PCUSA publishing arm releases book accusing President Bush of orchestrating 9/11 attacks
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, July 31, 2006
Westminster John Knox Press, a division of the Presbyterian Publishing Corp., has released a book that accuses the U.S. government of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed thousands of Americans, destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and caused great damage to the Pentagon.
The corporation is the official publishing arm of the Presbyterian Church (USA) – as was duly noted by today’s headline on the Christianity Today Web site: “Official Presbyterian Publisher Issues 9/11 Conspiracy.”
The title of the book, which essentially accuses President George W. Bush and his administration of treason and conspiracy, is Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action. It was written by David Ray Griffin, a professor emeritus at the United Methodist Church’s Claremont School of Theology.
Griffin’s conspiracy theory has developed a following, including Kevin Barrett, a Muslim lecturer for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Barrett has received national attention recently for espousing the same theory. Sixty-one of the 133 members of the Wisconsin legislature signed a letter calling on university officials and Gov. James Doyle to fire Barrett before the fall term begins, when he is scheduled to teach a course on Christian-Muslim relationships.
In a broadcast on C-Span in April 2005, Griffin said the “omissions and distortions” in the 9/11 Commission report amounted to a cover-up by government officials and that the evidence suggests that the Bush administration was complicit in the 9/11 attacks.
Westminster John Knox Press has published a number of books that attack Presbyterian beliefs and policy statements. A division of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, WJK has never been reined in by the General Assembly, which must approve board members and president of the corporation, Davis Perkins.
According to a review of the book by Christianity Today, Griffin argues that “the Bush administration planned the events of September 11 so they could provide justification for going to war with Afghanistan and Iraq. He writes that although Christianity began as a specifically anti-empire gospel, the church has been silent about an imperialistic America –which he compares to the Roman Empire.”
Westminster John Knox Press has published a number of books that attack Presbyterian beliefs and its constitution, including several publications that support homosexual behavior and condemn the denomination’s constitutional prohibition against ordaining homosexuals and adulterers.
Jack Keller, vice president of WJK, defended publishing Griffin’s book in an interview with Christianity Today. “We have a long tradition of being a publisher of somewhat progressive stances on theological and social issues, so it is not out of character for us to do this,” he said. “Whether or not people were fully persuaded by the arguments, he was certainly raising some interesting issues.”