Friday, February 17, 2006
UK Jewish leader attacks Anglicans over Israel vote
Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said the Anglican vote on whether to pull money from "companies profiting from the illegal occupation" was ill-judged and would inflame relations between the two religions.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the world's 77 million Anglicans, sparked anger by supporting the vote at a meeting of the church's governing body.
"The vote ... was ill-judged even on its own terms," Sacks wrote in the Jewish Chronicle newspaper on Friday. "The timing could not have been more inappropriate. (Israel) needs support not vilification."
He warned that the row would reduce the church's ability "to act as a force for peace between Israel and the Palestinians".
"The church has chosen to take a stand on the politics of the Middle East over which it has no influence, knowing that it will have the most adverse repercussions on a situation over which it has enormous influence, Jewish-Christian relations in Britain," Sacks added...
Rabbi Sachs said what needed to be said, but more politely than I. This is just one more reason why the mainstream Protestant churches, at least in my neck of the woods, are losing membership. The Evangelical churches benefit from the growing distaste many have for the lack of traditional values displayed by the new 'Politically Correct' actions of the leadership of so many denominations.