Sunday, June 25, 2006
Looks like the Presbyterians haven't been the only ones shifting things around the past few days. This report about some Episcopal moves sounds like a bit more of a mixed bag, though.
Episcopalians curb anti-Israel rhetoric
...The new materials would seek to "root out" the teaching that Jews were "Christ killers" and reawaken the knowledge and affirm an appreciation of the church's Jewish origins, supporters argued.
Bishop Edward Little of northern Indiana also asked church to apologize to the Jewish people for its "consistently unbalanced approach to the conflict in the Middle East." "Virtually all General Convention resolutions concerning the Middle East, and all public policy pronouncements by Episcopal agencies, have relentlessly criticized the state of Israel, portraying the Jewish state as an oppressor nation and the Palestinian people as victims of Israeli oppression," he argued.
Opponents of the resolution argued the church should apologize instead to the Palestinians for the US government's support for Israel.
However, Rev. Bruce Chilton, professor of religion at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York stated, "Terrorism is a war crime. If we fail to say that, how can we claim any moral ground whatsoever?"
The church's international peace with justice committee amalgamated Little's call for an apology with three resolutions asking the church to condemn the "wall," calling for dismantling settlements on the West Bank and supporting Palestinian human rights.
The committee rejected the term "wall" to describe the separation barrier, and modified its blanket condemnation to call for the removal of the "barrier where it violates Palestinian territory."
It also urged the US government to pursue a two-state solution and support the human rights of both Palestinians and Israelis, denounced terrorism, called for an eradication of anti-Semitism, supported a withdrawal from the territories to the 1967 borders, asked both sides to recognize the "elected leadership" of the other, supported positive financial investments in the region and advocated the " elimination of corruption within the Palestinian Authority and appropriate financial transparency to better serve human and economic rights of Palestinians."...
