Posted on 11/24/2005 6:09:10 PM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has denounced renewed contact between the U.S. branch of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terror organization.
According to the Middle East Research Institute, Lebanese media confirmed that a PCUSA delegation headed by Robert Morley, a retired professor from McCormick Theological Seminary and Father Nihad Tomeh, the Church’s Mideast liaison met with Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, Hezbollah’s commander in Southern Lebanon. The Church delegation reportedly wanted to learn more about Hezbollah’s charitable works and its "concern" for people.
"The people of Lebanon struggle mightily to reassert their independent democracy, Israel evacuates Gaza and continues negotiations with the Palestinian Authority towards a two-state solution, hundreds of thousands of Jordanians throng to the streets to denounce suicide bombers in Amman, but leaders of the PCUSA rush again to coddle up to Syria and Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists," charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. "Their moral blindness is both arrogant and dangerous, seeking this meeting with Hezbollah even as the group plotted kidnapping and mayhem to blow up the quiet Lebanese-Israel border," Cooper continued.
(Excerpt) Read more at wiesenthal.com ...
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has denounced renewed contact between the U.S. branch of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terror organization.
According to the Middle East Research Institute, Lebanese media confirmed that a PCUSA delegation headed by Robert Morley, a retired professor from McCormick Theological Seminary and Father Nihad Tomeh, the Church’s Mideast liaison met with Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, Hezbollah’s commander in Southern Lebanon. The Church delegation reportedly wanted to learn more about Hezbollah’s charitable works and its "concern" for people.
"The people of Lebanon struggle mightily to reassert their independent democracy, Israel evacuates Gaza and continues negotiations with the Palestinian Authority towards a two-state solution, hundreds of thousands of Jordanians throng to the streets to denounce suicide bombers in Amman, but leaders of the PCUSA rush again to coddle up to Syria and Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists," charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. "Their moral blindness is both arrogant and dangerous, seeking this meeting with Hezbollah even as the group plotted kidnapping and mayhem to blow up the quiet Lebanese-Israel border," Cooper continued.
At the meeting, Qaouk complained to the Presbyterian officials that U.S. policy towards Lebanon was dictated by Israel. Worley assured him that his delegation was blameless, because they had voted for Democratic Party. Worley also voiced his own complaintabout how much PCUSA had suffered from Jewish organizations because its stand supporting divestment from companies doing business in the Jewish state.
"The latest photo op with a frontline terrorist leader confirms these Presbyterian leaders are pursuing a functionally antisemitic, punitive campaign against Israel, motivated not by hopes for peace but as a desire to weaken the Jewish state," said Rabbi Cooper.
"The Jewish community can only hope that fair-minded members of PCUSA will take back control of the moral compass of their movement before any further damage is done to the cause of Middle East peace, interfaith relations and the Presbyterian Church’s historic reputation," Cooper concluded.
PCUSA was the first mainline Protestant movement to call for divesting funds from Israel. A year ago, a PCUSA delegation also visited with Sheikh Qaouk in Lebanon. This led to the dismissal of two members of that delegation as well as condemnation by U.S. Congressional leaders, among others.
Hezbollah is recognized by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. In addition, the distinction between the group’s political and terrorist wings was removed by General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands following an investigation into the groups social services apparatus.
Sure they don't mean CPUSA?
Well, isn't that special. I wonder if all the blue-haired old ladies that put their widow's mite into the plate every Sunday morning know that the whores in charge of their church are up to these tricks?
Their religeon seems to have been hijacked by anti-semite scum. Why the hell don't they find a different church?
I've said it before and I'll say it again... 99% of today's mainstream churches are members of the National Council/World Council of Churches.
NCC and WCC are one worlders, socialists and worse. If your church is a member, DO NOT CONTRIBUTE and DO NOT TRUST what they're teaching from the pulpit or in their Sunday School classes. Better yet, get out!
And the American Jews continue to vote for the Dems also. Where's the logic?
I do believe that the PCUSA has outdone the United Methodists this time. I didn't think it possible.
It was subverted by apostates a long, long time ago. When crap like this is going on in the open, the system is trashed from the head of the church, through the seminaries and down to the level of the pulpits. Don't worry, there'll be enough millstones to get them all.
