Posted on 08/15/2005 6:44:28 AM PDT by F14 Pilot
ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 13 (Reuters) - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on Saturday agreed to launch a campaign for peace between Israel and the Palestinians that Jewish advocates said could be seen in the Arab world as evidence of a growing condemnation of Israel by U.S. Protestants.
The resolution, titled "Peace Not Walls" was approved 668 to 269 at the biennial assembly in Orlando, Florida, of the sixth largest U.S. Christian denomination, and church leaders said a campaign for peace had become urgent in light of the Israeli security barrier under construction on Palestinian land.
Before the vote, Bishop Munib Younan, representing the denomination's sister Lutheran church in Palestine, told the 1,108 assembly members that his congregation had been split by the wall and church attendance was dropping.
"The future of the Palestinian (Lutheran) church is at stake because the current conditions are causing our children to leave in increasing numbers," Younan said via telephone.
Some critics of the resolution warned that the world might hear only the catchy title, which spotlights what Israel considers an essential defensive barrier against terrorism, without understanding the nuances of the church campaign.
"They're creating a religious document, but when it gets to the Mideast, people are reading a political document," said Dexter Van Zile of the Boston-based David Project, an Israeli advocacy group. "The Arab public is going to see 'another church is against Israel.'"
The Lutheran strategy stops short of recent moves by the 2.4-million-member Presbyterian Church (USA) to divest from Israel. The Evangelical Lutheran Church has about 5 million members.
But it calls on congregations and church agencies to consider, among prayer, advocacy and other steps, "stewarding financial resources -- both U.S. tax dollars and private funds -- in ways that support the quest for a just peace in the Holy Land."
It follows on the heels of similar action by the 1.3-million-member United Church of Christ.
The Lutherans voted for the resolution after hearing from Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, who urged the assembly to "not minimize the impact of terror and do not demonize or isolate Israel, as if somehow she alone were responsible for the current conflict."
Yes to both of you. Nutty and misguided, but not evil and definitely of his time.
My point was that criticizing Israel about the security wall falls right into both of those sentiments. It's as nutty as Luther's obsession with his bowel, and the congregations who follow this thinking are definitely of this time.
(My apologies being cruel in bringing this point home. I think Christians of all walks and Jews need to stand firmly together - let the Muslims and their secular defenders fight amongst themselves.)
How can a person conceal himself from the jinn when in the toilet?
;-)
In other words, they're liars.
They had done so well to resist the temptation to bless same-sex marriage or allow homosexual pastors, and then they do this. Amazing.
Lutherans and reform Jews
go together like SS and Kapo
You're absolutely right. We DO need to stand together to protect Israel from the Muslims and others who would do her in (including our own). It's time the church arose and took her place in this crazy universe. Mxxx
...not trying to imply he wasn't an antisemite; only that he was very much in favor of wall building (especially between Catholicism and Protestantism)
Let them preach to the Amelekites!
One of the many reasons I'm an *ex* ELCA member...
"Good grief, another Lutheran lunacy. These folks have never read their Bible or know how God feels about Israel, the apple of His eye. Touch Israel, folks, and you are doomed."
Geez, too many of you Freepers are continuing to ignore that the ELCA is only ONE BREAKAWAY BRANCH of the Lutheran Church. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is the original and is very very conservative. Please stop lumping your comments and cracks as if it is all Lutherans. It is one liberal whacko breakaway branch, and does not by any means speak for the conservative branch. Lutherans ARE NOT ALL THE SAME BRANCH!!!!!!!
I KNOW THAT!
Someone needs to tell it to that darned old MSM. But then, they agree with the ELCA (leadership) and want everyone to think that ALL lutherans are behind this stuff, in hopes that the sheep mentality will work yet again.
RB: What are you hoping for? This synod is hopelessly lost. It is gone. I saw the light 13 years ago. I am so thankful to be out of there. We are in a Bible-believing LCMS and we couldn't be happier. I wish the same serenity for you.
Toward the latter part of his life, he was, but he did not start out that way. Martin Luther initially respected Jews and considered them God's chosen people. Indeed he believed that for this very reason they would respond to the truth and beauty of the Gospel as he understood it. When they did not accept Jesus in response to active attempts at conversion, he recoiled and repudiated his earlier generous attitude.
Luther's failings and shortcomings are openly known and acknowledged in American Lutheranism. He is not deified as a man so much as his core theology is loved and respected(at least by us unreconstructed "traditional" Lutherans.)
I understand, however, how this would not be the case in Europe, especially after the Hitler years, as you point out.
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