Posted on 06/16/2008 5:44:29 AM PDT by SJackson
Many of American Jewry's largest religious and advocacy groups have lashed out in the past few days at the Presbyterian Church USA for a new document published by the church that warned against anti-Jewish bias in the church's pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The new document "does more to excuse anti-Semitism and foster anti-Jewish motifs then it does to dispel them," according to a strongly worded letter to church leader Rev. Cliff Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church, from Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism; Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; and Dr. Carl Sheingold, executive vice president of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation.
The new version of "Vigilance Against anti-Jewish Bias in the Pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian Peace," placed on the church's Web site last week, replaces a previous version presented in May, which was welcomed by Jewish leaders and groups. It comes just days ahead of the June 21 opening of the 2008 Presbyterian Church General Assembly in San Jose, California.
Questioning with "deep suspicion" the "motivations" behind the new document, Yoffie, Epstein and Sheingold noted that the revision had dropped, among other things, the "acknowledgement of [the church's] complicity" in anti-Jewish bias, and replaced it with "a statement that is completely unbalanced in its appraisal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which contains veiled threats of 'divestment,' and which completely undoes much of the positive language and progress that were presented" in the earlier document.
While affirming the legitimacy of "denunciation of injustices the State of Israel has committed or may commit," the May version included a warning against "demonization of Israel and the Jewish people and its echoes of ancient Christian anti-Judaism" in Palestinian liberation theology. This concern was absent in the June revision. The May document also included the now-excised statement, "we are aware and do confess that anti-Jewish attitudes can be found among us."
The Jewish movement leaders wondered particularly at the motivation for dropping the sentence: "We Presbyterians aspire to build positive and respectful relations with our neighbors in the Jewish community," which disappeared in the revision.
But concern came not only from religious leaders. A statement condemning the revised Presbyterian Church document was signed by over a dozen of the largest mainstream American Jewish organizations, including umbrella groups of rabbis and synagogues, large women's groups such as Hadassah, advocacy organizations like the ADL and the American Jewish Committee, B'nai B'rith and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the policy arm of the federation system.
The umbrella Jewish statement recounted several years of tension between the Jewish community and the Presbyterian Church: "A 2004 policy stated that Israeli occupation is 'at the root of evil acts committed against innocent people on both sides of the conflict.' A 2007 church teaching resource claims a two-thousand-year continued Christian presence in the Holy Land, but writes Jews out of the history until the middle of the twentieth century. A 2008 church statement termed the rockets that Hamas has fired into Israeli civilian areas as 'provocative acts of retaliation.'"
Meanwhile, reads the Jewish statement, the revision dismisses "anti-Israel and anti-Jewish terror that has killed and maimed Israeli civilians in buses, restaurants, and markets," and describes Israel as "the oppressive force in the Israeli-Palestinian situation."
Finally, the letter took exception at the recommendation of "targeting corporations for 'engagement' as a viable approach to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No recent church policy has caused greater harm to Presbyterian-Jewish relations. In contrast, the church has yet to take any action to 'engage' corporations that foster anti-Israel terrorism through investment in state sponsors of terror, including Iran and Syria. This demonstrates a continued one-sided and distressing approach to peacemaking."
No response could be obtained over the weekend from the Presbyterian Church USA, nor was any church response made public since the controversy began last week.
Meanwhile, say the Jewish movement leaders, Jewish-Presbyterian relations have suddenly plummeted to "a new low point." Rather than explain how to avoid anti-Jewish bias, they complain, the new document "reads as a blueprint for how to engage in anti-Israel activity without being accused of anti-Semitism."
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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Rocketing Jewish civilians=provocative acts of retaliation, good line, someone should pass it on to BBC.
I just watched the movie and then read the book, Everything is Illuminated. (I liked the movie but found the book to be annoying)... but one thing I did get from the book was the sense that the inhabitants of Trachinbrod (the Jewish village in the Ukraine)were in total denial of the danger right up until the end. I feel like that now. Everyone is in total denial and those of us who aren’t are powerless. I feel like we’re being swept along by history.
Given their liberal bent, why am I not surprised that they would tend toward an anti-Jewish attitude?
We are being swept along by history, and like a powerful river, we are unable to go back upstream. All we can do is to stay upright and use whatever paddles God has given us to steer around the rocks.
Articles like this one make me cringe when they attribute such outrageous acts to “Presbyterians” in general, instead of specifically to the apostate Presbyterian Church USA. That shrinking vestige of a long-ago great denomination does not speak for all Presbyterians — and it especially does not speak for the Conservative and growing Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). The PCUSA has put aside the Gospel of Christ to preach a social gospel that is increasingly anti-American and even anti-Christian. How else to explain PCUSA’s pro-abortion, pro-Gaia, anti-Israel/pro-terrorist and anti-gun positions? Those good PCUSA members who know the truth and have stayed to fight for it and for their local church properties are a shrinking minority, and it is hard to see any way to salvage this old relic.
Re: the PC USA-you left out "pro-choice". Also, some PC USA churches prefer to use an alternative view of the Holy Trinity, referring to it as "Mother, Child and Womb" in an effort to bring the "sacred feminine" into the proceedings. But, yes, you are correct that the PCA is more "conservative". The PCA churches often tend toward Calvinist/Reformed and usually cite the Westminster Confession as an overview of their beliefs.
Folks paying attention know the PCUSA leadership has been hijacked by radical anti-semites. The PCUSA churchmembers I know here in NYC are solid, decent folks...but they have other things going on in their lives, and distant loonies purporting to speak for them aren’t high on their list of concerns.
You're right, though I doubt that media problem will change.
Lest I forget, I want to thank the folks here at FR for flagging this issue. The MSM, of course, is utterly silent on this.
The roots are deeper than that.
Anti-semitism rears its ugly head in too much of covenant theology and amillennialism.
The PCUSA once again shows why it, like so many old mainline “churches”, are about as “christian” as a bowl of stale, cold instant grits (and I’m being kind, as what I really think of them would get me a three-day time out).
Amen
I was very happy to see that.
After more than 25 years of attempting to reform our national denomination from within, recent PC(USA) actions and positions have made it clear that we still have irreconcilable theological differences that are best handled by Sunset moving to a new Presbyterian denomination.
For instance, Sunset believes Christ is “The Way” to God, while an increasing number of leadership in PC(USA) now believes Christ is just one of many ways. In addition, these same leaders in PC(USA) believe that parts of the Bible can be debated, while Sunset believes all of God’s Word is infallible. In response to this movement in PC(USA), some leaders, members and staff have either left Sunset or declined membership because of our relationship with PC(USA). In addition,
PC(USA)’s bureaucratic structure is working in conflict with Sunset’s mission to reach people for Christ. Excessive red tape is inhibiting our ability to designate our missions giving to aligned causes. Finally, PC(USA) has become more concerned with the survival of its central structure than supporting its member churches.
Here is the link to the above for anyone who is interested. Because it’s a PDF I couldn’t get a proper hyperlink on it.
I wouldn’t worry about it. The Presbyterians have become a meak little group of effetes
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