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The apologies from Louisville seem less than sincere and seem more like a grasp that apologies will sweep the issue under the rug. It sure looks like the Louisville headquarters of the PCUSA is defending divestment to an even greater degree than they have done thus far. I suspect this stance will backlash on them as it will give cause for a new round of critical editorials in the secular and Christian press.

The apologies also seem very similar to the Episcopal Church USA apologizing to the African Anglican community for upsetting them for ordaining a homosexual bishop.

In other words we stand by what we did, we only apologize that you are upset.

The Layman http://www.layman.org reported two stories on these apologies: "PCUSA leaders back off their earlier denouncement of pro-Hezbollah remarks" and "Former PCUSA employee defends two fired from staff". Both are worth reading.

I wonder when the PCUSA is planning to send a delegation to Al Qaeda?

Social WitLess Policy

Related articles from The Layman Online (layman.org):

PCUSA leaders back off
their earlier denouncement
of pro-Hezbollah remarks

By John H. Adams
The Layman Online
Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Three leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have backed off a previous joint statement in which they denounced as "reprehensible" the comments made by a member of a delegation that met with Hezbollah, a radical Islamic organization that has been blamed for the murders of hundreds of Israelis and 270 Americans.

Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase and John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly, used that term shortly after the 24-member Presbyterian group met in Lebanon with the Southern Lebanon "spiritual leader" of Hezbollah.

One member of the delegation, Ron Stone, a retired ethics professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, told Al Jazerrah television, "As an elder of our church, I'd like to say that according to my recent experience, relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders."

As a result of the meeting with Hezbollah, Israeli leaders in the Mideast refused to meet with the Presbyterian delegation. Furthermore, the meeting with Hezbollah - as well as comments by Stone and Nile Harper, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy - hatched a firestorm of protests from Jewish groups and Presbyterians who disagree with the PCUSA's call for punishing Israel because of its dealings with the Palestinians.

Numerous Presbyterian and Jewish groups have issued statements urging the PCUSA to abandon the 2004 General Assembly's resolution that called for divestment of denominational funds from corporations that do business with Israel.

The Presbyterian News Service reported today that Kirkpatrick, Detterick and Ufford-Chase have had follow-up discussions with members of ACSWP and have exchanged letters about the situations.

Jerry Van Marter, the coordinator of the news service, reported that there have been several weeks of "intense dialogue" between the PCUSA's leaders and members of ACSWP. He did not indicate whether those meetings had been open to the denomination's staff reporters, but independent media in the denomination, including The Layman, were not invited to cover the discussions.

Van Marter's account included copies of a letter written by seven elected members of ACSWP, a response letter from Kirkpatrick, Ufford-Chase and Detterick and an ACSWP summary of the Mideast trip.

The two letters included apologies – of a sort.

In their letter dated Dec. 1, seven elected members of the Advisory Committee acknowledged that the meeting with the "Hezbollah leadership was untimely and unwise given the larger context of religious and political tensions within our country." They acknowledged that the meeting "created great pain and difficulties for you and for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)."

The ACSWP letter was signed by Dianne Briscoe, Esperanza Guajardo, the Rev. Sue Dickson, the Rev. Ronald Kernaghan, the Rev. Gordon Edwards, Stone and Harper.

Kirkpatrick, Ufford-Chase and Detterick responded by expressing "regret over the consequences of your meeting with the Hezbollah Party in Lebanon … We acknowledge that our [previous] letter was hurtful to you, and we are sorry for that hurt. We are eager to move on to work for the peace, unity and purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in order that we may together give faithful witness to the compassion and justice of Christ for all the peoples of the world."

In their summary of the "fact-finding" mission to the Mideast, ACSWP described meetings it had with Christians and Muslims in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Egypt – "where we heard deep appreciation for the balanced policy of the Presbyterian Church (USA)."

In most cases, the summary named names and places – with a smattering of references to unnamed Jewish leaders. The report seemed to suggest that those unnamed leaders agree with the PCUSA's policy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For example, the report said that "some Jewish leaders" praised the 2004 General Assembly for calling for the "removal of The Wall … and selective, phased economic divestment" from corporations that do business with Israel.

It claimed that some "Jewish Rabbis" and "Jewish Rabbis" and "Jewish religious leaders" – without specifying how many of either – attended a reception for Christians, Jews and Muslims sponsored by ASCSP. The summary issued a glowing report on the reception: "Existing partnerships were strengthened. New opportunities for collaboration were discovered. Listening and learning. Ideas for future partnerships emerged. Bridges of communication were opened."

The summary included several references to the wall Israel's government is constructing to protect Jews from Palestinian suicide bombers. The ACSWP seven viewed the wall as an economic hardship for the Palestinians and a barrier to peace.

