Tuesday, February 19, 2008
CAMERA's Dexter Van Zile does an excellent job of combing through the 'Mission Study' guide issued by the United Methodist Church to help members understand the Arab/Israeli conflict: Methodist Manual Maligns Israel, Stereotypes Jews. This guide and its stilted version of "understanding" was mentioned in previous posts Methodists Discuss Divestment: Video and Presbyterian Affiliate: Jews Should 'Get a Life'. Methodists: Israel the 'original sin'. Dexter has, as always, created a wonderful resource that is useful beyond the immediate task by going through and documenting many of author Rev. StephenGoldstein's many errors, omissions and distortions. There's too much to excerpt, but there is this:
...Another troubling aspect of the Mission Study is how closely Rev. Goldstein's portrayal of modern Israel parallels with his description of the Jewish culture and religion he experienced while growing up in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The similarities between those aspects of Jewishness and Judaism which he found repellent as a youth and the Israel he relentlessly and unfairly condemns indicate that his complaints about Israel are rooted not in concern over its policies but in his disappointment over Judaism's inability to meet his spiritual and emotional needs as a youth. The fact that Rev. Goldstein was not happy with the faith community of his youth is not remarkable. Such dissatisfaction is a fact of life for people of all faiths, and is often motivating factor behind the decision to convert from one religion to another. What is remarkable (and troubling) is that the UMC, one of the largest, credible and influential mainline Protestant denominations in the U.S., would publish Rev. Goldstein's self-indulgent and self-serving polemic under the rubric of peacemaking...
...On this score, Rev. Goldstein's narrative is in many ways, similar to the intra-Jewish polemic in the New Testament which includes condemnations of Jews who did not accept Christ, written by those who did. The tragedy and the danger came not when Jews disagreed over the nature of Jesus Christ, but when these condemnations fell into the hands of non-Jews who had no ties to the Jewish community and used them to demonize an entire group of people. It is one thing for Rev. Goldstein, who was raised as a Jew, to project his unhappiness over the Jewishness he experienced as a youth onto the modern state of Israel; it is another thing altogether for a Christian institution to offer such a polemic as a peacemaking document...
It sounds like the UMC management has managed to create the equivalent of a medieval disputation with only one side truly represented -- quite an accomplishment in 2008.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: The Modern Medieval Disputation: Methodist Style.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/14210
If it's possible, based on what we've read about the United Methodist Church's educational material for adults, the material they supply to teach the kids sounds even worse: The Methodist Child Indoctrination League ...Teachers are asked to tell the ch... Read More
The UMC might be interested in this, but they're too busy condemning the only country in the region that operates under rule of law: Palestinian Christians live in constant fear ...There are only some 3,500 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox, in... Read More
It's not just the UMC. Dexter Van Zile turns the spotlight on The Mennonites' Mission: When it comes to attacking Israel's legitimacy, the Mennonite Central Committee hits way above its weight class. The MCC bills itself as a relief development... Read More
Gazans are busy clearing rubble...and guess what brand of bulldozer/backhoe they're doing it with? Yeah, that's right, Satan's brand. Quick, someone call the UMC.... Read More
The United Methodist Church is standing by their Mission Study guide -- the guide that has garnered so much criticism. See previous post: The Modern Medieval Disputation: Methodist Style. Reminder: ...Rev. Goldstein's narrative is in many ways, similar... Read More
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The comment above this one from polzoo is like a time warp from the late 1990s when woo hoo, the internet was a place where some moron could surf, deem something cool, and then decide that as an arbiter of cool, they could invite people to participate in some half-assed, ill-conceived project for the promise of undetermined renumeration. work for me for free!
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Whatever happened to good old common-sense Christianity? Why is it so hard for some Christians to understand that Israel has the right and the duty to defend herself from murderers?
I'm a Christian, but I intend to keep a safe distance from my brothers in Christ who would sell out one of our best allies - an ally who also believes in the sacredness of life and liberty.
#2, Ha! Your message made me laugh. How can I delete #1 now? :)