{"id":502,"date":"2010-07-12T09:32:45","date_gmt":"2010-07-12T14:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markbraverman\/?p=502"},"modified":"2010-07-12T09:32:45","modified_gmt":"2010-07-12T14:32:45","slug":"report-from-the-presbyterian-general-assembly-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markbraverman\/2010\/07\/report-from-the-presbyterian-general-assembly-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Report from the Presbyterian General Assembly – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Something Wonderful Happened<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve just returned from Minneapolis, having attended the 219th<\/sup> General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA at the invitation of the denomination\u2019s Israel Palestine Mission Network. The PC(USA) is at the epicenter of the struggle of the Christian community in the U.S. to come to terms with the challenge of the Israel-Palestine conflict.<\/p>\n

A victory had already been achieved before the start of the Assembly.\u00a0 Overtures from presbyteries from around the country urging action on justice for Palestinians would amount to over 40% of the actions considered by the Assembly.<\/em> These included revisiting the 2004 decision to undertake phased divestment from companies implicated in the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and an overture affirming that Israel\u2019s actions meet the United Nations definition for the crime of Apartheid. A centerpiece of Presbyterian actions was the call to approve the report of the Middle East Study Committee.<\/a> The MESC, commissioned by the 2008 General Assembly, had produced a 170 page report entitled \u201cBreaking Down the Walls.\u201d\u00a0 The report documents the committee\u2019s first-hand observation of the Israeli occupation\u2019s impact on Palestinian society and includes specific recommendations, including urging the U.S. government to make military aid to Israel contingent on ending the occupation.<\/p>\n

Predictably, the forces of opposition had gathered. As early as February of this year, the Simon Wiesenthal Center attacked the report, calling it a \u201cpoisonous document by the Presbyterian Church [that] will be nothing short of a declaration of war on Israel.\u201d This broadside by the Los Angeles-based Jewish advocacy group went on to declare that the report \u201cshakes the foundations of interfaith relations.\u201d This is the tack that has been taken for years by the mainstream Jewish community \u2013 both secular organizations like Wiesenthal as well as the religious denominations \u2014 claiming that any questions about Israel\u2019s policies or the Zionist project itself partakes of anti-Semitism. The charge of anti-Semitism and the prospect of a disruption in the \u201cinterfaith partnership\u201d has been effective in stifling the discourse and in thwarting actions directed at Israel\u2019s policies. Implicit and sometime explicit in these statements is the threat that such \u201cunfriendly\u201d behavior by Christians will result in the removal of Jewish friendship. This strategy has intensified in recent years in response to efforts by church denominations to take a principled stand on the Israel-Palestine issue. Most recently, the biweekly Christian Century<\/em> published an article by Ted Smith and Amy-Jill Levine, professors at Vanderbilt Seminary. Appearing the week preceding the PC(USA) General Assembly, the article, entitled \u201cHabits of Anti-Judaism,\u201d<\/a> strongly critiqued the MESC report. In the opening to a letter to the Christian Century<\/em> I wrote the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intent of the Presbyterian Middle East Study Committee Report \u201cBreaking Down the Walls\u201d is clear: \u201cto break down these walls that stand in the way of the realization of God\u2019s peaceful and just kingdom.\u201d But in their critique of the report published in your June 29 issue, <\/em>Ted Smith and Amy-Jill Levine of Vanderbilt Seminary strike at the heart of this message. They ask us to believe that the report advocates \u201ca historical narrative that points indirectly to a single state\u2014a new social body\u2014in which a Palestinian majority displaces Jews.\u201d\u00a0 In a shocking distortion of the Study Group\u2019s evocation of Ephesians 2:14, they claim that \u201c\u2019Breaking down the walls\u2019 in order to form \u2018one new humanity in the place of two\u2019 evokes old echoes of theological supersessionism and transposes them into a political key.\u201d \u201cOld habits die hard,\u201d lament Smith and Levine. But it is the habit of crying anti-Semitism whenever Jewish sensibilities are disturbed or the actions of the State of Israel are questioned that we must urgently confront.\u201d\u00a0 (Full text of the letter.)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The aim of the article was clear \u2013 to strengthen the hand of those who wanted to prevent passage of the report. And why not? This is a time-honored approach \u2014 it has always worked. I feared that it would prove just as effective in this case. I arrived in Minneapolis convinced that, except for the efforts of a courageous but small and embattled minority within the denomination, the natural commitment to social justice and support for the oppressed on the part of most Presbyterians would again be trumped by concern for preserving the relationship with the Jewish community. I was betting that the tactics of the Wiesenthal Center and the arguments of Smith and Levine would serve, as they always have, to muzzle the conversation and block actions that might offend Jewish sensibilities or be perceived as hostile to the Jewish state.<\/p>\n

