Kirkpatrick Condemns Suicide Bombings

I didn’t think he had it in him, but I have to give the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the PCUSA credit. He has called on the Palestinian president to bring those behind suicide bombings to justice, without fudge or waffle:

I am sending you a statement expressing our grave concern over recent suicide bombings, a tactic that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has condemned as “a crime against humanity.”

We refer you specifically to the incident at Dimona in southern Israel where the perpetrators have been linked to either Hamas or to Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. We are well aware of the many challenges you face as President of the Palestinian National Authority, given the difficulty of holding in check various parties within the Palestinian community, the geographical separation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the conflict between Fatah and Hamas.

Nonetheless, we urge you to continue to use every aspect of your authority as President to heal the rifts within your constituency and to hold accountable those who perpetrate such unconscionable acts as these attacks on Israeli civilians.

Please be assured of our prayers and our unwavering commitment to a stable two-state solution in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace.

No call for “an end to violence by both sides,” no understanding of the horrors of the occupation, no moral equivalence between Palestinian killings of civilians and Israeli response (which isn’t even mentioned). Good for him.

(Via The Berkley Blog.)

Mars Attacks!

Not really. Everyone has seen this:

But did you know where it comes from? It’s from Mars:

(Via Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Web.)

Some Good News From Mississippi

At least one presbytery has decided that the PCUSA version of the four-corners offense is not the way to go. St. Andrew’s Presbytery in Mississippi has settled with First Presbyterian Church of Corinth, and did so unanimously, according to the Layman Online:

Exactly one year after a Mississippi church filed a property ownership lawsuit against St. Andrew Presbytery, the presbytery has agreed to let the congregation leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) with its property for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

The settlement agreement, approved without a dissenting vote by presbytery commissioners at their stated meeting Feb. 5, also will result in a dismissal of the litigation that First Presbyterian Church in Corinth, Miss., filed Feb. 5, 2007.

In exchange for being dismissed with its property, the Corinth church will pay $150,000 to St. Andrew Presbytery. The first $25,000 installment is due within 30 days, with five more $25,000 payments to be made annually by the anniversary of the first payment.

The lack of a dissenting vote came as a surprise to the Rev. Dr. Don Elliott, the Corinth church’s pastor of 22 years. He said the stated meeting was going smoothly, but sometimes at such meetings there’s a feeling that commissioners are “holding their guns for later.”

But at this meeting, “I could tell with my conversations. Everybody was cordial,” Elliott said. “Many people were telling me, ‘You know, we really think this is best,’ ‘Glad that there’s an agreement,’ and so on. So, it became clear that it was going to pass, but I was blown away that it was” without a dissenting vote.

The whole thing took less than 30 minutes, he said. “I think it was because of the way we did it, which was to try to work with their administrative commission. And their administrative commission, when they got convinced the congregation wanted to leave, then they were willing to negotiate.”

“As you can see, part of that negotiation is that we were willing to settle the lawsuit, or dismiss it with prejudice,” Elliott said. “I think both sides were really tired of the litigation that was going on.”

Whether it was the overwhelming vote (only 14 out of 260 voting wanted to stay) or a spirit of exhaustion, or even a spirit of  charity, that pervaded St. Andrew’s, I salute their decision, and welcome First into the family of EPC.