To date, neither the PCUSA nor its Office of Interfaith Relations has responded to the criticism of the re-write of the “Vigilance Against anti-Jewish Ideas and Bias” document by Jewish groups. But according to New Jersey Jewish News, the coordinator of the Presbyterian News Service has spoken up and sent a message to the critics–get over it:
Jerry Van Marter, coordinator of the Presbyterian News Service, suggested Jewish critics were overreacting.
“The Jewish groups go nuts every time we make any statement they interpret as favorable to Palestine or the Palestinians,” Van Marter told NJJN.
Uh, no. The “Jewish groups” (who in this case happen to represent in their membership a majority of Jews in America) object when the PCUSA puts out statements that hold Israel to a moral standard that it is unwilling to hold Palestinians to. They object when PCUSA puts out a statement that assigns virtually all blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to one party. They object when PCUSA puts out a statement that doesn’t even bother mentioning the Palestinian terrorist groups–some affiliated with Palestinian Authority–that kill civilians as a matter of policy. They object when PCUSA puts out a statement that is ostensibly about anti-Judaism, but which goes off on tangents about anti-Muslim or anti-Arab prejudice and Israel’s terrible treatment of the Palestinians. But I wouldn’t expect a PCUSA functionary to understand any of that.
Van Marter said church leaders amended their first statement “to make it more balanced, and apparently it still doesn’t satisfy our Jewish friends. It is tough for Presbyterians because there is a Christian population in the occupied territories. The Christians are a very small minority, and they are shrinking because they are caught in the crossfires. The Presbyterian Church understands precisely why Jewish groups are upset, because we refuse to be one-sided. We’ve been on record for a two-state solution for 60 years now.”
“Apparently it still doesn’t satisfy our Jewish friends.” He has got to be kidding. The Jewish response, as well as that of Christian supporters of Israel, to the first draft was very positive. But PCUSA couldn’t leave well enough alone. It had to “make it more balanced,” i.e., drag in its leadership’s knee-jerk anti-Israel politics, drag in irrelevancies, and drag in some of the very moral double-standard thinking that the first draft deplored. Oh, and cut out most of the well-deserved self-criticism of past actions and statements, and substitute self-congratulation for its progressive attitudes. With all that, is it any wonder that a wide range of Jewish groups objected to the revision?
Only if you’re a PCUSA functionary, apparently.
(Hat tip: Will Spotts, who deal with this at Recovering Presbyterian.)
June 19, 2008 at 9:58 pm
They need to cut out the moonshine in Louisville.
June 24, 2008 at 2:18 am
Strangely enough, Israel has been “on the record” – both in word and in concessionary deed – for a two-state solution for the better part of two decades.
Too bad we can’t convince the Palestinians (or Jordanians, or Iranians, or Syrians, or Saudis, or … well, the PCUSA) to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a state.