Board members of the United States Conference of the World Council of Churches (WCC) hailed the incoming Obama administration as likely to be more sympathetic to their political concerns. During the December 2-4, 2008 board meeting in Washington, DC, their agenda included speaking “prophetically” against the United States in the style of controversial cleric Jeremiah Wright, promoting pacifism as the only acceptable Christian ideology towards war, compelling Israel to yield concessions to Palestinians in the Middle East, and encouraging churches to enlist in Global Warming activism.
Over 30 U.S. Protestant and Orthodox communions belong to the Swiss-based WCC.
“Looking Forward” to Increased White House Access
As with most liberal and mainline church institutions in the past six weeks, U.S. Conference of the WCC representatives spent substantial time hailing the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America. In addition to the letters already sent by the National Council of Churches and WCC headquarters, they held a plenary to determine the content of their own separate letter. The Rev. Phil Jones, Director of the Church of the Brethren’s Witness/Washington Office, admitted, “We have not had access in the past [Bush] administration, and we are looking forward to that” with the incoming Obama administration.
The Rev. Klaus J. Burckhardt, Head of the Department of Peace and Justice in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany, said, “The churches, and indeed all people in Germany were thrilled to see President-elect Obama” chosen. The Rev. Baranite Kirata, the Kiribati Protestant Church’s Secretary for Justice and Development, echoed Klaus’ excitement, saying, “The world rejoiced and danced on the streets when you voted for your new president. And I say for the people of the South Pacific, the fish also danced for you.”
The Rev. John Yambasu of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, just returned from Africa, read a letter he had written on behalf of the youth he met there to the President-elect. “We could have sent you this letter the first day,” he wrote, “but we were so engulfed in celebrating your success, or should we say our success,” of being elected “the first black president.”
The panel presented a laundry list of issues for the new administration to address. Whereas the German and Kiribatian representatives had cited world peace and climate change as potential priorities for the Obama presidency, Yambasu called for reparations to Africa for the transatlantic slave trade. In a previous conference, “We requested reparations of the United States. We know that the request for reparations did not go down well with the political administration at the time… But who knows that you have come to your position for such a time as this?”
“We strongly recommend war against poverty as your primary focus,” Yambasu directed further. “In the liberative narratives of the Old Testament book of Exodus… Israel cried to God for help. You could be the Moses that God has called to confront the pharaohs of poverty, terror, and oppression, and to usher in the Kingdom of God’s [justice].”
Dr. Maake Masango, Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, said that the church must not view Obama’s election as an opportunity to relax from political efforts. “Because a chocolate brown is in the White House—we need to change the word White House; we could call it a chocolate house—we should not relax, for when he fails, we fail, and it will be recorded in history that, ‘they cannot do anything,’” he cautioned. Suggesting that the church needed to intensify its temporal activity, he declared, “This is the time we stop praying and start helping our brother and the world leader to do it just right.”
Masango said Obama would need support as he shouldered the burden of the world’s expectations, saying, “I have come to speak to you as mothers, take care of Obama, speak to Obama, speak to him in truth, remind him of justice.” He rejoiced, “We thank God for Jeremiah [Wright], the prophet here who spoke in the midst of it all.”
The Rev. John H. Thomas, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, the denomination of Jeremiah Wright to which President-elect Obama had belonged, noted that Presidents “historically have also been understood by many in the American populace to be public theologians.” Because “He will in great degree be seen as [America’s] public theologian,” Thomas said, “I take comfort in the fact that Barack Obama has been schooled in this role by a preacher named Jeremiah [Wright]” and that he hoped Obama would “learn from a predecessor [Lincoln] who refused to pander to Americans’ self-righteous” attitude.
Thomas criticized the current President, disapproving of Bush’s “axis of evil” comments about Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as “a blatant theological statement that was naïve [and] arrogant.” He posited that, “In a moment of deep crisis post 9/11, [this caused] Americans to embrace a theology that led right to Abu Ghraib.”
The NCC’s General Secretary, Michael Kinnamon, wanted to encourage the Obama administration to be favorable to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While he acknowledged that the declaration is sometimes “criticized for being too Western and too focused on human rights…” he contended, “that should not keep us from saying that there are universal rights that apply to all persons.” Added Kinnamon, “My hope for this administration is that it will affirm rich diversity while also affirming universal” human rights.
Dr. Elizabeth Ferris, Co-Director of the Brookings Institution’s Project on Internal Displacement, moderated the discussion and summarized the sentiments of speakers and questioners. She remarked, “What I heard among all panelists was yearning for a different style of leadership.” One questioner addressed this, saying that Americans need to do some “soul-searching on why we accepted the ambiguous appeal of ‘freedom’” and why the country gravitates to the “icon of sheriff, or archetype of sheriff, as national leader; a kind of cowboy with no credentials.” Similarly, the United Methodist Church’s General Commission on Christian Unity and Interfaith Concerns’ new General Secretary, Steve Sidorak, rejected what he called the “theological scandal of the deadly sin of hubris, of which we’ve been guilty for the past several years.”
