shotbanner.jpeg

August 08, 2005

Divesting

Last year, when the Presbyterian Church first started talking about divesting from Israel, I reacted with a bit of ill-concealed but justified ire.

Now they've gone through with it:

A Presbyterian committee accused five companies Friday of contributing to "ongoing violence that plagues Israel and Palestine" and pledged to use the church's multimillion-dollar stock holdings in the businesses to pressure them to stop.

The move follows a vote last year by leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to put economic pressure on companies that profit from Israeli policy in the West Bank and Gaza.

The vote had outraged Jewish groups, who said the strategy was biased and failed to recognize Israel's right to defend itself, and the tensions worsened after other Protestant bodies adopted similar tactics.

Jewish leaders are deeply disturbed that the campaigns threatening divestment essentially borrow from the 1980s movement against South African apartheid.

Presbyterian leaders insisted Friday that divestment would be only a last resort, if discussions with corporate leaders and lobbying stockholders failed.

"We are initiating a slow, deliberate process," said Bill Somplatsky-Jarman, who works with the Presbyterian Mission Responsibility through Investment Committee. The goal is to convince corporations to "change their business practices which inflict harm on the innocent."

I'm so angry I could pimp-slap a deacon.

I grew up in the Presbyterian Church. As an adult, I returned to it for reasons that were largely theological (the Presbyterian Church's basic tenets, to me, cut to the basics of what being a Christian is all about), and partly political (John Knox's core principles were, among major Christian denominations, the most consistent with being an American, in my view).

So make no mistake about it - I'm a Presbyterian; I've looked at other denominations repeatedly over the past twenty-odd years, and to me they all come up short.

However, I feel safe in saying I will never set foot in a PCUSA Church again. Because while the central core of the Presbyterian Church is a work of great beauty, its political structure in the United States is a pathetic, co-opted, relativistic sham.

Presbyterian ministers - and I know at least two of you read this blog regularly - how do you answer to your congregation for the General Assembly's actions? I'm dying to hear the rationalization from someone who actually has to interact with parishioners daily.

The Presbyterians targeted five companies in particular:

  • Caterpillar Inc
  • Citigroup
  • ITT Industries Inc
  • Motorola Inc
  • United Technologies Corp.
The next time I'm in the market for a bulldozer, credit card, night vision goggles or a thermal imaging system, you know where I'm going.

Ministers - please step up here.

Posted by Mitch at August 8, 2005 12:48 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Not to make light of the issue -- I am in complete agreement with Mitch and would be interested in the response from Pres. ministers -- but... how do you get a name like Bill Somplatsky-Jarman? On the principle that two bad surnames equals one cool one?

Posted by: chriss at August 8, 2005 03:19 PM

I guess this is a better reason to quit your church than over a bike path.

Seriously, what are your desires/requirements for your church home?

Posted by: rick at August 8, 2005 08:36 PM

Some misguided anti-American leftists (like the morons who run the Presbyterian Church here in America) see Christian religion as some sort of suicide cult, and naturally, if that's your attitude toward your own life, then sensible self-defense looks arrogant somehow. I think wanting Israel, for some reason, to commit suicide along with you is plenty arrogant.

Posted by: RBMN at August 9, 2005 12:00 AM

Isreal committing suicide?? Hardly..

The myth that Isreal is somehow going to fall back into Arab domination is about as likely as having slavery come back here.

Isreal went from being a self-defender to an intimidator and bully in the 1982 invasion of southern Lebanon. They invaded to prop up Christain Lebenese. They failed, and Syria took over.

Now, please, don't start throwing idiocy like.. but they still get terrorists. yep, they do, but that's mostly due to the Intefatah (sic) that they brought about under NetenYAHOO when he built apartments on a Muslim holy site on purpose to thumb his nose at them.

The long and short is, both sides are pretty bloody handed any more, pretending one side is merely defending itself is like saying the Ulster Defense Force is really out for peace (or was).

If the Presbyterian Church choses to boycott some folks for propping up Isreals aggressiveness, how is that soo different that the Southern Baptists boycotting those it doesn't like for not being conservative enough?

Long and short, it once again appears the right has a double standard. I think the So.Baptists have the right to boycott as long as it doesn't become a pro specific political party action, and so does the Presbyterian Church with the same limits.

BTW- maybe the guy got the hyphened name from coming from a family where the mom re-married..

PB

Posted by: PB at August 9, 2005 12:18 AM

"If the Presbyterian Church choses to boycott some folks for propping up Isreals aggressiveness, how is that soo different that the Southern Baptists boycotting those it doesn't like for not being conservative enough?"

The difference is, I'm not a Southern Baptists. I'm a Presbyterian. And the General Assembly is going against the wishes of the vast majority of Presbyterians.

"Long and short, it once again appears the right has a double standard."

Er, yeah. Never saw that one coming.

