{"id":774,"date":"2012-10-30T09:20:02","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T14:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/?p=774"},"modified":"2012-10-30T09:20:02","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T14:20:02","slug":"relations-break-down-between-jewish-protestant-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/2012\/10\/30\/relations-break-down-between-jewish-protestant-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"Relations Break Down Between Jewish & Protestant Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Relations Break Down Between Jewish & Protestant Groups<\/span>\u00a0 – from FRONTPAGEMAG.COM<\/a><\/h2>\n

October 30, 2012 By Mark D. Tooley<\/span><\/a><\/span>\"\"<\/a>Major Jewish groups have indignantly cancelled a scheduled interfaith dialogue after Mainline Protestant officials urged Congress to reconsider U.S. military aid to Israel.\u00a0 The October 5 Protestant letter complained of \u201cwidespread Israeli human rights violations against the Palestinians, including killing of civilians, home demolitions and forced displacement, and restrictions on Palestinian movement.\u201d The National Council of Churches, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist and United Church of Christ officials (Episcopalians were notably absent) asked Congress to investigate Israeli abuses before granting further aid.\u00a0 They faulted U.S. military help for \u201csustaining the conflict and undermining the long-term security interests of both Israelis and Palestinians.\u201d\u00a0 The Protestant letter did not mention U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority or to Arab regimes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe participation of these leaders in yet another one-sided anti-Israel campaign cannot be viewed apart from the vicious anti-Zionism that has gone virtually unchecked in several of these denominations,\u201d pointedly explained Jewish Council of Public Affairs President Rabbi Steve Gutow.\u00a0Having \u201csquandered our trust,\u201d he said these churches\u2019 officials have shown a \u201cstony silence to the use of anti-Judaism and relentless attacks on the Jewish state, often from within their own ranks,\u201d which \u201cspeaks loudly to their failure to stand up and speak the whole truth about what is occurring in the Middle East.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Previously Jewish groups have largely confined their public concerns about Mainline Protestant bias against Israel to anti-Israel divestment initiatives by the churches.\u00a0 This Summer the United Methodists and Presbyterian Church (USA) both rejected divestment, the Presbyterians only very narrowly.\u00a0 But fierce denunciation of Israel, and mostly silence about human rights abuses nearly everywhere else, have characterized official Mainline Protestantism for about 30 years.\u00a0 Once pro-Israel, Mainline Protestant elites in the 1970s succumbed to a Liberation Theology perspective that portrayed Palestinians as Third World victims and Israel as colonialist oppressor.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile we remain committed to continuing our dialogue and our collaboration on the many issues of common concern, the letter represents an escalation in activity that the Jewish participants feel precludes a business-as-usual approach,\u201d the Jewish groups publicly complained as they withdrew from a Christian-Jewish Roundtable set for late October.\u00a0 The dialogue began in 2004 to ease interfaith tensions as Mainline Protestants first pondered anti-Israel divestment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The protesting Jewish groups were the American Jewish Committee (AJC), B\u2019nai B\u2019rith International (BBI), Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), Rabbinical Assembly (RA), Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), and<\/span><\/p>\n

United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe [Protestant] letter could also have highlighted the relentless attacks on Christians throughout the Middle East, including the brutal oppression of Coptic Christians or just as easily have called for a suspension of aid to Palestinians until the Palestinian Authority take steps such as returning to the negotiating table,\u201d observed one JCPA official.\u00a0 \u201cThat would have been equally unhelpful but might have mitigated the obvious conclusion that the signatories bear a deep and singular antipathy for Israel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Typically official Mainline Protestant pronouncements have exclusively faulted Israel for the absence of Mideast peace.\u00a0 \u201cOur churches are equally concerned about the well-being of Israelis and Palestinians, and are concerned about the massive amounts of U.S. military aid for Israel, and how those funds are used to perpetuate occupation,\u201d a United Church of Christ official told Haaretz<\/em>, an Israeli publication.\u00a0 A JCPA official pointed out to The New York Times<\/em> that Mainline Protestant pronouncements often brand Israel an \u201cApartheid state.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked Congress to treat Israel like it would any other country,\u201d the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) told Haaretz<\/em>, \u201cto make sure our military aid is going to a country espousing the values we would as Americans \u2014 that it\u2019s not being used to continually violate the human rights of other people.\u201d But neither his denomination nor the other Mainline Protestants typically if ever offer critique of any governments other than Israel, much less the Palestinians.\u00a0 \u201cWhere\u2019s the letter to Congress about Syria, which is massacring its own people?\u201d asked an official with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, as quoted in The Times.\u00a0 <\/em>\u201cWhen Israel is the only one that is called to account, that\u2019s when it becomes problematic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But the Presbyterian official fairly pointed out that he was representing the official statements of his denomination as approved by its biannual General Assembly.\u00a0 The German-based United Methodist bishop who signed the letter made the same point, quoting the copious resolutions her denomination has approved aimed at Israel.\u00a0 \u201cWe stand clearly on the side of Israel and we are committed to human rights for all God\u2019s people,\u201d insisted Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, president of the Council of Bishops.\u00a0 \u201cWe are ready to continue the dialogue with Jewish faith groups,\u201d she added.\u00a0 \u201cAnd we will also continue to express publicly our desire for peaceful solutions for the conflict in the Middle East.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The protesting Jewish groups have requested a \u201csummit\u201d with Mainline Protestant officials to help heal the rift.\u00a0 Likely it will occur.\u00a0 And just as likely it will not significantly alter the anti-Israel reflexes of Mainline Protestant elites.\u00a0 Jewish groups rightly challenge biased Mainline Protestant officials.\u00a0 But they should remember that the Mainline has become culturally sideline though often giving political cover to dubious political causes.\u00a0 And liberal church elites don\u2019t speak for most church members.\u00a0 A Pew poll last year showed Mainline Protestants sympathizing with Israel over Palestinians by 46% to 12%.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Relations Break Down Between Jewish & Protestant Groups – from FRONTPAGEMAG.COM<\/p>\n

October 30, 2012 By Mark D. TooleyMajor Jewish groups have indignantly cancelled a scheduled interfaith dialogue after Mainline Protestant officials urged Congress to reconsider U.S. military aid to Israel. The October 5 Protestant letter complained of \u201cwidespread Israeli human rights violations against the Palestinians, including killing of civilians, home demolitions and forced displacement, and restrictions on Palestinian movement.\u201d The National Council of Churches, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist and United Church of Christ officials (Episcopalians were notably absent) asked Congress to investigate Israeli abuses before granting further aid. They faulted U.S. military help for \u201csustaining the conflict and undermining the long-term security interests of both Israelis and Palestinians.\u201d The Protestant letter did not mention U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority or to Arab regimes. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","spay_email":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[71,138,22,10,139,13,135,12,136,79,137,11],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":776,"href":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menorahmusic.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}