By John M. Buchanan
At the 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), held last month in Detroit, members of the governing body voted to allow Presbyterian clergy to preside at same-sex weddings in states where same-sex marriage is legal (see “PCUSA votes to divest funds, to marry gays where legal”). They also approved an amendment to the church’s constitution that would change the definition of marriage from “between a man and a woman” to “between two persons, traditionally a man and a woman.” For the next two years, 173 local presbyteries will debate and vote on the change.
This is a huge step toward full equality for the gay and lesbian community in the church and society.
The other issue that dominated the assembly was a vote to divest Presbyterian funds from three companies whose products are deemed harmful to the Palestinian people and prospects for peace: Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard, and Motorola. The economic impact on the corporations will be minimal; in fact, in an ironic twist, their executives may be relieved that Presbyterians won’t be showing up at corporate headquarters asking for high-level meetings and offering stockholder resolutions. The vote has been noted by other mainline denominations agonizing over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people and will be applauded by the international BDS movement (boycott, divestment, sanctions), whose supporters argue for abandoning the two-state solution—an independent and secure Palestine and Israel living together in peace—for a one-state solution in which Jews would be outnumbered and Israel, as a Jewish state, would eventually disappear.
The decision reverberated among those in the American-Jewish community, which overwhelmingly sees the move as anti-Israel if not anti-Semitic. Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed in, sharply criticizing the Presbyterian decision on CNN.
Read more at http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2014-07/divisive-divestment
8 Comments. Leave new
How fascinating that John Buchanan cries foul over a “stacked deck” at General Assembly now that one of his favorite oxen has been gored! Evangelicals have been lodging these complaints for decades as the bureaucratic machinery of the General Assembly Office increasingly acted in partisan ways to forward the agenda of the “progressive” gay lobby at every GA meeting, only to be told by the liberal wing the process was fair and equally accessible to all. To my knowledge, John never spoke out against the obvious ramrodding of the gay agenda within the bureaucracy of the PCUSA, since it was something he clearly favored. But now he stands among the disfavored on the Israel/Palestine issue, at least within PCUSA circles, and is experiencing what we evangelicals have endured for years on other fronts. I hate to say it, John, but “Welcome to the seamy reality of PCUSA politics.”
Well said, John Buchanan. I share your concerns almost to the letter.
We picked sides in this conflict, and the PCUSA picked the wrong side.
Divestment is the most divisive issue Mr. Buchanan has seen in his career in PCUSA? Weakening and now gutting the Constitution, taking the divinity out of Jesus, taking the authority out of Scripture and the Confessions, promoting the homosexual agenda, and THIS is the most divisive thing. Mr. Buchanan is a whitewashed tomb.
it’s a disgrace that the PCUSA, or any church, invests in corporations. what would Jesus say about all of this? didn’t he tell us to separate ourselves from the world? this makes absolutely no sense to me. the fact that the PCUSA is worried about corporate investments at a time like this (or any church for that matter) speaks volumes about where this situation is headed; reallocating portfolio deck chairs and manning the life boats to the ECO.
guest,
” fact that the PCUSA is worried about corporate investments at a time like this (or any church for that matter) speaks volumes about where this situation is headed; reallocating portfolio deck chairs and manning the life boats to the ECO.”
guest,
“portfolio deck chairs”, do you know how much the PCUSA is worth? If so, why worry about them leaving?
i have no idea how much the PCUSA is worth, but i do know i started working in the financial business when i was 21 years old, i’m now 56. including many years in New York City, in some of the ‘finest’ shark pits of finance. the number of times i’ve seen institutions and individuals go from boom to bust is so large, including myself, it doesn’t even cross my mind to ask that question any more, of anyone. it doesn’t make any difference ‘how much someone is worth’, it is God who is in control of that, not man. it took me decades to learn that lesson. God can take any situation and turn it upside down in a New York minute. trust me, a lot of so called wealthy people and institutions are about to experience that firsthand. i’m finding it amusing that so many people associated with the PCUSA situation are wasting so much precious time worrying about finances/RE, which are about to turn to dust. the analogy that comes to mind is the sinking of the Titanic, i.e. rearranging of the deck chairs right before the ship is about to sink. this is a classic case of wealth, greed, power gone wild.
If some of these Cool Ones referenced the Bible more often–if they do at all–and not the disreputable and spurious Protocols of Zion, the PCUSA (now becoming known as PerfidyChurch USA and/or PoliticallyCorrectUSA and/or SCUSA, the Silly Church), the Jewish community and their modern Jewish homeland would be so much better off. Without the Presbyterian “Church” weighing in on their problems. Can PCUSA stick to the real important problems: the Sisterhood of Goddess Sophia. or whatever that was last time (?) in the GA?