Posted on 02/10/2022 8:29:49 AM PST by SJackson
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), delivered a hateful and antisemitic sermon on the day one honors the memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The fact that Herbert Nelson II is black helped spare him criticism from the politically correct liberal media, who would normally castigate such hate-filled false and malicious libel if given by a white person. Nelson’s poisonous words were morally repugnant, factually false, and certainly worthy of collective denouncement. He stated: “The continued occupation in Palestine/Israel is 21st-century slavery and should be abolished immediately.” He then added, “I would also hope that the Jewish community in the US would influence the call to join the US government in ending the immoral enslavement.”
This shameless blood-libel from a religious person can only serve to fuel antisemitism and division rather than bring about unity and amity, especially in today’s divided America. This spiritual leader chose to promote hate by inferring that Israeli-Jews are “enslavers.” Rather than focus on Martin Luther King’s great message of judging people “not by the color of their skin but by the content of one’s character,” was lost on Herbert Nelson II, who maligned the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Instead of calling for “love thy Neighbor,” or as Jesus might have said “love thy enemies,” Nelson insinuated that American Jews secretly control the moves of politicians and manipulate world events to their advantage. He must have taken a page from the antisemitic classic “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the lie that wouldn’t die.
In attempting to make a comparison between the legitimate case of black slavery in America and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Nelson simply showed his ignorance of historical facts and his bias toward Israel and Jews. Palestinian-Arabs are not slaves, while the Muslim invasion, conquest, and conversion of the hitherto Christians and Jews in Palestine (a name given by the Roman conquerors to the Land of Israel) did enslave the people living under its sword. More importantly, few other people have had as many opportunities to assert their self- determination as did the Palestinian-Arabs. In 1937, the Peel Commission offered the Palestinian-Arabs 75% of Mandatory Palestine. They rejected it and chose terror and murder of innocent civilians, both Jewish-Palestinians and Palestinians-Arab. In 1947, the UN Partition Plan offered the Palestinian-Arabs a state once again, but they chose instead to annihilate the nascent Jewish state that did accept the Partition Plan. From 1948-1967, Jordan occupied the West Bank, yet, the Palestinians never demanded self-determination and statehood from Jordan. In fact, Palestinian leaders demanded that the Arab states deny citizenship to the Palestinian refugees in their states, and preferred to keep their people in miserable refugee camps as a propaganda tool. At the same time, the Jewish state of Israel absorbed a much larger number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands where Jews lived for millenniums.
Following the Oslo Accords in 1993, Yasser Arafat and Mahmud Abbas, both Presidents of the Palestinian Authority (PA) had several opportunities to establish their sovereign state - they declined. In July 2000, at the Camp David Summit presided over by US President Bill Clinton, with the participation of Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the Israeli PM offered Arafat far reaching concessions and Palestinian statehood in return for “an end to the conflict." Arafat rejected it and chose instead to launch the Second Intifada, a terror campaign that cost the lives of over 1,000 Israeli civilians. President Clinton held Arafat responsible for the failure of the talks. It prompted Clinton to say, “I regret that in 2000, Arafat missed an opportunity to bring that nation (Palestine) into being.” In 2008, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert was prepared to go even further than Barak; still, Abbas wouldn’t sign on a peace deal and accept statehood.
Describing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as enslavement is a modern-day blood libel, which historically led to violence against Jews, particularly as it came in the wake of a terrorist attack on a Texas synagogue. We can now add “slavery” to the list of demonstrably false libels that progressives have been repeating about Israel: “settler-colonialist,” “genocidal,” “killing and torturing children,” “apartheid,” and “ethnically cleansing” Palestinians.
The Jewish state has in fact displayed incredible humanism in the face of Palestinian murderous terror. Bassem Eid, a former Palestinian Muslim refugee, and currently a human rights activist, has pointed out to this reporter that, “We Palestinians do not need an identity, we know who we are. We Palestinians need dignity, and that comes with being able to support our families. Israel has provided us with high paying jobs so that we are able to support our families. Conversely, the PA leadership (not to mention Hamas) cares only for itself, with little regard for the Palestinian people’s welfare.” He added, “The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and the “progressives” are hypocritical and destructive. They have destroyed economic opportunities for Palestinians by boycotting the Soda Stream Company, which provided Palestinians great opportunities and equal pay.”
No mainline Protestant denomination is more clearly associated with anti-Israelism than the PCUSA. Some of its actions crossed the line into antisemitism, most notably its publication of “Zionism Unsettled,” which distorted Israeli and Jewish history. The American Jewish Committee (AJC), pointed out that “The sheer volume of anti-Israel resolutions discussed and debated reveal a deep animus (against Israel) that needs to be called out.” Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC’s director of interreligious relations continued, “Within the PCUSA, a small but vocal minority of activists have managed to keep anti-Israelism on the agenda through eight general assemblies (GA) spanning 14 years. This faction has its own committee, dubbed #12- Middle East issues, allowing a concentration of Israel-denunciatory time and energy through the weeklong GA."