They did not mention – or quote any Israeli – that suicide bombings have decreased during the construction of the wall.

And their summary did not mention the meeting with Hezbollah.

Presbyterian News Service coverage, text of letters, ASCWP summary of Mideast trip.

Former PCUSA employee
defends two fired from staff

By John H. Adams
The Layman Online
Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Mary Ann Lundy, who lost her job with the Presbyterian Church (USA) after getting the denomination to sponsor and help finance the 1993 Sophia-worshiping Re-Imagining Conference, has taken up a new cause.

She is now trying to rally her friends and current employees of the PCUSA staff at the denomination's national headquarters in Louisville to protest the firings of Kathy Leuckert and Peter Sulyok.

Lundy, who went to work as deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches soon after she lost her PCUSA job – "I was fired up," she quipped – compared the plight of Leuckert and Sulyok to the backlash that occurred after the Re-Imagining Conference.

Now retired from the WCC, Lundy wrote a letter that was posted on the Web site of the Witherspoon Society, an independent group of self-described "progressive" Presbyterians. She compared what happened to Leuckert and Sulyok to her situation after The Layman published a report about the Re-Imagining Conference in 1993.

Lundy's letter denounced "the unfairness of holding only staff accountable for an event which involved elected leadership, for the use of scapegoating in order to appease critics of the church, for 'wimping out' instead of standing firm when there is criticism of faithful and courageous action; in short, the sacrificing of national staff when the going gets rough!"

The Re-Imagining Conference of 1993, in which Lundy and other PCUSA staff members were deeply involved, caused an enormous backlash from the pews that reduced contributions to the denomination by millions of dollars. The 1994 General Assembly declared that the Re-Imagining movement went beyond the bounds of Christian faith.

John Detterick, the executive director of the General Assembly Council, fired Leuckert, his top deputy, and Sulyok, the staff leader for the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy [ACSWP], shortly after some of the committee members met with Hezbollah during a Mideast trip.

Detterick has not disclosed his reasons for firing the two, but he said recently that it was not related to the Hezbollah meeting.

However, Lundy said she believed the firings of Leuckert and Sulyok were related to the Hezbollah trip.

"The background for the decision is the last General Assembly when action was taken to study the possibility of divestment of stock in corporations that are involved in the Israeli demolition of homes and buildings in Palestine," she said in a letter to "friends." "So far only study has taken place and no action, but Jewish religious bodies and political organizations have registered their opposition and made threats against the PCUSA headquarters and more recently to burn churches.

"In the fall of this year the Committee on Social Witness Policy, staffed by Sulyok whose supervisor is Leuckert, made the decision to travel to the Middle East on a fact-finding mission. They spoke with leaders in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel and spoke with pro-Palestinian groups. At least one Israeli official declined to meet with them. Though they were instructed not to meet with the media, one elected member did so and an uproar ensued, whereupon Peter and Kathy were abruptly fired. Ironically, this happened 11 years to the day after the Re-Imagining Conference!"

A number of Lundy's statements in the letter were erroneous. The General Assembly did not call for the "possibility" of divestment – it called for actual "selective phased divestment of funds in multinational corporations doing business with Israel." There was no mention in the resolution of limiting its scope to companies that are involved in the demolition of homes and buildings in Palestine.

Furthermore, no Jewish religious bodies or political organizations have made any threats against the PCUSA headquarters. To the contrary, most have said that the PCUSA's one-sided policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a threat to their own efforts for peace in the region. The denomination has reported only one arson threat: an unsigned, handwritten letter that included a swastika – normally regarded as an anti-Jewish symbol.

Lundy concluded her letter by urging her friends to write to Detterick "protesting his action and to the Chair of the General Assembly Council who is Nancy Kahaian, particularly asking for a hearing for the staff members and an investigation of John Detterick's action." The General Assembly Council has decided to conduct an investigation.

I can't cast stones at the presbys as my own denomination, the United Methodists, are doing stupid things too.

I'm not happy with the policy of divestment in Israel by my denomination, the PCUSA. Reading through the above-listed statements is distressing. Yes of course the committee found great enthusiasm for that policy among the Arab societies they visited. Their goal is to weaken Israel by co-opting the naive committee members into supporting one-sided policies that assist the Palestinians at the expense of Israeli security.

They also are pretending that the meeting with Hizbollah is what created the rift with American Jews.

In fact, the policy of requiring their $7 billion pension fund to sell all stock of American companies that they flag for the companies' relationship with Israel is what created the irreparable breach.

I wonder if the companies (like Caterpillar) could legally fire all employees who are members of the PCUSA? I don't believe that PCUSA members are a "protected class" under US constitutional law and the equal opportunity laws.