Posted on 05/23/2006 8:59:41 AM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
"Liberation Theology" was the theological justification for Western church groups that backed Marxist revolution 20 and 30 years ago. Its influence waned with those failed revolutions, especially in Latin America, but it continues to shape intellectual life in the Middle East, as a tool against Israel.
The Jerusalem-based Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center coordinates the anti-Israel advocacy of U.S. church groups. Sabeel guides and leads U.S. church delegations when they come to the Middle East, where they are exposed primarily to a pro-Palestinian perspective. When Sabeel conducts conferences in the U.S. or Canada, North American denominations host and promote the conferences, some of which are secretive and prohibit press coverage.
Early this year, Sabeel hosted events, with church help, in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., to sound its usual themes of Liberation Theology with a Middle East flavor. Divestment aimed at Israel was also a major Sabeel cause at these events.
Sabeel describes itself as a "an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians." Liberation Theology, a fad among declining Western churches for much of the 1970’s and 1980’s, was used to justify religious support for Marxist revolutionary movements. When the Soviet Union died, depriving most of those movements of their oxygen, so too did much of Liberation Theology. But Liberation Theology remains narrowly alive as a theological pretext for churches to back the Palestinians, as the supposed Third World oppressed, against Israel, the ostensible Western colonizer.
In its self-defined mission, Sabeel promotes "a more accurate international awareness" of Palestinian Christians. Now numbering only about three percent of Palestinians, the dwindling Christian population serves as a hook for engaging the interest of leftist-led Western mainline church groups, most of which have little to no interest in persecuted Christian minorities struggling to live under Islamist rule.
According to Sabeel, Palestinian Liberation Theology "opens new horizons of understanding for the pursuit of a just peace and for the reconciliation proclaimed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ." By learning from Jesus, who also lived under "occupation" and responded to "injustice," Sabeel spotlights Israeli human rights violations and encourages Christians globally to "stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people."
Naturally, Sabeel and the church groups have little to no interest in actually spreading the Gospel among Palestinians, which would arouse the ire of the Muslim majority, and certainly provoke the new Hamas-led Islamist regime. So Sabeel’s version of Christianity is simply an anti-Israeli and anti-Western political message, largely devoid of the transcendent message of the Christian Gospel.
A Christmas greeting from Sabeel two years ago illustrates its theology. "Wherever empire exists and the powers that be are in control through domination, there is a greater responsibility for all of us to take a stand against all that dehumanizes people and to work for their liberation," it read, merrily. "The Christmas story is a story of a liberating God who comes to join an oppressed people in the work of liberation. God’s message through the angels is a message of defiance. In spite of the presence of empire, human arrogance, and oppression, God is announcing peace and goodwill. This is God's agenda. Glory belongs to God and not to the emperor nor to the powers."
Its festive seasonal message continued: "We defy the occupation; we defy the injustice; we defy the oppressors; we defy the powers; They do not possess the last word, they can build high walls, but they cannot take away our hope…Therefore Christmas makes us defiant."
Sabeel dates to 1989 and now has supportive chapters in Australia, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and the United States. It strives to stand for the "oppressed, work for justice, and seek peace-building opportunities," while "empowering the Palestinian community as a whole. From the start, Sabeel had help from radical U.S. theologians, like Rosemary Radford Ruether, a renegade Roman Catholic who taught for years at United Methodist Garrett Evangelical Seminary outside Chicago. Ruether was better known for her promotion of 1) radical feminist theology and 2) Gaia the earth goddess. But she also made time for Sabeel and helped edit a book chronicling the founding conference of the movement.
U.S. churches helped to provide staff and organizational help to Sabeel. For example, United Methodist missionary Janet Lahr Lewis works at the Sabeel office in Jerusalem, located in what the United Methodist missions board website describes as "Palestine," but which most people describe as Israel. According to the Methodist missions website, Lewis’s work includes "educating the public about the realities of the situation, organizing prayer vigils and peace marches, developing media campaigns, offering worship opportunities, hosting delegations to the area, and overseeing other special events."
According to Lewis, "After taking a typical Holy Land tour and seeing the devastating consequences of the ongoing illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, I experienced not only a ‘call,’ but rather an undeniable ‘push’ to go back to that not-so-holy land and do whatever I could to help bring about ‘freedom for the oppressed.’" She sold her house in the U.S. to move to Bethlehem, where she "lived with my neighbors under the heavy hand of injustice and military occupation."