We have uncovered the following additional information about the presbyterian group at this site:
http://www.wfn.org/2005/10/msg00361.html
MECC Receives PCUSA Delegation in Lebanon and Syria
Date Mon, 31 Oct 2005 01:56:36 +0200
Dr. Robert Worley, former professor of ministry at the McCormick Theological
Seminary and longstanding friend and supporter of the churches and people of
the Middle East lead the Chicago Presbytery Task Force of 18 persons during
their visit to Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank in October. This is not the
first time Dr. Worley leads similar groups to the Middle East to help them
understand the people of the region, the issues they face, and to promote
justice and peace.
While in Beirut, the group met with the MECC senior staff on October 19,
visited the DSPR/Joint Christian Committee then went to South Lebanon where
they met with the representative of the Lebanese resistance movement.
In Syria, the group worshiped in different churches on Sunday morning,
October 23, and met with the Grand Mufti of Syria, in addition to church
leaders and other religious and community leaders. They also visited
archeological and holy sites.
The group will also meet with H.E. Dr. Boutheina chaaban, Minister of
Expatriates before leaving for Jordan.
The Chicago Task Force is very active in advocating for the issues that are
facing the people of the Middle East.
Middle East Council of Churches
Office of International Ecumenical Relations
P.O. Box 5376, Beirut, Lebanon
Guirgis Ibrahim Saleh, General Secretary
mecc@cyberia.net.lb or guirgissaleh@cyberia.net.lb
+961-1-353-938
http://www.mec-churches.org/
We are also aware of a WARC meeting in Lebanon October 13 to 19. We do not know if any of the WARC participants were part of the Hezbollah visit on October 20. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the head of the Presbyterian Church USA, is the President of WARC.
The WARC meeting is reported here:
http://www.christiantoday.com/news/church/orthodox.church.warc.take.part.in.international.theological.dialogue/855.htm
The ninth session of the International Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches has taken place in Dhour Choueir Evangelical Conference Centre.
Posted: Monday, October 24 , 2005, 14:03 (UK)
The ninth session of the International Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches has taken place in Dhour Choueir Evangelical Conference Centre of the Presbyterian Synod of Syria and Lebanon from Oct. 13-19, 2005.
The dialogue, which in fact initially commenced in 1988, this time had the main theme of “The Catholicity and Mission of the Church”.
The meeting was jointly chaired by His Eminence Metropolitan Panteleimon Rodopoulos of Tyroloë and Serention, of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Very Rev. Prof. Iain Torrance, of the Church of Scotland, President of Princeton Theological Seminary, USA.
On the topic of the catholicity of the church, papers were successively presented by Prof. Dr. Dawn DeVries (Reformed, Richmond, USA) and by Prof. Christos Voulgaris (Orthodox, Athens, Greece). Papers on the Orthodox and Reformed understanding of koinonia or communion were read by the Protopresbyter Prof. George Dragas (Orthodox, Boston, USA) and by Rev. Dr. Karel Blei (Reformed, Haarlem, the Netherlands). The mission of the church was the theme of papers presented by Fr. Prof. Dorin Oancea (Orthodox, Sibiu, Romania) and by Prof. Phee-seng Kang (Reformed, Hong Kong, China).
....Within the Reformed delegation was: Rev. Prof. Iain Torrance (Church of Scotland, President of Princeton Theological Seminary, USA), Rev. Dr. Habib Badr (National Evangelical Union of Lebanon, Beirut), Rev. Dr. Carnegie Samuel Calian (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, USA), Rev. Dr. Edgar Moros Ruano (Seminario Evangélico Unido de Teología, Madrid, Spain), Dr. Vuadi Vibila (United Evangelical Mission, Germany), Prof. Dr. Michael Weinrich (Theological Faculty of the University of Bochum, Germany), Prof. Dr. Dawn DeVries (Presbyterian Church USA), Rev. Dr. Karel Blei (Reformed, Haarlem, the Netherlands), Prof. Phee-seng Kang (Reformed, Hong Kong, China), and Dr. Odair Pedroso Mateus (WARC staff, Geneva, Switzerland).
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
Matthew 7:15
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them...
1Thessalonians 5:3
Let's be clear that it is the PCUSA that we're talking about here -- the same organization whose Stated Clerk (chief poobah) thanked then-President Clinton for his veto of the partial birth abortion ban. The same organization which opposes the private ownership of firearms. The same organization which cannot plainly condemn homosexuality.
Please do not confuse the apostate PCUSA with the conservative, Bible-believing Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), which left the "mainliners" to their heresies back in the 1970s.
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