Contact: Jeff Walton 202-682-4131
jwalton@theird.org
“Presbyterians have endorsed conflict over reconciliation.”
-IRD President Mark Tooley
Washington, DC— Presbyterian commissioners have voted to divest the 1.76 million-member denomination from three companies that do business with Israel. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly passed a heavily amended policy statement on the Middle East by a 310-303 vote.
The report adopted by the PCUSA General Assembly requires church agencies to divest themselves of holdings in Motorola Solutions, Hewlett Packard and Caterpillar, which all sell non-lethal equipment to the Israeli military.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) previously adopted a policy of divestment in 2004, reversing itself two years later in the face of strong criticism from both within and outside of the denomination.
IRD President Mark Tooley commented:
“Presbyterians have endorsed conflict over reconciliation.”
“Key PCUSA elites are pro-Palestinian activists who portray Israel as the source of nearly all evil in the Middle East.
“Those church activists ignore that much of the Middle East is under the sway of non-democratic movements that oppress their own people and refuse to recognize Israel, a lonely democracy, as the Jewish homeland. Enemies of Israel are also largely the enemies of the United States, the West, democracy and Christian minorities in the region.”
“It is revealing that Israel is the only country targeted for divestment, not countries that oppress, torture and execute dissidents, like Iran among many others.
“Presbyterians could genuinely advocate reconciliation and justice. Instead, they’ve endorsed the Palestinian nationalist narrative of victimhood and demonized Israel.
“This denomination’s official silence about Syria, Egypt and bombings in Kenya and Nigeria, and zealous preoccupation with Israel’s transgressions, real or perceived, undermines their pretensions to any serious public policy witness.
“Hopefully public pressure, internal and external, with common sense, will again persuade Presbyterians, as in 2006, to revoke their anti-Israel divestment crusade.”
www.TheIRD.org
Comment by RVIV on June 20, 2014 at 9:36 pm
“This denomination’s official silence about Syria, Egypt and bombings in Kenya and Nigeria, and zealous preoccupation with Israel’s transgressions, real or perceived, undermines their pretensions to any serious public policy witness.”
Just because that debate was scheduled for after the divestment debate does not mean the response is silence. (Debate is ongoing at the time of this posting). That said, PC(USA) can’t divest from groups it has no investment in.
Comment by Dusty Herring on June 20, 2014 at 10:04 pm
Divestment of Israel is the least of the PCUSA’s sins. They were once a great servant of our Lord, but now they wallow in the iniquity,depravity, and perversion of homosexual lust.
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in
the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed! Am
I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to
please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Galatians 1:6-12
Comment by deltamike67 on August 17, 2014 at 10:53 pm
One can only examine carefully for the presence of “Zakat”, the money for “changing of the hearts” from the Muslim Brotherhood front groups embedded in church finances. That and or “willful blindness” to Islamic Doctrine. I am reminded of Lenin’s famous statement: “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” The Presbyterians are sharpening the knives for the Muslims with which the Muslims will behead them.