A thing of beauty<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was wrong. Yes, the concerns about the feelings of Jews when Israel is \u201cattacked\u201d are still there, and they exert a powerful pull on Presbyterians\u2019 decisions. But something wonderful happened last week in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

I watched as the committee charged with studying \u201cBreaking Down the Walls,\u201d and recommending action to the GA debated the matter. I listened to the arguments for and against approval of the report. Those in favor passionately talked about the suffering of the Palestinians under occupation. Those against spoke just as passionately about the report\u2019s seeming \u201canti-Israel\u201d bias, claiming that to approve the report would be to cut off dialogue with the Jewish community. I noted what seemed like a universe of disagreement between the two positions. I despaired that anyone who, unlike the study group itself, had not seen the occupation with his or her own eyes would understand that the report was not biased \u2013 that it was simply telling the truth and recommending that the church respond accordingly.<\/p>\n

But something happened. The committee clearly wanted to find a way to have the report adopted. <\/em>A group from the committee stayed up all night to craft a number of changes. Problems with perceived bias against Israel were fixed. The obligatory language about Israel\u2019s right to exist was inserted.\u00a0 None of these changes touched the faithful witness and prophetic heart of the report. <\/em>While strongly asserting the church\u2019s commitment to Israel\u2019s security and wellbeing, the Study Committee\u2019s report as presented to the General Assembly clearly presents the narrative of Palestinian dispossession and suffering.\u00a0 It asserts that Israel\u2019s actions, illegal and in violation of international law, are an \u201cenduring threat to peace in the region.\u201d It receives the Palestinian Kairos document,<\/a> a courageous and heartfelt call of Palestinian Christians \u201cfrom the heart of Palestinian suffering\u201d to the churches of the world, and recommends it for study by Presbyterians. It calls on the U.S. government to end aid to Israel unless the country stops settlement expansion in Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n

The report came before the 730+ commissioners on Friday July 9 and was approved by a vote of 82%. When the results were displayed on the screen, the assembled broke into applause \u2013 which is against the rules but in this case the moderator, smiling, allowed the spontaneous outburst to go on! The applause, breaking through these restraints, meant one thing:\u00a0 this is where the denomination wants to go. Then something else unusual happened \u2013 the Moderator, Cindy Bolbach, offered a prayer, thanking God for guiding the assembled to this act, for breaking down the walls dividing people and standing in the way of peace.\u00a0 The thousands of people in the hall bowed their heads in reverence.\u00a0 They knew that something important had happened.<\/p>\n

It is not always clear from down on the floor, in the thick of things. But looking back, I see that the PC(USA) General Assembly is a thing of beauty. This church is committed to tearing down walls. Watching the plenary, one witnessed a courageous and heartfelt struggle with things that matter<\/em>: \u00a0gay and lesbian ordination and honoring of marriages; \u00a0benefits for civil union partners;\u00a0 how to respond to state laws that violate the rights of immigrants. With respect to the Israel-Palestine question, the struggle will continue. Other overtures did not fare as well as the MESC report. Even though overtures to divest denomination pension funds \u2014 close to 10 million dollars \u2014 from Caterpillar (the company manufactures the bulldozers that destroy Palestinian homes and build the separation wall) have been proposed at every General Assembly since 2004 (actually it passed in 2004 and then withdrawn in the face of a juggernaut of institutional Jewish pressure, but that\u2019s another story), the overture failed. In addition, Presbyterians could\u00a0 not bring themselves to approve the overture naming Israel\u2019s policies as Apartheid.<\/p>\n

But here is the thing: it is clear to me that all but a small minority of the 36 who voted against that overture in committee (the vote was 16-36) agree that Israel\u2019s actions meet the UN definition of the crime of Apartheid. What drove the vote was not the substance of the overture but rather the belief, as stated in a comment on the vote inserted by the committee, \u201cthat dialogue is hampered by words like \u2018apartheid.\u2019\u201d It was also clear to me in listening to the debate that, despite the stubborn unwillingness to move to divestment, all but a fringe within the denomination agree that Caterpillar is building machines that illegally and criminally destroy Palestinian life and that the denomination must pressure the company to stop (the Assembly did pass an overture that \u201cdenounces\u201d the corporation). The issues are not in question. What is in question for a steadily decreasing percentage \u2014 again, this is clear if you are paying attention \u2014 is the proper method for action.<\/p>\n