Gradey Parsons, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), hailed the current financial crisis and new leadership as a chance to restructure. “We have the opportunity to build a whole other economy, an economy that looks more like what the Kingdom of God [is like] and less like the what the world wants it to be,” said Parsons. He noted certain language that “Barack does use about saving the middle class” needs to be unpacked, because, “I guess what I would want to say to Barack is that before we [the middle class] are saved, let us confess.” Alleging that the middle class had a considerable role in producing the economic downturn, Parsons said, “It’s those middle class folks who the President needs to save that I think need to confess our complicity in the mess.”
Intriguingly, Douglas Cook, the Vice President for Operations of the Council of Churches of Greater Washington, laid the blame for the current economic malaise at the feet of war. He argued, “peace has synergistic effects that are very positive… conversely, war has a very negative synergistic effect, and that’s why we’re in the pickle we’re in.”
A representative from the Orthodox Church in America was the only individual present to raise life issues. He suggested the body should identify “what we might expect from the Obama administration when it comes to the question of life—not only war but all other government policies, [including] capital punishment, end of life issues, and the bedeviling, demonic dichotomy between women’s choice and the protection of [unborn] life.”
The Prophet Jeremiah (Wright, That Is)
While several attendees held up the example of Jeremiah Wright as “prophetic,” the Rev. Dr. Rodney Sadler, Associate Professor of Union Theological Seminary at Richmond, VA, was the most explicit in his praise. During the first morning’s Bible study, which he led, he equated Jeremiah, the Biblical prophet, with Jeremiah Wright, the controversial former pastor of Barack Obama’s home church, Trinity UCC. Speaking from Jeremiah 6:14, he said that the verse “occurs within a larger passage that deals with the judgment of the Lord not on the enemies, not on the aliens, not on the other… [but on] Yahweh’s judgment on us.” Sadler paralleled the two Jeremiahs, remarking, “His message of in-group destruction will make him… unpopular in his own nation—[Can] anybody say Jeremiah Wright?” (Among other controversies, Wright has preached, “God d**n America!”)
“We as Americans often find it difficult that we are wrong… We need to temper our Amero-centrist ideologies with an understanding of history,” Sadler taught. “We like Jerusalem [in Jeremiah’s day] are able to conveniently look beyond our collective sins and still make ourselves entitled to God’s blessing.” While he acknowledged that the WCC is not made up of “mouthpieces for the religious right,” he said that the group too often was tempted to believe, “We are [America is] a just and righteous nation, so that when a 9/11 happens we are never forced to ask ourselves ‘what could we have done.’” “Instead,” asserted Sadler, “we have simply said ‘they hate us for our freedom.’”
Sadler suggested “contemporary prophets and priests may have to speak an unpatriotic word against our own people.” Despite the fact that, “We have seen recently another Jeremiah [Wright] get in trouble for speaking [against his nation],” he charged, “We cannot cover up injustice, we must declare our collective brokenness aloud to the world.” Sadler commented on Christians’ habits of biblical interpretation, saying that “We tend to misread texts that are meant to be liberative as texts that are supporting the status quo.” For example, he said that Ephesians 5:22 is a “passage that to be lifted up by conservative Baptist people” to mean “wives submit to your husbands.” Rather, he contested, “We’ve missed the entire point, that the passage… argues for the mutual submission of all of us.”
In the same vein, Sadler opined, “The way that we talk about homosexuality in regards to scripture is by and large read through a very narrow lens.” He noted, “The more fundamentalist Christians really have a hard time with [the issue of] gays and lesbians.” While he felt like the issue was one area where “the divide between conservative and liberal Christians is something that we need to mend,” he added, “That being said we can’t give ground on rights for people who are gay, lesbians… [we must create a situation in which] everybody’s rights are respected.”
Sadler complained that people tend “to emphasize things that are not our concerns.” Illustrating this, he questioned rhetorically, “Why do men emphasize abortion as a significant concern? ‘Cause we’re never gonna have one.” Sadler argued that we cover up injustice “crying ‘peace, peace’” in the words of Jeremiah 6:14, on the issues of race, criminal justice, and Israel-Palestine. Citing poor health, high school graduation, and poverty statistics that are higher among minorities, he commented that “the reality [is] that race and racism tend to be engrained in systemic problems that we have not overcome.” Responding to the claims that Obama’s election is the death- knell for racism, Sadler lamented that “America’s enduring unintended by-product of Barack Obama’s election is a release of white guilt and [evokes] feelings that things must be better… [It may] cause white Americans to ignore entrenched racial divisions.”
While people may approve of recent advances in dealing with crime, “noticing the reduction in violent crimes… over the past decade” Sadler contended that “things are not all good… [there are] unusually high rates of incarceration experienced in our country.” Besides, argued Sadler, the “core of our faith is the conviction that we are all people with a record… as those who have received such grace, should we not offer grace to others with a record?”
