A bad week for Church Divest

Its an even numbered year, and that can only mean, one, well, two things. The San Francisco Giants will win the World Series and the Mainline Protestant Churches will vote on divestment from Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East

The United Methodist Church has convened a two week conference in Portland, and from the posts on social media, there is much prayer and soul searching going on. 864 delegates are considering nearly a thousand resolutions on a wide variety of issues.

As in past years, the conference is filled with anti-Israel activists, pushing divestment from companies that do business in Israel.  This year, it appears, the organization is pushing back 

From a Press release from the Institute on Religion & Democracy 

May 17, 2016

“Activists who seek to enroll the church in demonizing Israel serve neither peace nor justice for anybody”

-UM Action Director John Lomperis

United Methodists have voted to encourage church boards and agencies to end their affiliation with an organization that promotes boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Delegates from across the 12.1 million-member denomination adopted a proposal asking to conclude agency affiliation with the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation on a vote of 478 to 319 (60 percent to 40 percent) during their quadrennial General Conference meeting in Portland, Oregon.

The United Methodist Church previously rejected divestment in 2008 and 2012 while the Presbyterian Church and the United Church of Christ have both adopted divestment policies .

And this week, the United Church of Christ is learning that their choices have consequences.

"The Church by the Sea hereby unequivocally repudiates and rejects the Resolutions call to boycott and divest". Additionally the Church “has also withdrawn all of its investment funds (almost $3M) from the United Church of Christ. Its a brave and principled stand to go against their denomination- a stand I hope is repeated by other churches in the coming months.

To read more about BDS in the pews

United Methodist Church Rejects Four Anti-Israel Boycott Resolutions

United Methodists Vote to Encourage Disaffiliation from Anti-Israel Coalition

Will United Methodists Lead The Way In Rejecting Anti-Israel Divestment?

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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.”