To the Presbyterians:\u00a0 learning to love us<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sixty five years ago, Christians, confronted with the horror of the Nazi genocide, began a painful, faithful process of reconciling with the Jewish people. Presbyterians today didn\u2019t choose to be in the difficult position of having to choose between their commitment to justice and preserving their hard-won friendship with the Jews. But the hard fact is that there has been no getting around this conflict. It has come about because of the policies of the State of Israel and the choice, so far, of the American Jewish establishment to adopt a bullying, defensive stance in response to Christian efforts to address the injustice. Under these challenging conditions, you have had to struggle to learn how to love us well and rightly. And that you are doing. The more you call us to account for our sins and challenge us to be true to the values of our tradition, the more you show your commitment to our friendship. The spirit and the specifics of the MESC report are fully in line with Jewish aspirations and beliefs. More than that \u2013 in its powerful plea to break down the walls, it takes my people where we urgently need to go today \u2013 to tear down the walls \u2013 both psychological and physical \u2013 that we have erected between ourselves and the people with whom we share a land and a common history. For thousands of years, our survival as Jews depended on building walls.\u00a0 Now it depends on tearing them down.<\/p>\n

In commissioning and producing this precious and faithful document of \u201cBreaking Down the Walls\u201d you have demonstrated your love for us.\u00a0 It is love in the deepest, truest sense \u2013 love as Jesus and Paul teach us to love \u2013 love the way Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah taught us when they spoke truth to power and reminded us of our responsibility to our fellow creatures and to the earth itself.\u00a0 In going back into the fray, year after year, to consider divestment from the companies that are participating in our sin, and to call us to account for building an apartheid state in full view of the world, you are loving us well. This year, the arguments marshaled against these faithful actions of the denomination, calling them biased and unbalanced, claiming that they will disrupt your \u201cpartnership\u201d with us, simply sounded tired.<\/p>\n

Minneapolis is the beginning of the end of all that.<\/p>\n

Coming:\u00a0\u00a0 General Assembly, Part 2 \u2013 The Jewish response.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve just returned from Minneapolis, having attended the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. The PC(USA) is at the epicenter of the struggle of the Christian community in the U.S. to come to terms with the challenge of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Overtures from presbyteries from around the country urging action on justice for Palestinians would amount to over 40% of the actions considered by the Assembly…<\/p>\n

Predictably, the forces of opposition had gathered. As early as February of this year, the Simon Wiesenthal Center attacked the report, calling it a \u201cpoisonous document by the Presbyterian Church [that] will be nothing short of a declaration of war on Israel.\u201d The charge of anti-Semitism and the prospect of a disruption in the \u201cinterfaith partnership\u201d has been effective in stifling the discourse and in thwarting actions directed at Israel\u2019s policies\u2026I was betting that the tactics of the Wiesenthal Center would serve, as they always had, to muzzle the conversation and block actions that might offend Jewish sensibilities or be perceived as hostile to the Jewish state\u2026.<\/p>\n

I was wrong…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2296,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-braverman"],"yoast_head":"\nReport from the Presbyterian General Assembly - Part 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019ve just returned from Minneapolis, having attended the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. The PC(USA) is at the epicenter of the struggle of the Christian community in the U.S. to come to terms with the challenge of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Overtures from presbyteries from around the country urging action on justice for Palestinians would amount to over 40% of the actions considered by the Assembly... Predictably, the forces of opposition had gathered. As early as February of this year, the Simon Wiesenthal Center attacked the report, calling it a \u201cpoisonous document by the Presbyterian Church will be nothing short of a declaration of war on Israel.\u201d The charge of anti-Semitism and the prospect of a disruption in the \u201cinterfaith partnership\u201d has been effective in stifling the discourse and in thwarting actions directed at Israel\u2019s policies\u2026I was betting that the tactics of the Wiesenthal Center would serve, as they always had, to muzzle the conversation and block actions that might offend Jewish sensibilities or be perceived as hostile to the Jewish state\u2026. 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