GAC debates Hezbollah meeting, firings in closed-door session
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, March 31, 2005
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The issue of a Presbyterian delegation’s meeting last October with a Lebanese terrorist leader boiled up again during Thursday’s meeting of the General Assembly Council.
After listening to members of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy criticize John Detterick’s firing of two denominational employees in the aftermath of the meeting with the Southern Lebanon Hezbollah leader, the council suddenly decided to go into executive session.
The council met behind closed doors for more than an hour, opened the doors and announced that the meeting had been recessed for the day, making no mention of what had happened.
At least two members of the council refused to remain in the room for the closed meeting. John Bolt, an editor for a news service, told the council that he believed it was wrong to go into executive session to discuss a major public issue. Council member Bill Saul, who is also the chairman of the denomination’s $40-million campaign to raise money for world and national mission, did not make a statement to the council but left the meeting because of “principle,” he told The Layman Online.
Detterick, the executive director of the General Assembly Council, was not invited to be part of the meeting. It was Detterick who fired Kathy Lueckert, his deputy director, and Peter Sulyok, director of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, after the Presbyterian delegation’s 15-day junket to the Middle East.
Detterick was obviously upset by the way the advisory committee had been able to convince the council to preempt its next scheduled report – which was an affirmation of the procedure and the reasons Detterick had unilaterally fired the two employees. That report was delayed until Saturday, the closing day of the council’s meeting in Louisville.
Detterick has not disclosed exactly why he fired Lueckert and Sulyok – saying that Presbyterian policy protects the confidentiality of personnel decisions. But before he fired them, Detterick, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase said they had advised the advisory committee members not to meet with Hezbollah because of its reputation for terrorism.
During a trip to Beirut in October, Ron Stone, an elected advisory committee member, was quoted by a Hezbollah-owned television station as saying that Hezbollah officials were more gracious than Jewish officials. Stone’s statement was broadcast widely in the region, and many Israelis were infuriated.
The relationship of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Jewish groups – both in the United States and Israel – were already tense before the advisory committee members met with Hezbollah representatives. The Jewish groups have continued to protest the vote by the 216th General Assembly to call for divestment of Presbyterian funds in “multinational corporations doing business with Israel.” Likewise, many Presbyterians have denounced the resolution as one-sided in favor of Palestinian political interests.
Before the council went into executive session, Nile Harper, Gordon Edwards and Esperanza Guajardo spoke. Harper is the chair of the advisory committee and Edwards and Guajardo are members of the council. All three were with the Presbyterian delegation to the Middle East.
In response to a question from former General Assembly Moderator Susan Andrews, who has spoken against the divestment resolution, Gordon gave his version of what happened during the meeting with Southern Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader.
He said the Hezbollah leader, a sheikh, “gave us a very warm welcome in the name of Abraham, Jesus and Mohammed. When the question was asked if he had any advice about the [U.S.] presidential election, he asked that the cameras and tape recorders be turned off. Then he said we should read our Bibles and pray as we got ready to vote and that on judgment day, Jesus will ask if we voted for justice.”
Edwards depicted the Hezbollah leader as a “significant voice” in Lebanon, although the U.S. State Department lists Hezbollah as a terrorist organization responsible for murdering hundreds of U.S. soldiers in two bombing incidents and for recruiting terrorist suicide bombers to kill innocent Israeli civilians.
Edwards’s said Stone’s remarks should be kept in context. He noted that Stone, a retired professor of ethics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, had been at a Jewish-Christian gathering two weeks before the trip to the Middle East. He said it was a stressful evening for Stone because many Jews were antagonistic toward the PCUSA.
In Beirut, “Ron spoke from his personal experience and said, ‘The welcome that we received here today is much more gracious than that I received from the Jewish community,'” Edwards said.
Edwards said Stone’s mistake was being honest but not politically careful. “Personally, I felt like it was a good conversation. I felt it was important to talk to people that we don’t necessarily agree with. Unfortunately, that was just one comment, and it was taken out of context.”
Stone’s comment had repercussions throughout the Middle East and in the United States. Flooded with complaints from Jews and Presbyterians who believe Israel has a right to defend itself against suicide bombers, Detterick, Kirkpatrick and Ufford-Chase denounced Stone’s statement and the meeting with Hezbollah.
But Guajardo, a resident of San Antonio, painted a picture of Israel as being excessively oppressive. She said the trip to the Middle East resulted from former General Assembly Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel’s plea that Presbyterians go to that region and see for themselves. Abu-Akel is a native of the region called Palestinian and was raised in a Christian family.
“Our objectives were to meet and listen” to different groups, including government officials. (Israeli officials refused to meet with the Presbyterian delegation after Stone’s comments were broadcast on television.) Guajardo said “everywhere we went” the PCUSA was commended for the “actions of the 216th General Assembly … by initiating divestment, reiterating our call for a free Palestinian state and speaking out against the building of a security wall.”
She did not mention any contacts with Israelis who lost family members at restaurants and public places because of suicide bombers. “Our actions brought encouragement and solidarity with Arab, Christian and Moslem and all people who work for social justice” – but not with the overwhelming majority of Israelis.
Harper’s comments were the most pointed. He declared that the firing of Sulyok “was carried out without just cause or appropriate due process. ACSWP urges the GAC to examine the personal policies that permit such termination of exempt, professional staff by giving sanction to unilateral action by the executive director to dismiss staff. ACSWP believes the church is called to model justice in its internal life as well as in the wider society.”
He also charged that the review of the firings of Sulyok and Lueckert by the council’s personnel committee “did not seriously consider the issues, substance and mitigating factors … The personnel committee dealt only with the process followed by the executive director in making the dismissals. Authentic justice in the church always involve both proper process and moral substance.”
Harper concluded: “We urge the General Assembly Council not to allow this to pass by without serious reflection and appropriate action.”