Archive

From 3/2005:

Anti-Defamation League:

Proposed UCC Divestment Resolution "Very Troubling"

March 31, 2005 - From The Jewish Week:

Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, interfaith director for the Anti-Defamation League, said that “more and more, we’re hearing about Presbyterians on the ground complaining about divestment. But there seems to be very little movement on the national level.” He said the United Church of Christ leadership has decided not to offer a divestment resolution at its assembly this summer, but that there will be two resolutions on divestment proposed by regional groups, including one from the church in Hawaii that is “very troubling.” “Its discussion of the history of the [Middle East] crisis is particularly one-sided,” Rabbi Bretton-Granatoor said.

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American Jewish Congress to launch campaign against church divestment proposals

March 31, 2005 - From wire reports...

American Jewish Congress President Paul Miller today called for an end to efforts by certain church groups to divest in whole or in part from companies that do business in Israel, and announced a counter-campaign to blunt its impact: "There is an ill-advised and troublesome effort calling for total or selective divestment from corporations that do business with Israel, and to pressure others, such as Caterpillar Inc., to stop selling products to Israel. Preying on the emotions of well-meaning individuals who think that they are contributing to peace, these divestment campaigns coincides with other efforts which seek to undermine Israel's self-defense, its economy and its legitimacy, and to pressure Israel to make concessions during peace negotiations with the Palestinians. It is time to make it clear that these tactics will not work," Miller said. Miller continued, "While all people of conscience want to see peace in the Middle East, the sponsors of campaigns such as these rely on a one-sided narrative that omits the central fact that Israel has tried to negotiate peace for many years, and omits that, at least until recently, the Palestinian Authority has responded consistently with violence. Ignoring history, they pretend that Israel and its 'occupation' are the source of all problems in the region, rather than recognizing that terrorism and the refusal of Israel's neighbors to use peaceful means to resolve the conflict are what actually prevent a solution." >more...

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Happy Easter...

But you wouldn't know it looking at the UCC web site

March 27, 2005 - UCCtruths.com gets regular criticism that this site isn't religious enough and rarely mentions God ~ even though it's clearly stated that this site is not a religious web site. It's worth noting then that the UCC web site doesn't mention Easter at all today... but there's plenty of information about the ad campaign. The omission is odd since the campaign was run during the Lenton season ~ presumably to increase church attendance during the season and on Easter.

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Bob Chase's Least Favorite Website

March 14, 2005 - UCC Director of Communication Bob Chase's good friend Sam Simon has a website dedicated to his public deception called "Skunkworks 101". Simon operates a firm that lobby's on behalf of telecommunication companies (Issue Dynamics, Inc.) and is founder of the Telecommunication Research & Action Center (TRAC) which purports to "advocate for the interests of residential telecommunications customers". Bob Chase sits on TRAC's board and was profiled in a Washington Post article detailing the obvious conflict of interest when the UCC participated in a failed campaign to block MCI/WorldCom's license transfer two years ago.

Bob Chase should have been fired for not disclosing his relationship with TRAC and Sam Simon in the campaign he led on behalf of the UCC. It was plainly and wholly unethical.

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Most Presbyterians Against Divestment

March 14, 2005 - This could be a description of our denomination. From The Jerusalem Post:

The Presbyterian Church USA may have voted to begin a process of divestment from firms dealing with Israel, but there are many Presbyterians who are not happy about the move, says Rev. William Harter, minister of the Presbyterian Church of Falling Spring in Chambersberg, Pennsylvania. Harter, co-convener of Presbyterians Concerned for Jewish and Christian Relations, was in Israel last week as the leader of a group of Presbyterian ministers and lay people who had come under the auspices of the American-Israel Friendship League. His group, which is active in working toward positive relationships with Jews, is currently circulating a petition on its Web site (www.pcjcr.org) calling on the Church's General Assembly Council to postpone any further action on the divestment issue until the next meeting of the assembly next year. Harter points out that most church members were unaware of the decision, and that of those who do know about it, most oppose it. According to a report by the Presbyterian News Service last month, 61 percent of church members and 51 percent of church elders were unaware of the decision. Of those who were aware, the report said, 42 percent of the members and 46 percent of the elders disapproved, while only 28 percent of the members and 30 percent of the elders were in favor. However, among ministers, 48 percent approved and 43 percent disapproved. The story was far different among the "specialized clergy" who are not pastors of congregations. Among these people, who make up the church bureaucracy, a whopping 64 percent favored divestment, while only 24 percent were unhappy about it. This seems to confirm what Jewish leaders in interfaith relations have argued for many years; that the majority of American Protestants support Israel, but a hard core of those active in church administrative bodies work to promote an anti-Israel agenda.

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Worth Noting

March 12, 2005 - The United Church of Christ has never issued a statement about the occupation of Lebanon by Syria. Makes you wonder if all the concern about Palestinians is genuine or is really rooted in politics and anti-Semitism.

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Still Ineffective

March 12, 2005 - The controversial UCC television ad is in it's second run - but it's not getting any traction with internet traffic as reflected in Amazon.com's web site rankings:

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Jewish Week Interview

March 3, 2005 - Here's a excerpt from an interview I did with Jim Besser at The Jewish Week about divestment:

The snowballing move by main-line Protestant churches to punish Israel with economic sanctions may be one of the prices the Jewish state is paying for the growing and visible support of Evangelical Christians in this country. That ominous link emerged this week in conversations with interfaith leaders and in research by a top political scientist, as Jewish officials tried to solve the biggest puzzle in the divestment controversy: Why is the push happening now, just as the Middle East seems poised for a new peace process? “My personal belief is that [divestment] is almost entirely rooted in this,” said James Hutchins, an activist in the United Church of Christ who is opposed to the divestment crusade touched off with a vote last summer by the Presbyterian Church (USA). More recently, UCC leaders signaled they were considering a divestment resolution, and last week the World Council of Churches recommended that members consider divestment. “So much of this activity, especially in the United Church of Christ, is rooted in this anger at the boogeyman of the right-wing Christians,” Hutchins said. John Green, a University of Akron political scientist who studies the religious right, said the main-line Protestants “really dislike conservative Evangelicals — and their support for Israel is an easy target. Also, there is in many of these circles a deep antipathy to Bush and that carries over into Israel as well.” Jewish analysts say Israel has been caught in a crossfire resulting from an internal Christian dispute that is both political, with a focus on a big power shift between the two groups in recent years, and theological, with roots going back hundreds of years.

In 2003, the UCC's General Synod passed a resolution titled "Alternate voice to Christian Zionism" which defined Christian Zionism narrowly and incorrectly as "the belief that Israeli political control of Palestine is necessary to hasten the return of Christ". It seems to me the real reason for statements like this is to make it difficult to be a Christian and to support Israel. I don't believe most Christian Zionists are "dispensationalists" as some in the UCC claim. I consider myself a "Christian Zionist" - not because I believe in dispensationalism (I don't) - my support of Israel is based on a simple premise: Justice for Jews.

Church leaders criticize "Christian Zionism" because it's easy - after all, you can't be accused of being anti-Semitic by criticizing "Christian Zionism".