm their way in.
This is - or at least was - the case with many small town and rural ELCA (Lutheran) churches as well. These local congregations were, by-and-large, traditional; as the more conservative pastors were removed through attrition, their replacements were generally new (left-leaning, if not socialist) products of the ELCA seminaries. The UMC hierarchy was taken over by leftists at an earlier date, but the ELCA's pact with the Episcopalians gave them a tremendous push towards the door of apostacy. The trend is obvious.
"I don't give the national organizations money," is a natural response, but the national bodies are very adept and assiduous when it comes to getting their shekels; one may believe the contents of the collection plate are staying well within the circle of the beloved and familiar, but wishful thinking counts for very little. The local congregations still pay for the "progressive" phagocytization of their church "home."
Nowadays, it appears that the more fundamentalist churches are being co-opted by the left through the likes of Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo and Rick Warren. The apostle Paul is clear enough about the wolves in sheep's clothing, and I see for myself more of these predators moving into what is popularly (if not accurately) described as "evangelical" church communities; the wolf population is growing and spreading to where there are enough remaining sheep to eat.
Mr. niteowl77
Well put and right on the money. These “mainline churches” are on the decline while non denominational churches are on the rise.
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