Post by Paddy by Grace on Sept 4, 2008 18:38:54 GMT -7
www.kcjc.com/articles/2007/08/24/opinion/opinion/b.kcjc.opinion.silence.lutharan.group.prt
When the General Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America met in Chicago earlier this month, it had an opportunity. It had an opportunity to express outrage over the failure of the Palestinians to take advantage of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and show the world just how responsible they could be when Israel gave them something they've been demanding for decades — territory of their own.
Like virtually every other mainline church in the United States, ELCA has been telling the world that Palestinian violence and suffering is caused by the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Under this logic, Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip should have been met with a reduction of violence against Israel and an improvement in Palestinian well-being.
The fact is rocket attacks against Israel increased after the August 2005 withdrawal. So did the suffering. In June 2007, two months before ELCA's Churchwide Assembly, the Gaza Strip was the scene of an orgy of violence during which Hamas murdered members of Fatah in the street — in front of their wives and children. When Hamas declared sovereignty over the Gaza Strip, it reaffirmed its commitment to Israel's destruction.
How did ELCA's Churchwide Assembly respond to the events in the Gaza Strip? With a robust condemnation of Palestinian violence? With a ringing expression of disappointment over the failure of Palestinian leaders to take advantage of the opportunity given to them?
Hardly.
Instead, ELCA's Churchwide Assembly passed a “memorial” (resolution) that called on Lutherans to consider going out of their way to buy goods from Palestinian suppliers and to explore the feasibility of “refusing to buy products produced in Israeli settlements.”
In other words, two months after Hamas and Fatah gunmen battled it out on the streets and rooftops in Gaza, ELCA's Churchwide Assembly laid the groundwork for a boycott of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Kaufen Nicht Bei Juden! (“Don't Buy From Jews!) has been replaced with a Kaufen Nicht Bei Settlers! (Don't Buy From Settlers!) — on a provisional basis, of course. (Remember, the memorial only called for “exploration of the feasibility.”)
Exactly who is supposed to conduct this “exploration” is pretty unclear; John Brooks, director of ELCA's News Service, declared: “We don't have a committee looking into anything. It is simply a statement of possibilities.”
The likely result is that the legion of hardcore anti-Israel activists in ELCA and in other mainline churches will create a list of products manufactured by Jewish settlers in the West Bank and call on well-meaning Christians to boycott these products. These activists will use the memorial passed by ELCA's General Assembly as their mandate.
In short, ELCA's so-called peace activists have been rewarded for their obsession with Israel's misdeeds, their failure to call attention to Palestinian violence and their refusal to acknowledge growing levels of anti-Semitism in the Middle East.
A mainline Protestant denomination has made it clear, yet again, that Jewish sovereignty and the force used to defend it is the cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict — not the Arab policy of rendering the Middle East Judenrein.
No clarifications from ELCA's News Service or admonitions from Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson can change this reality. The language of the memorial gives them nothing to hide behind.
The memorial includes not one word that would lead extremists in the Middle East to think ELCA objects in any way to the escalating campaign of violence, intimidation and defamation they have perpetrated against Israel since the denomination's Churchwide Assembly passed its “Peace Not Walls” memorial in 2005.
There is not one word of criticism of Hamas's ongoing campaign of intimidation in the Gaza Strip. ELCA, which has spent decades decrying Palestinian suffering that it blames on Israel, remained silent when this suffering could not be blamed on Israel.
Rev. Bruce D. MacLaughlin from ELCA's Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod expressed doubt over the resolution, declaring: “I fear that the language we have right now confuses the Jewish community about our support for them, and it sounds like we're speaking out of two sides of our mouth.”
The real question is not what ELCA's Churchwide Assembly is saying to the Jewish community, but what it has to say to extremists in the Middle East who call for Israel's destruction.
On this issue, there is only silence.
When the General Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America met in Chicago earlier this month, it had an opportunity. It had an opportunity to express outrage over the failure of the Palestinians to take advantage of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and show the world just how responsible they could be when Israel gave them something they've been demanding for decades — territory of their own.
Like virtually every other mainline church in the United States, ELCA has been telling the world that Palestinian violence and suffering is caused by the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Under this logic, Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip should have been met with a reduction of violence against Israel and an improvement in Palestinian well-being.
The fact is rocket attacks against Israel increased after the August 2005 withdrawal. So did the suffering. In June 2007, two months before ELCA's Churchwide Assembly, the Gaza Strip was the scene of an orgy of violence during which Hamas murdered members of Fatah in the street — in front of their wives and children. When Hamas declared sovereignty over the Gaza Strip, it reaffirmed its commitment to Israel's destruction.
How did ELCA's Churchwide Assembly respond to the events in the Gaza Strip? With a robust condemnation of Palestinian violence? With a ringing expression of disappointment over the failure of Palestinian leaders to take advantage of the opportunity given to them?
Hardly.
Instead, ELCA's Churchwide Assembly passed a “memorial” (resolution) that called on Lutherans to consider going out of their way to buy goods from Palestinian suppliers and to explore the feasibility of “refusing to buy products produced in Israeli settlements.”
In other words, two months after Hamas and Fatah gunmen battled it out on the streets and rooftops in Gaza, ELCA's Churchwide Assembly laid the groundwork for a boycott of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Kaufen Nicht Bei Juden! (“Don't Buy From Jews!) has been replaced with a Kaufen Nicht Bei Settlers! (Don't Buy From Settlers!) — on a provisional basis, of course. (Remember, the memorial only called for “exploration of the feasibility.”)
Exactly who is supposed to conduct this “exploration” is pretty unclear; John Brooks, director of ELCA's News Service, declared: “We don't have a committee looking into anything. It is simply a statement of possibilities.”
The likely result is that the legion of hardcore anti-Israel activists in ELCA and in other mainline churches will create a list of products manufactured by Jewish settlers in the West Bank and call on well-meaning Christians to boycott these products. These activists will use the memorial passed by ELCA's General Assembly as their mandate.
In short, ELCA's so-called peace activists have been rewarded for their obsession with Israel's misdeeds, their failure to call attention to Palestinian violence and their refusal to acknowledge growing levels of anti-Semitism in the Middle East.
A mainline Protestant denomination has made it clear, yet again, that Jewish sovereignty and the force used to defend it is the cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict — not the Arab policy of rendering the Middle East Judenrein.
No clarifications from ELCA's News Service or admonitions from Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson can change this reality. The language of the memorial gives them nothing to hide behind.
The memorial includes not one word that would lead extremists in the Middle East to think ELCA objects in any way to the escalating campaign of violence, intimidation and defamation they have perpetrated against Israel since the denomination's Churchwide Assembly passed its “Peace Not Walls” memorial in 2005.
There is not one word of criticism of Hamas's ongoing campaign of intimidation in the Gaza Strip. ELCA, which has spent decades decrying Palestinian suffering that it blames on Israel, remained silent when this suffering could not be blamed on Israel.
Rev. Bruce D. MacLaughlin from ELCA's Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod expressed doubt over the resolution, declaring: “I fear that the language we have right now confuses the Jewish community about our support for them, and it sounds like we're speaking out of two sides of our mouth.”
The real question is not what ELCA's Churchwide Assembly is saying to the Jewish community, but what it has to say to extremists in the Middle East who call for Israel's destruction.
On this issue, there is only silence.