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Thread ID: 16599 | Posts: 9 | Started: 2005-02-05
2005-02-05 03:34 | User Profile
Denomination sets meeting to answer questions about financial action
[url="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42709"]http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article....RTICLE_ID=42709[/url] Posted: February 4, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern
é 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
In an attempt to justify what some have called an anti-Semitic move, the Presbyterian Church USA will hold a three-day conference to explain to denomination leaders why action was taken to divest from companies doing business with Israel.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the denomination's General Assembly voted 431-62 in July to divest from Israel. The PCUSA is believed to be the largest organization or institution to join the divestment campaign against the Jewish state. It was the first Christian denomination to do so.
The move set the stage for the church to divest itself from companies that receive $1 million dollars or more in profits per year from investments in Israel or have invested $1 million dollars or more in Israel. Apartheid South Africa is the only other nation the denomination has similarly sanctioned.
Scheduled for Feb. 10-12 in Louisville, Ky., home to the denomination's administrative offices, the meeting is meant to let synods and presbyteries "know what we did and why we did it," Marthame Sanders, missionary-in-residence at the PCUSA offices said in a statement.
The meeting is expected to draw 200 participants representing every synod and presbytery in the nation.
The church's statement characterized last summer's move as part of a "process of 'phased selective divestment' in companies supporting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and in corporations profiting from either Israeli or Palestinian violence."
Said the denomination: "The action is also directed at engaging corporations or financial institutions who benefit from the ongoing creation and expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank."
The statement confirmed that Jewish leaders were especially upset with the General Assembly's action.
"Presbyteries and synods ââ¬Â¦ have been getting asked a lot of questions about this," stated Sanders, saying the middle governing bodies needed and wanted information about what the assembly did "to be equipped to have a debate" on the subject.
Included on the meeting's agenda is a discussion of Presbyterian theology, "particularly related to Christian Zionism," the statement said.
Subsequent to the church's July action, a petition drive began to protest the move.
The petition says the church's resolution is "anti-Semitic because NO OTHER nation is being singled for divestment, not even those whose violations of human rights are truly egregious."
"Only the moral blindness of Jew-hatred could lead the church to compare Israel's multi-racial democracy to apartheid South Africa," the petition says. "Only anti-Semitism could lead the church to condemn democratic Israel, while not voting divestment from Saudi Arabia, where women have virtually no rights and non-Muslims are not even permitted to enter the country without special permission, from Sudan, where race-based genocide is occurring even as we speak, from Iran, where Bahai are murdered for their faith, or from the many other countries where human rights are violated as a matter of routine."
During the same time period this month, a PCUSA seminary in Austin, Texas, is hosting an event entitled, "To Loose the Chains of Injustice: American Churches and the Palestinians." The denomination is one of the participating churches in the Feb. 11-12 meeting.
"The focus of this conference is on the work of the churches for a just peace in Israel-Palestine," states a flyer advertising the confab.
A group of Presbyterian elders and ministers are circulating a petition among the PCUSA membership to call the General Assembly back into special session to rescind the Israel Divestment Resolution.
Related stories:
Presbyterian: Muslims easier to deal with than Jews [url="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41032"]http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41032[/url]
Are mainline churches anti-Semitic? [url="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40687"]http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40687[/url]
Episcopal Church next to shun Israel? [url="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40603"]http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40603[/url]
Petition condemns church for 'hatred' of Israel [url="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39705"]http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39705[/url]
Presbyterians to divest from Israel [url="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39504"]http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39504[/url]
2005-02-05 07:09 | User Profile
[QUOTE=albion]"Only the moral blindness of J*w-hatred could lead the church to compare Israel's multi-racial democracy to apartheid South Africa," the petition says. "Only anti-Semitism could lead the church to condemn democratic Israel,
If Israel is a multi-racial democracy, rather than a Jewish state, how is it racist, anti-jew, or anti-semitic to criticize Israel?
2005-02-05 08:44 | User Profile
Happy,
Point well taken. A contradiction to be sure. Something about that petition. Why blank out the "e" in Jew?
2005-02-06 17:52 | User Profile
Why blank out the "e" in Jew? Hmmm. . . Maybe for the same reason some don't spell out the word "God", but instead write it as "G_d"?
2005-02-06 18:01 | User Profile
"The Call to the Presbyterian Church to reverse its anti-Semitic resolution on divestment Petition to Reverend Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA was [u]created by and written by[/u] Diana Appelbaum" :rolleyes:
2005-02-06 20:05 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Brooke]"The Call to the Presbyterian Church to reverse its anti-Semitic resolution on divestment Petition to Reverend Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA was [u]created by and written by[/u] Diana Appelbaum" :rolleyes:[/QUOTE] [I]Oy vey![/I]
2005-02-06 22:01 | User Profile
[QUOTE] The church's statement characterized last summer's move as part of a "process of 'phased selective divestment' in companies supporting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and in corporations **profiting from either Israeli or Palestinian violence." **
Said the denomination: "The action is also directed at engaging corporations or financial institutions who benefit from the ongoing creation and expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank." [/QUOTE] This is so typical of the idea that anti-Zionism="anti semitism" that the Jews peddle endlessly. It is "anti-semitic" that the presbyterians no longer wish to do business with companies that support the Israeli occupation of Palestine, or profiting from Israeli or Palestinian violence. I think it speaks more of the liberalism of the Presbyterians rather then "anti-semitism". but to the Jews anyone who does not approve of every single thing the Israelis do, and especially if they have the nerve to take some kind of stand against them is an "evil anti-semite":rolleyes:
Are the Zionist also saying, in using the term "anti-semitic" that the Presbyterians are also anti-palestinian since the Palestinians are also semites? Somehow I don't think so. I always find it amusing that the Jews have taken the term "semite" and made it all about themselves. The funniest is when they accuse Arabs of being "anti-semitic", how the hell does that even make sense? I wasn't aware that so many Arabs hated or were opposed to themselves. LOL.
2005-02-06 23:23 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Happy Hacker]If Israel is a multi-racial democracy, rather than a Jewish state, how is it racist, anti-jew, or anti-semitic to criticize Israel?[/QUOTE]
Even the Semitic Jews are anti-Zionists, the Zionits use the faith of the Jews as shield in order to hide behind them.
You must remember that the Zionist came from northern Europe who in turn came from central Asia and at one time were called Kazhards.
2005-02-07 10:37 | User Profile
[QUOTE=starr]Are the Zionist also saying, in using the term "anti-semitic" that the Presbyterians are also anti-palestinian since the Palestinians are also semites? Somehow I don't think so. I always find it amusing that the Jews have taken the term "semite" and made it all about themselves. The funniest is when they accuse Arabs of being "anti-semitic", how the hell does that even make sense? I wasn't aware that so many Arabs hated or were opposed to themselves. LOL.[/QUOTE] In fairness the Jews are just using a brand name established by Gentiles ([url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Marr[/url]). It's unfortunate that purely linguistic terms like Semite and Aryan have been misapplied as labels for race or ethnicity. Iââ¬â¢ll bet modern linguists get tired of continually typing ââ¬ÅIndo-Europeanââ¬Â and pine for the now verboten synonym.