United Church of Christ: Searching for relevancy in all the wrong places

At the time of its formation, the United Church of Christ  (UCC) had over 2 million members in nearly 7,000 churches. Today, the United Church of Christ has just under 1 million members in 5,100 congregations. From 2000 to 2010 alone, the UCC encountered a net loss of 696 congregations and 318,897 members.

Earlier this month the General Synod of the United Church of Christ (UCC) voted  to divest from companies conducting business in “Israel-occupied Palestinian territories” and boycott products made in those territories.

Members of extremist groups Jewish Voice for Peace, Al Awda, and other members of the
 U. S. Campaign - a consortium of anti-Israel groups- maintained a steady presence at the Cleveland synod in an effort to pressure the church group to divest.

After the vote,  Jewish Voice for Peace’s Campus coordinator Ben Lorber let the mask slip just a bit, issuing a triumphant declaration, “UCC has divested from Israel”.

Abbas Hamideh, chairman of Al-Awda, a group that touts the mythical  Palestinian “right to return” shown here with Anna Baltzer of the US Campaign (aka Anna Piller, aka Anna Nardie) was among those lobbying for the divestment resolution.

How  “beyond the pale” is Abbas Hamideh?

He was recently suspended from Facebook for posts exalting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

“Hezbollah is an openly and proudly anti-Semitic movement. Indeed, the movement goes out of its way to stress that its animosity toward Jews does not derive from its opposition to Zionism,” Dr. Jonathan Spyer.a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Herzliya has told the J Post

Nasrallah has been widely condemned for his statement:

“If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice I do not say the Israeli.”\

Why has the United Church of Christ, in their search for relevancy, found common cause with anti-Semites and the enablers of anti-Semites?

From Mark Tooley, President of the  Institute on Religion and Democracy
June 30, 2015

“This divestment action will contribute nothing to peace or reconciliation. To the extent it is heeded at all, it will encourage radical enemies of peace to believe that Israel’s Christian friends will turn against Israel. They will be greatly mistaken.”

“The UCC joins the also fast declining Presbyterian Church (USA) in endorsing anti-Israel divestment. Perhaps dying denominations make opposition to the Jewish state their lodestar. More spiritually vibrant Christian churches will have very different opinions on Israel.”