Sadler criticized Israeli efforts at maintaining national security, saying that while some conservative Christians claim progress because of less terrorist attacks, “The progress has been caused by locking up the citizens of the West Bank behind a massive wall.” He admitted that though “Israeli and American policies are unjust” they “came into vogue as a survival strategy.” “The enemy is not Israel, the enemy is not Palestine, the enemy is nationalism,” said Sadler.
An audience member responded to Salder: “Some of us are feeling like after being locked out of the White House—literally locked out of the White House—for eight years we have this breath of fresh air to be in dialogue with the leaders of the empire.” Sadler responded; “We [progressive Christians] have a particular obligation, maybe more so now than before… to hold them [the Obama administration] accountable.” “That being said, I am the biggest Obama supporter” he joked, adding that he had his Obama hat upstairs. “I have great hope” for the administration, Sadler commented.
Devotion to Pacifism
Following a presentation about the “Decade to Overcome Violence” and the “Living Letters” program, a panel discussed international peacemaking, cultivating an end to violence in the United States (particularly in the inner cities), and seeking peace in the marketplace. The panel “Glory to God and Peace on Earth- Towards the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation,” aimed to identify areas of progress in the WCC’s “Decade to Overcome Violence,” that will culminate with an International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Kingston, Jamaica, in May 2011.
Panelist Phil Jones of The Church of the Brethren’s Witness/Washington Office said: “The violence of the war- intentional, structural, political, harm and death… that is the story of these short 8 years of this decade, the first of our millennium.” Implicating America in particular, he charged, “The U.S. administration has remained unfaltering in its resolve to bring violence [to other nations], often defining and identifying victims simply because of their ethnic make-up.” He also suggested culpability belonged to the church, saying, “the United States Congress, and President are players, yet there are others. The church… has been far too silent. In my own tradition, a historic peace church… I am alarmed that many in my own congregations are more interested in flying flags” as a symbol of patriotism, “than turning the cheek.” Speaking of the church, he said “these are the folks who must be held most accountable. Pray, organize, and seek justice as the people of God.”
Mocking former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s, references to “Old Europe,” Rev. Klaus J. Burckhardt cited the European Union as a model for a more unified and peaceful planet. “We need an end to war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places. We need just peace, not Just War; not even the challenges of international terrorism justify the revival of Just War.”
Israel-Palestine
A second plenary, called “The WCC and the Middle East: The Amman Call and Next Steps for the US Churches” addressed the WCC’s advocacy for Palestinians and reiterated the language of The Amman Call, issued by a WCC International Peace Conference in Amman, Jordan in 2007.
Throughout the panel discussion, it was assumed that, in the words NCC General-Secretary Michael Kinnamon, Israel’s “occupation [of certain West Bank territories] is a primary factor in Christian emigration” and “the primary obstacle to Middle East peace,” rather than a result of that pre-existing conflict. On the American and ecclesiastical side, fault was attached to pro-Israel “Christian Zionists.”
Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General-Secretary of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), asserted during the panel discussion that “within American Christianity, the single largest deterrent to a different view about what is possible in the Middle East is a misunderstanding about the Bible. We have a huge task to teach correctly what the Bible says and does not say bout land and about people. “ He has dealt with this problem in his denomination by having a team that travels from church to church in the RCA, adjusting the theology of congregants regarding Israel-Palestine. Kinnamon said that the NCC governing body, similarly, had prepared and approved a bulletin insert entitled, “Why we should be concerned about Christian Zionism.” The Los Angeles Times reported that the resource’s distribution began in October of this year and will continue until the year’s end, when the NCC hopes to have reached all of its 45 million individual affiliates.
Noushin Framke, an elder in the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (PCUSA), said, the “Presbyterian church got a black eye a few years ago” when its attempts to divest from companies with Israeli connections were criticized and ultimately overturned, but that “a lot of us wouldn’t have it any other way, and we’re proud of our church for speaking out.” Recalling that both sides had claimed victory following that single-issue confrontation, Framke said that in 2008 some anti-divestment Presbyterians pushed further in advocating a more neutral stance between Israel and the Palestinians. Frame was glad that their “ideological approach” was rejected and the denomination preserved its support for Palestinian liberation.
Michel Nseir, WCC Middle East Programme Executive, said, “Churches [should] mobilize public opinion against the [Israeli} occupation. We can no longer justify oppression by confusing biblical story and biblical history.” He said that the church should “oppose manipulations of scripture that ignore context and complexity,” and that “WCC member churches” should “join in four areas [of advocacy]: end government support of the illegal occupation, end public support for the illegal occupation, delegitimize theological [reasons] for the occupation, and maintain the Christian presence in Israel-Palestine.” Nseir explained that the Amman Call, “shifted the whole work of the advocacy from [its former place in] NGOs to creating a new alliance among churches, [thus] putting the churches in the center of the advocacy work.” Bringing peace to the Middle East, he said, had the additional positive consequence of proving that, contrary to Samuel Huntington’s thesis, “civilizations are not destined to clash.”
The World Council of Churches is the 60 year old international ecumenical institution that includes 349 Protestant and Orthodox member churches from 110 nations. It frequently makes liberal social and political statements on behalf of its members.
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