"Christ calls us all to be ministers of justice," she observes. "Through my work with the Palestinian Christian community and Sabeel, I will be able to answer this call by working for a just and lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis, so that reconciliation and healing can occur."
Lewis and other Sabeel activists helped to guide official delegations from U.S. and Western church groups, making sure they are attuned to the pro-Palestinian perspective. For example, the National Council of Churches (NCC) sent an 11 member delegation to the Middle East last year, led by NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar. Naturally, the ecumenical delegation promised to "redouble our efforts for an end of the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and for an end of the U.S. occupation of Iraq." Naturally, the delegation denounced the "separation barrier" that Israel has built to guard itself from Palestinian terror. And naturally, the delegation "undertook a Way of the Cross liturgy facilitated by friends from the Sabeel Liberation Theology Center."
Early this year, the head of Sabeel, the Rev. Naim Ateek, addressed the World Council of Churches Assembly meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil, urging "selective divestment" in corporations doing business with Israel. According to Ateek, who is an Anglican priest: "We know there are corporations profiting from the misery of occupation, and if you find your money invested in that misery, then it becomes your responsibility to question the morality of that investment."
Sabeel sponsored a conference called "A call for Morally Responsible Investment: A Nonviolent Response to the Israeli Occupation" in Toronto, Canada, last Fall. Reporters and outsiders were prohibited from attending. Participants had to sign a statement of support when registering. Despite the secrecy. the conference was endorsed by the World Council of Churches, the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, and the United Church of Christ USA and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Common Global Ministries.
Even more recently, early this year, Sabeel hosted more conferences, this time in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. These events were open to the public. Co-sponsors included local agencies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the United Methodist Church, and the United Church of Christ (UCC), as well as the far-left Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) caucus, the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, and several other religious and secular activist groups.
Sabeel sounded its usual anti-U.S. and anti-Israel themes. According to onsite reporting in Pittsburgh by my assistant John Lomperis, Rev. Ateek declared to loud applause, "The United States has never been an honest broker in this conflict; it's always been…against the Palestinians!" Ateek also denounced the Western media as being mainly "against the Palestinians," a charge echoed by other conference speakers.
Of course, anti-Israel "divestment" was a major theme. Ateek enthused that movements for divestment were afoot in several U.S. denominations, and divestment has been endorsed by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He did not acknowledge that formal divestment has largely been defeated or forestalled almost in every other denomination where proposed. Ateek was forced to admit that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was already "under great attack" for its divestment measure. Predictably other speakers compared Israel to apartheid South Africa.
Ateek insisted that Sabeel does not want "to destroy Israel" and desires a "two-state solution" with a shared Jerusalem. But the "Jerusalem Sabeel Document" distributed at the conference described Sabeel's "vision for the future" as establishing a single "bi-national state…for two nations and three religions." It proposes "a constitutional democracy that protects and guarantees all [Israeli and Palestinian] rights, responsibilities, and duties without racism or discrimination." So, in other words, bye-bye, Israel, at least ultimately and ideally.
Like the leftist-led Western church groups that support it, Sabeel is not overly alarmed about the Hamas Islamist regime or the possibility of Islamic Sharia law. It prefers to fault Israel for all problems of Palestinian Christians. Sabeel and its church friends do not offer any brand of Liberation Theology for Christian minorities throughout the Middle East who struggle to survive under radical Islam and dictatorship. Apparently, Liberation Theology was never intended for those Christians.
The Methodists are not the only ones who disguise their political activists as "missionaries". The Presbyterian Church USA has a so-called missionary in Lebanon who's principal job is to accompany presbyterians who want to meet the hezbollah terrorists.
Read more about Nuhad Tomeh at: http://blog.pcusaelders.org/index.php?m=20051206
Relevant link:
Profile of Jim Wallis
http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1833
bttt
Communists always call themselves something other than what they really are.
That was news to me as well that the Methodists are putting so-called missionaries on staff at Sabeel. I suspect if the books of the mainline churches were inspected closely we would find many instances where the mainline church employees are really working for WCC or NCC and other political organizations.
Are you PCUSA?
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