Presbyterians Want Your Money to Further Peace

I wrote earlier elsewhere today about our buddy Clarence, an obese retarded guy who drops into the shop from time-to-time to visit us. A smug little girl has a blog http://palestineencounter.blogspot.com at which she relates how she stood up for the rights of the oppressed in Bethlehem against Israeli soldiers. I wrote about Clar. at her blog. It's got me thinking about the time Clar. was here standing around drooling and gazing into space, doing not much. Suddenly one of the people at the shop shouted at him: "You've shat yourself!"

He had. It lay in a pool around his feet. With the shouting and the laughter, Clar. got flustered, ran in circles, and made a further mess. He was embarrassed and afraid. Next thing he was crying. He's a big guy, and it's hard to calm him when he's nervous or afraid. We got him into the men's room, mopped the floor, and went back to normal.

But let me put it clearly here: Grown men laughed at him and taunted him.

No man who's ever changed a baby's diaper, who's cared for a sick child, who's tended a comrade in the field, no man who's buried his parents can have anything but contempt for those who'd laugh. We get many kinds of people here, many of whom are marginal at best. They're welcome. But not those who're so low that they pick on the weak or the defenceless. There's a limit, and the PCUSA has reached it-- passed beyond it.

Proud to be a Presbyterian...

[This was taken from the PCUSA website here]
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Church draws focus on five corporations it says impede efforts to secure a just peace among Israelis and Palestinians

Seattle, August 5 , 2005 -- Today, the Mission Responsibility through Investment (MRTI) Committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) announced that it will begin its process of 'progressive engagement' with five companies it says contribute to the ongoing violence that plagues Israel and Palestine. The Committee's action is in response to a resolution passed last year by the Church's General Assembly and is consistent with the Church's long-standing practice of ensuring its investments are used to further the Church's mission.

The 2004 General Assembly adopted a seven-part resolution affirming its longstanding opposition to the occupation and taking action to demonstrate its convictions. It instructed the Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee (MRTI) to begin a process of phased, selective divestment of stock in companies whose operations support the occupation.
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Our work with Christian partners also informs our deep concern for human rights issues. In Israel/Palestine, the Church has been a consistent advocate for Israel's right to exist and Palestinians' right to self-determination. It has also spoken out consistently against violence, terrorism, anti-Semitism, the Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, and the Separation Barrier.

My thoughts: There are times that being part of a mainline denomination is frustrating. There are times when I ask myself, "Why do I really want to be a Presbyterian?" There are times when I just think that the 'institutional/organized' church is not the place for me and I need to seek out other places to do ministry in the future. But then there are other times when I'm proud of Presbyterians (some) and what they are doing. One of the up-sides to being a fairly large mainline denomination with some money is that you DO have it invested in a variety of places and one way to take a stand against injustice in the world is to do what threatens and speaks most loudly sometimes - threaten to take away your money, to pull-out, to dis-invest from certain companies. Although this decision is NOT to automatically dis-invest from these companies, but rather to begin a process, a process that includes dialogue to get these companies to think about what they are doing and how they are being involved in the fate of the Palestinian people. I think the MRTI Committee is making a good move with announcing this and looking into these companies. It will be interesting to see how conservative PCUSAers respond to this action - but I am in full support of any decision within the PCUSA to look into divesting from companies that are sponsoring (knowingly or maybe even possibly unknowingly) the violence against the Palestinians and adding to the Israeli advantage in the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

02:21 AM in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Permalink
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Israel isn't sick or helpless. Israel is more like a new kid in the neighbourhood, and the bullies are going crazy trying to beat him. The Presbyterian Church of the USA is aiding the Moslems, helping them in the effort to continue the murder of civilians of all nations in the area, encouraging murder of women, children, babies, anyone at all. The vile and repugnant pretense of fairness is lower than the scummy behaviour of those who taunted our pal Clar. PCUSA plays up to the thugs, curries favor among the killers for the sake of looking like the liberals they want to be, looking like Dan Brown clones, looking like stylish and sophisticated cool guys. It's a pose, and they're taking some heat for the resulting dead bodies and the continued threats of more to come.

They delete letter after letter, day after day, by those who write in to object to the PCUSA stance. They haven't realised until recently that there are too many people who are disgusted by them for them to continue their pose unopposed. PCUSA has backed murderers, and now they're seen doing so by many. They want your money. They also want to be cool. They're not welcome here. Not in this shop. We get drug addicts and lunatics here, thieves and scumbags I won't begin to describe. But there's a limit to who we let in. PCUSA wants your money. I'd rather give mine to a crack-head.

We tossed losers out of this place because they taunted a retarded man. I'd have them back before I'd let in a Presbyterian from the PCUSA clergy. They want your money.