| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| When churches head Left |
| 2004-10-14 |
| America's mainline Protestant churches are in trouble. One sign is shrinking membership. Another is turning their political policymaking over to fringe leftists whose deepest instinct is to blame America and pummel Israel whenever possible. The latest disgrace is the Presbyterian Church's plan for selective divestment in Israel--ending the church's investment in multinational companies that the church believes bear particular responsibility for the sufferings of the Palestinian people. For example, the Presbyterians say they may divest themselves of Caterpillar stock, because bulldozers made by that company are used to level Palestinian homes in Israel's antiterrorism campaign. Of course, these bulldozers can also be used to move debris after Palestinian suicide bombers have finished blowing up another round of women, children, and other civilian bystanders in Israel. How do the Presbyterians go about adopting stances like this? Apparently they cast a stern moral glance around the world, look for possible abuses in China, North Korea, and Iran, and seeing nothing disturbing there, decide to focus once again on Israel. The conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) released a measured and devastating report on the human-rights efforts of mainline churches and groups--the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Episcopal Church, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), plus the reliably leftist National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches. The report, covering the years 2000 to 2003, found that of 197 human-rights criticisms by mainline churches and groups, 37 percent were aimed at Israel and 32 percent at the United States. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #7 Bring back the worship of the ancient Egyptian Cat Goddess "BAST". ___________________borgboy |
| Posted by: borgboy 2004-10-14 7:51:08 PM |
| #6 Being nasty to the Boss' relatives --- very, very smart. |
| Posted by: Anonymous6092 2004-10-14 4:15:39 PM |
| #5 I think that I will worship at the temple of Sony, best church I can think of. |
| Posted by: Football Fan 2004-10-14 1:51:29 PM |
| #4 Go one of two ways: As a Catholic, I invite you to come back to the mother Church - the Catholic Church has changed - and it is very welcoming of converts - after all, the Church began with Converts, like Paul. And converts have helped change the Church recently as well. Most parishes are starting their RCIA programs up around this time of year if you wish to convert. Or... Find a good small-community independant protestant church - some of those store-front Baptist/Bible churches are pretty bad, but some are quite excellent - keep trying one until you find a good one. They are highly dependant upon having a good pastor, so when they are good, they are very good. Ask around. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-10-14 9:59:53 AM |
| #3 Herein lies the chief reason why my particular church (an ELCA church) has few attendees on Sunday and rarely ever a fullhouse outside of Christmas and Easter. On any given Sunday, the demographics of those who do attend skew heavily to the gray-side. Meanwhile across town, Willow Creek Community Church needs overflow parking, Harvest Bible Chapel has offshoots in three or four different communities in the Chicago area, and so on. I think my pastor can do with a reading of In, But Not Of. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-10-14 9:07:34 AM |
| #2 We were Episcopalians, then when they placed politics above religion we became Presbyterians and now we just aren't going to church. We were looking for a new church - but this whole disinvestiment thing really turned me off. They won't need or get the chance to disinvest our money. I'd like to go to church - but if they aren't going to make Christianity their focus, what's the point? |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-10-14 7:59:27 AM |
| #1 Proving they don't really care about human rights. Human rights is just a cover story for advancing their lame ideology. |
| Posted by: V is for Victory 2004-10-14 7:42:09 AM |