Stabbing John Knox's Corpse, Part II

Two years ago, the General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church of the USA (PCUSA) started the process of trying to divest the church's investiments in Israel.

The effort was met with condemnation by the majority of mainstream Presbyterians, big and small.

The temporal affairs of the Presbyterian Church are run by a series of elected bodies; each church elects a Session; sessions send delegates to regional Presbyteries; the presbytery sends delegates in turn to the national General Assembly. Of course, the higher you go in the hierarchy, the farther left of center an elected official is likely to be.

Concerned Presbyterians notes that the GA is responding to criticism the way all political bodies do; by burying it in politics:

PCUSA Moderator Ufford-Chase, with unanimous approval of the General Assembly Council, has recommended the creation of a seven person study group to examine the Middle East issue for another two years. Under this proposal, the 34 divestment overtures advanced by individual churches through their presbyteries would be referred to committee. The Israel divestment resolution approved in 2004 would continue unabated while this study group does its work. Thus, the will of numerous anti-divestment presbyteries would be thwarted at least two more years, while national church leadership would continue to drain our coffers in pursuit of a biased political agenda.

CP notes the response we mainstream Presbyterians need to take:

Presbyterians, neither the Israeli Government nor the American Jewish Community can stop this assault on Israel. It is our problem – and our responsibility. With the General Assembly (GA) approaching June 15, now is the time for you to act by contacting the GA Commissioners from your presbytery. Please do not delay. Your 217th GA Commissioners’ names are listed here, and your presbytery office has the contact information for them. These Commissioners need to be informed that many concerned Presbyterians are opposed to referring these urgent overtures to a study group; they want the 2004 divestment resolution rescinded now.

It's time for Presbyterians to stop treating church elections like the rubberstamps they tend to be, and to fight back against the erosion of the church's traditions.

Presbyterianism in the US is historically closely linked to our democracy itself; John Knox' theology nurtured many of our founding fathers and the ethical institutions they founded, up to and including not only our democracy but the traditions of justice, property rights and other beliefs that made democracy tenable in the first place.

The church is worth fighting for. This is just the first hill to fight for.

The GA has not gotten a nickel of my money for two years. They won't until things change.

Posted by Mitch at June 14, 2006 05:46 AM | TrackBack