Posted by: mitch at August 9, 2005 07:29 AM

Hey PB, when the residents of the Little White Earth Reservation on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis start blowing up Light Rail Trains on the Hiwatha Line - to protest their intimidation and enslavement on the reservation by the White Man bullies, I expect you to start riding that train. No double standards, you know.

Posted by: nathan bissonette at August 9, 2005 08:23 AM

PB,

Two further points here:

For starters - you have certainly violated several laws of physics, turning my *personal* complaint about a *left-wing* church's *stupid* action into a broad-brush diatribe against right-wing "double standards", by comparing it to the actions of a church of which I'm not only not a member, but with whose theology I disagree. What's next - you're going to blame me for all those Catholic boyos and Paisleyite thugs in Northern Ireland? Perhaps for Wahhabism?

Secondly: "but that's mostly due to the Intefatah (sic) that they brought about under NetenYAHOO when he built apartments on a Muslim holy site on purpose to thumb his nose at them."

Some reading is in order. There was PLENTY of terrorism in Israel before Netanyahu and the Intifada. Netanyahu's election was a reaction to it. I don't agree with everything Netanyahu did (but I'm not an Israeli voter, so it doesn't matter), but to say he "caused" the intifada is disingenuous.

Posted by: mitch at August 9, 2005 08:45 AM

The only reason I'm staying in my church is because: I go there to work out my God stuff. That some morons (including chief booger-eating moron (AKA Archbishop of Canterbury) Rowan Williams) (I'm an Episcopalian) choose to work out their God stuff in this overtly political arena is embarrassing to me and to many if not most of the people around me in the pews, but I'm not going to let them push me out. I'd love to think that none of my offering $$ are going to them, but that's not realistic. I keep my eye on what's good about what we're doing, and on the Bible and the BCP.

And: good luck finding a church that isn't just as offensive in some way or other. Weathering controversy is part of following God, IMHO and IMExperience. It's both/and, not either/or. If Rowan Williams ever asks my opinion, I'll be sure to offer it to him. Voting with my $$ is not an option, but neither is voting with my knees, as you might say. It's a stupid situation but one which I willingly and reverently enter into. God is too important to disengage from his people over matters like this. Rather, like you say, Buy Caterpillar, Buy ITT, Buy Motorola (I love my Motorola phone, and my wife is getting one soon, too.)

That's my longstanding rationale for staying where I am. YMMV.

Posted by: Brian Jones at August 9, 2005 10:15 AM

I wish to heaven I hadn't already quit the Presbyterian Church over some other idiocy of theirs, so I could quit now. As a Christian, an American--heck, even as a black man--I'm sickened. To see Christians stabbing our Jewish brothers in the back, as has happened so many times in history, is enough to make me retch. Jews have stood by black people, and by America. And this is how the Presbyterians repay them? By making common cause with a bunch of maniacal fiends who blow up pizzerias and massacre toddlers? To hell with this. And I use the term quite literally.

Posted by: Jes' me at August 9, 2005 03:00 PM

PB -- "The myth that Isreal is somehow going to fall back into Arab domination is about as likely as having slavery come back here."
Um, no. To my knowledge no one is advocating the return of slavery to the US. However a stated goal of the Palestinian authorities is the end of Israel, by one of two means: Military conquest or demographic conquest by high birth rates and holding out for 'right of return'. I am sure that Jews would be very well treated in an Israel that is majority Arab, just like they are throughout the mideast. Israel has been attacked since the moment of its inception. Every compromise Israel has made has been viewed of a sign of weakness, and as simply another step in the long term process of Israel's complete destruction. It's not Israel's fault that Arab governments and Arafat (etc.) have used the Palestinian people as pawns in their long term efforts to destroy Israel.
A church that is so blinded by 'underdog theology' that it doesn't understand this is highly suspect.

Posted by: chriss at August 9, 2005 04:58 PM

Like many others, I deplore the Presbyterian USA so-called "Mission Responsibillity" Committee's march toward judgment against Caterpillar and other law-abiding, society-serving companies simply because somebody somewhere may have used their products to do bad stuff. Why not divest from BP -- the source of the diesel fuel that goes into the Israeli bulldozers. How about Scott Paper because they make the toilet paper that the dozer operators use? And on and on. Here's an idea: challenge the lay leadership of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to step up and stop the Mission Responsibility Committee's march toward judgment. Unlike a lot of churches, the Presbyterian Church has (since its birth during the Reformation in the 1500s) split the authority between the clergy and the laity. Unlike a lot of cleric-dominated denominations, the Presbyterians have a tradition of relying on LAY authority. Personally, I have more faith in the common sense of lay people in matters like t his one. Let's see if they can convince the clergy-dominated Mission Responsibility Committee that they have another option: clear the good name of good companies like Caterpillar.

- Gary Davis, lay elder, First Presbyterian Church, Lincoln, IL

Posted by: Gary Davis at October 11, 2005 08:18 PM

Hello! Very interesting and professional site. nokia6630

Posted by: brandy at July 1, 2006 06:29 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?
hi