{"id":118739,"date":"2014-03-03T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=118739"},"modified":"2014-03-03T18:00:30","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T23:00:30","slug":"sharp-reporting-exposes-anti-israel-pcusa-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2014\/03\/sharp-reporting-exposes-anti-israel-pcusa-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharp reporting exposes anti-Israel PCUSA study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I once made a Presbyterian leader sputter.<\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t mean to. I just asked a question about the Middle East that he didn\u2019t like. Things like that happen.<\/p>\n

He was a Palestinian-American activist who was addressing the Religion Newswriters Association several years ago. His topic was the need to divest stocks of companies that did business with Israel until that bad ol\u2019 country stops oppressing Palestinians.<\/p>\n

During a Q&A period, I asked if companies should apply similar pressure on the Palestinian side. That\u2019s when he sputtered: \u201cDo you realize how poor Palestinians are? Were you born on the moon?\u201d Etc., etc., etc.<\/p>\n

I let him run his bolt before pointing out: \u201cMany companies do business with nations that support Palestinian guerrillas. So there is a corollary.\u201d He finally conceded that he opposed violence on all sides.<\/p>\n

How diplomatic. But the exclusive focus of his speech was on Israel.<\/p>\n

Why the trip down memory lane? It was occasioned by a new story<\/a> on \u201cZionism Unsettled: A Congregational Guide.\u201d Issued by the Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the study doesn\u2019t appear to move much from the viewpoint of my friend years ago.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m heartened to see that my skepticism is shared by the likes of the new religion writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/em>. Peter Smith\u2019s robust and many-sided article says the new guide \u201cincludes depictions of Zionism as a heresy at the root of the Middle East crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith reports also that a \u201cmajor governing body\u201d \u2014 which he identifies later as the Presbyterian Mission Agency \u2014 recommends dumping investments in three corporations that deal with Israel. As his story notes, this is the measure voted by the Presbyterian General Assembly a decade ago, then reversed at subsequent assemblies.<\/p>\n

He says the two events have \u201ccombined to roil already-tense relations between Presbyterians and Jews,\u201d giving local examples in the Pittsburgh area. And he quotes both sides:<\/p>\n

The study guide, \u201cZionism Unsettled,\u201d while not an official church declaration, represents the work of a group created by the denomination 10 years ago. The illustrated 72-page guide, produced by the Israel\/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), decries what it calls years of fruitless talk over a two-state solution, saying Israel has effectively been creating a single state with apartheid-style oppression of Palestinians. It decried Israel for \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d of Palestinians from hundreds of communities in 1948 and said the state resulted from a \u201ctoxic relationship between theology and politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gregg Roman, director of the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said he realizes the study guide \u201cisn\u2019t something that is emanating from the grassroots.\u201d But he called it \u201ca crash course to advocate for an end of the Jewish state.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it reads \u201cas if there were no wars waged against Israel, no campaign of terror by groups including Hamas and Hezbollah and \u2026 ignores the reality that Israelis and the American Jewish community support a two-state solution.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The reporter says the PCUSA leadership has \u201cdistanced itself from the publication, emphasizing the decentralized nature of the denomination\u201d \u2014 an odd claim in a church body that has long stressed<\/a> its connectional nature. Smith quotes the executive director of the Mission Agency that the report is a \u201cstatement to the church rather than on its behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Having faithfully quoted the brass, he digs into the study itself and concludes that it attacks the very ideological roots of the Jewish state:<\/p>\n

In fact, the study guide challenges the legitimacy of the Zionist project itself, saying it\u2019s rooted in the belief in \u201cexceptionalism\u201d \u2014 that one\u2019s own religious group is more important than anyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theological and ethical exceptionalism of Jewish and Christian Zionism \u2026 have been sheltered from open debate despite the intolerable human rights abuses rooted in their core beliefs,\u201d it says. \u201cThe challenge of interfaith relations is to find a way to respect theological differences and the historical experiences that gave rise to them while preventing them from becoming excuses for injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

A section written by the Rev. Naim Ateek \u2014 an Anglican minister and director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Center, an influential Palestinian Christian advocacy group in East Jerusalem \u2014 added: \u201cZionism is the problem.\u201d He calls it a heresy that \u201ccommits theological injustice by its appeal to God, history and race.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other publications had similar content, though not as in-depth. The Kansas City Star<\/em>\u2018s story,<\/a> by Lauren Markoe of the Religion News Service, bluntly says the PCUSA study \u201crejects the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.\u201d Markoe also logs Jewish objections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis publication is not an attack on particular Israeli policies but on the very idea of a Jewish return to Zion,\u201d said Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.<\/p>\n

The church, he added, \u201chas deployed the nuclear option against the vast majority of Jews, calling us inherently racist and abusive.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She also looks ahead to the next national Presbyterian gathering, with some savvy background added:<\/p>\n

Its publication also comes as the 2.4 million members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) anticipate a June meeting of the General Assembly, which is expected to take up a resolution to divest church funds from companies, that, in the view of the resolutions\u2019 proponents, further the Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBoycott, Divestment, Sanctions\u201d movement against Israel has an active base of support within the denomination, and a divestment resolution have failed by a slim margin at the last meeting of the General Assembly. It also strained Jewish-Presbyterian relations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Among the few unbalanced reports I saw was one shocker: Medill Reports at Northwestern University \u2014 one of the most respected American journalism schools \u2014 produced an article<\/a> that missed the barbs in the study and painted it as an effort at \u201cconstructive debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeking to adopt a conciliatory yet nuanced stance, the statement speaks to the church\u2019s condemnation of anti-Semitism, \u201cincluding the refusal to acknowledge the legal existence of the state of Israel.\u201d But, it clearly states when it speaks ill of Israel\u2019s violation of Palestinian human rights, such criticism \u201cdoes not constitute anti-Semitism.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps the older reporters can teach the Northwestern graduates something. Kudos to Peter Smith etal for showing that some people do remember standards in religion writing.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I once made a Presbyterian leader sputter. Didn\u2019t mean to. I just asked a question about the Middle East that he didn\u2019t like. Things like that happen. He was a Palestinian-American activist who was addressing the Religion Newswriters Association several years ago. His topic was the need to divest stocks of companies that did business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,28,63,12,4,1,19],"tags":[3016,3015],"class_list":["post-118739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godbeat","category-journalism","category-judaism","category-middle-east","category-religion","category-social-issues","category-uncategorized","category-world-religions","tag-pcusa","tag-presbyterians"],"yoast_head":"\nSharp reporting exposes anti-Israel PCUSA study<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I once made a Presbyterian leader sputter. Didn\u2019t mean to. I just asked a question about the Middle East that he didn\u2019t like. Things like that happen. 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