The late PCUSA pastor, Rev. Dr. Bill Harter, once explained to this reporter that the PCUSA missionaries who go to the Middle East return to the Louisville, Kentucky headquarters of the PCUSA having adopted the Palestinian narrative. Being posted to the headquarters they find nothing better to occupy their energy than to generate anti-Israel resolutions. Rev. Dr. Bill Harter was the co-founder of the Presbyterians for Middle East Peace (PFMEP). While the Stated Clerk and the PCUSA headquarters have adopted an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish posture, the majority of local presbyteries throughout the US have close and friendly relations with the Jewish communities in their area, and oppose the false and hateful words of the Stated Clerk, and the anti-Israel resolutions. On its website, the PFMEP has in fact, “Condemned the Stated Clerk’s statement on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for being offensive to the Jewish community…”
Instead of apologizing, Herbert Nelson II made assertions without merit or fact. He charged that Israel confiscated Palestinian land in Judea and Samaria. The fact is that the Israeli High Court of Justice has gone out of its way to protect private Palestinian land. However, Israel has every right to use state/public land. Regarding his charge of “Israeli barriers to access Palestinian holy places of worship,” Israel erected barriers to prevent Palestinian terrorists from murdering Israeli citizens. Herbert Nelson has failed to cite a single case of innocent Palestinian worshippers denied access to the al-Aqsa mosque or any other place of worship. Religious freedom in Israel is sacrosanct, which was not the case under Jordanian rule.
Mark 13
…5Jesus began by telling them, “See to it that no one deceives you. 6Many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many. 7When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come.…
Matt 7:21
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
This guy is just another Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
What a jack ass...
There are many good decent honest Presbyterians. But PCUSA denomination has been openly antisemitic for years, ever since a few Nazi and Islamonazi types infiltrated its control hierarchy. We had a friend in that sect try for years to get it cleaned up. He made good progress at times with the general membership but he was never able to get the Nazi types removed from the sect’s policy committees.
Most of the good decent Christians from PCUSA have been rushing out the door — to get away from Satan as fast as they can. A few are still there trying to disinfect/exorcize/expel the demons. Imho, they probably can’t succeed. Too many of the good Christians are gone already. But, we will see. We pray for them
Presbyterian USA.......IS Liberal/Apostate
Do not confuse it with Presbyterian PCA
All due respect to your friends who have stayed to try and effect change.....
.
......this is why the Presbyterian Church in America was birthed in the 1970s........after leaving the USA Pres.
Delete the word “equity” and replace it with “accountability” and there will be common ground.
Because they wanted their "Palestinian State" to encompass ALL of Israel, not just the West Bank and Gaza.
The mainline protestant churches were the backbone of the republic until the 1960’s when they started to go liberal. As they have become more liberal —their membership has steadily shriveled ever since. Their decline has coincided with the decline of the republic since the 60’s.
This man calls himself a Christian, but hates the birthplace of our lord and savior.
Someone should remind this man that Jesus Christ was ethnically Jewish.
I was expecting something at least challenging. “Slavery”? Please. Now we’re enslaving Palis? Jews are actually sought-after employers in Judah and Samariah. Nobody forces anyone to work for them. We pay well, we’re nice, we’re reasonable. Slavery? Uyghers, anyone?
For your attention!
That so called reverend should be ashamed of himself.
If that pic is him, he looks NOI, imo.
Really no recent reliable poll but in 1998 (www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/adl-survey-finds-anti-semitism-high-in-black-community) the figures on anti-semitic views among african americans showed 37% 1992 and 34% 1998 overall.
Lowest education level showed 43%, with 27% for those with some college education.
Even current Wikipedia had to refer to old surveys. (Middle of Antisemitism in the United States).
.... 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2013 all found that the large majority of African-Americans who were questioned rejected antisemitism and expressed the same kinds of generally tolerant viewpoints as other Americans who were also surveyed. For example, their 2009 study reported that 28% of African-Americans surveyed displayed antisemitic views while a 72% majority did not. However, those three surveys all found that negative attitudes towards Jews were stronger among African-Americans than among the general population at large.
According to earlier ADL research, going back to 1964, the trend that African-Americans are significantly more likely than white Americans to hold antisemitic beliefs across all education levels has remained over the years. Nonetheless, the percentage of the population holding negative beliefs against Jews has waned considerably in the black community during this period as well.
True.
When Obama and Michelle reared back their hands in approving laughter at Rev.Wright saying "Not God bless America, I say God D--- America!" We knew we were in for years of misery ahead.
The PCUSA leadership long ago stopped practicing any semblance of the Christian faith. I was a member.
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