Prominently featured at the website of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is an “An Open Letter of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to our American Jewish Interfaith Partners” which is signed by the denomination’s three senior officials and which begins:
We are reaching out to you after our General Assembly’s action, by a 310-303 vote, to recommend to the Presbyterian Foundation and the Board of Pensions to divest from three North American corporations following extensive corporate engagement. The assembly concluded that further engagement would not bring an end to their pursuits that further the Israeli occupation in Palestine.
Read the whole thing at pcusa.org. It is gibberish, nonsense of the worst sort: deeply disingenuous double talk intended to skim over the biased proceedings which produced it. Now the PCUSA, as its members call it, has taken an official position against Israel and so I, as an elder in the PCUSA — no longer a “ruling” elder in my congregation, having wrapped up my second such stint last year — have to take a position for or against the PCUSA based on it.
Many PCUSA congregations across the country are already engaged in the process of “discerning” whether to remain within the splintering denomination, and this new assault on Israel and the virulent language employed — “occupation” — will no doubt make that process much easier for hundreds of thousands of us. If their congregations don’t leave, they will. They will not be part of the American intifada against Israel.
Read more at http://washingtonexaminer.com/what-should-a-presbyterian-do-when-his-church-abandons-his-principles/article/2550299
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Palestinians have now murdered the 3 kidnapped Israeli teenagers. But you won’t hear about that from PCUSA.
Name calling is hurtful and never acceptable.
Name calling? Oh, you mean names like “bigoted” or “intolerant” or “ignorant”? I don’t know how the lefties think it’s alright for them to label and name call when they’re called on the carpet for their half truths and so forth. If you can’t take it, don’t dish it out!!! You just remember how hurtful it is when you have “occasion” to name call… Will you, Concerned?
The comments on the Layman are becoming increasingly shrill and strident. It does not advance an argument to use slurs.
I also wondered if the PCUSA will condemn the murder of the boys by Palestinians.
There is too much frustration with the PCUSA. It’s best to move on, as I did 15 years ago. Recently I began visiting this website to read the comments after the assembly votes. Sorry I’m here to read the disappointment people feel. I recommend you think about leaving your church so you can have peace. I found it in the Wesleyan denomination. Look for a conservative denomination near your house.
Hamas kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers – ages 18, 16, and 16. One was an American citizen. And the Palestinians celebrated. And yet, if Israel fights back, the PC(USA) will condemn such action.
So: How does Israel talk to people who basic plank in their platform is that Israel should be not exist? Only by the one thing the Palestianians understand: Peace through superior fire power.
The PCUSA agrees with our liberal govt.
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“America: Biggest Bankroller of Palestinian Killers”
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/america-biggest-bankroller-of-palestinian-killers/
“Any new government with which Hamas is associated, in any way, shape or form, is little more than a smokescreen behind which Hamas and its jihadists brothers will be able to operate with impunity to kill innocent Israeli civilians. U.S. taxpayer monies, to the tune of a half a billion dollars this year alone in direct aid plus another quarter of a billion dollars funneled through the UN, will end up helping to fund this.”
It is surprising that HP and Motorola have escaped the scrutiny of the SRI standards this long. The statement of the GA does in fact represent the position most churches in the PCUSA support, namely that the Church should not benefit or appear to benefit financially from the lucrative business of war. Notwithstanding all the pro and anti Israel rhetoric, we have not applied any standard to companies doing business in Israel that we have not applied to companies doing business anywhere else, including specially within the United States. However we should not fool ourselves into thinking that we are somehow thereby not benefiting from the business of war. Many of our members who tithe of their wealth to the Church have themselves made their fortunes from the business of war. We do not reject their tithes. And virtually every university, company, and bank in the US has in one way or the other benefited from lucrative defense contracts. One would question whether it can be shown at all that none of the mutual funds in the PCUSA’s holdings have ties to any of the companies disallowed by the SRI standards. So ultimately our position is shallow and cosmetic. It is a travesty to our faith in Jesus Christ that it is impossible to pay even cosmetic lip service to living according to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount and worshiping at the feet of the Prince of Peace without causing such rancor, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
For further reading see: http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?%2Fsf%2Fpage%2F31394A
So a Palestinian youth is burned to death and his cousin is beaten and this is anti-Semitism. Lots of atrocities on both sides and it is time to say stop.