The United Church of Canada has squandered enormous goodwill this week with its bungled foray into Middle East politics.
In proposing a boycott of Israeli goods from East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a church working group either was naive and ill-informed or mischievously biased against Israel.
The church’s governing council gave preliminary endorsement to the proposal Wednesday in Ottawa, with a final vote expected Friday.
The episode almost certainly will damage a once-positive relationship with Canada’s Jewish community, members of whom who might wonder where this church was a few years ago when Israeli young people were being blown up in pizza parlours and discos.
The community is bound to be deeply offended, especially because this vote reflects the fourth time since 2006 that elements within the United Church have proposed Israel-related boycotts.
The latest bid has also riled a group of Liberal and Conservative senators, themselves church adherents, who in June warned against the proposal.
Senator Nicole Eaton disapprovingly noted at the time that the boycott motion reflected political rather than spiritual work. And, as charitable institutions, churches must keep political activities below the 10-per-cent mark. According to the church, political action accounts for two per cent of its activity.
That said, outgoing moderator Mardi Tindal has been quoted: “We are very political, as was Jesus; that’s why he was crucified.”
If the church isn’t careful it may yet witness its own crucifixion — by losing its charitable status with the Canada Revenue Agency.
Objections to the boycott proposal which was outlined in a May report by a church working group has focused mainly on two points.
• The report’s lack of balance, with Israel identified as the stumbling block to peace while ignoring any Palestinian obligation or responsibility, and making no mention of terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas. (An amendment added Wednesday attempts to address the imbalance.)
The report also takes no account of Israel’s 2005 voluntary withdrawal from Gaza which has only resulted in sustained rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel.
• The report singles out this particular conflict when Christian minorities are being persecuted across the Arab Middle East and Iran.
Indeed the Toronto-based Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs has produced a response, posted on its website, www.cija.ca, making mincemeat of the working group’s report.
The church’s general council, nonetheless, has expressed preliminary support for a boycott even though an internal survey shows a majority of members don’t want their church picking sides in the conflict.
So, what’s going on?
“I keep coming back to a very difficult conclusion,” an Ottawa-area United Church minister, the Rev. Andrew Love, told the Jewish Tribune this week, “and that is that there remains an undercurrent of anti-Semitism in our church.
“If you scratch the surface of our tolerant, liberal church, you find the reality of racism.”
In a separate foray into politics, the church’s governing body voted Tuesday to oppose Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposed oil pipeline through B.C.
Anglican and Presbyterian representatives in B.C. have made similar statements of opposition to the pipeline.
But, in 2012, such church proclamations don’t change the course of history.
In fact churches are not particularly well positioned to pronounce on matters of state. Their expertise lies more in the realm of the spiritual and philosophical. Even in those areas, they often get it wrong.
For example, disgracefully, Catholic teachings too often prompt gay people to feel like a subhuman species.
Religious institutions are at their finest when administering to the needy and downtrodden and inspiring individuals to be better human beings than they otherwise would be.
Moreover, church credibility in Canada has been damaged by the residential school abuse fiasco, in which the United Church played its own role.
Since 1965 the United Church’s membership has dropped by half; the average churchgoer is aged 65.
The church now spends more than it takes in and has been closing churches and laying off staff.
Clearly, its governing council should be concentrating on these issues instead of worrying about boycotting pretzels from Ma’ale Adumim.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Barbara Yaffe
In proposing a boycott of Israeli goods from East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a church working group either was naive and ill-informed or mischievously biased against Israel.
The church’s governing council gave preliminary endorsement to the proposal Wednesday in Ottawa, with a final vote expected Friday.
The episode almost certainly will damage a once-positive relationship with Canada’s Jewish community, members of whom who might wonder where this church was a few years ago when Israeli young people were being blown up in pizza parlours and discos.
The community is bound to be deeply offended, especially because this vote reflects the fourth time since 2006 that elements within the United Church have proposed Israel-related boycotts.
The latest bid has also riled a group of Liberal and Conservative senators, themselves church adherents, who in June warned against the proposal.
Senator Nicole Eaton disapprovingly noted at the time that the boycott motion reflected political rather than spiritual work. And, as charitable institutions, churches must keep political activities below the 10-per-cent mark. According to the church, political action accounts for two per cent of its activity.
That said, outgoing moderator Mardi Tindal has been quoted: “We are very political, as was Jesus; that’s why he was crucified.”
If the church isn’t careful it may yet witness its own crucifixion — by losing its charitable status with the Canada Revenue Agency.
Objections to the boycott proposal which was outlined in a May report by a church working group has focused mainly on two points.
• The report’s lack of balance, with Israel identified as the stumbling block to peace while ignoring any Palestinian obligation or responsibility, and making no mention of terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas. (An amendment added Wednesday attempts to address the imbalance.)
The report also takes no account of Israel’s 2005 voluntary withdrawal from Gaza which has only resulted in sustained rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel.
• The report singles out this particular conflict when Christian minorities are being persecuted across the Arab Middle East and Iran.
Indeed the Toronto-based Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs has produced a response, posted on its website, www.cija.ca, making mincemeat of the working group’s report.
The church’s general council, nonetheless, has expressed preliminary support for a boycott even though an internal survey shows a majority of members don’t want their church picking sides in the conflict.
So, what’s going on?
“I keep coming back to a very difficult conclusion,” an Ottawa-area United Church minister, the Rev. Andrew Love, told the Jewish Tribune this week, “and that is that there remains an undercurrent of anti-Semitism in our church.
“If you scratch the surface of our tolerant, liberal church, you find the reality of racism.”
In a separate foray into politics, the church’s governing body voted Tuesday to oppose Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposed oil pipeline through B.C.
Anglican and Presbyterian representatives in B.C. have made similar statements of opposition to the pipeline.
But, in 2012, such church proclamations don’t change the course of history.
In fact churches are not particularly well positioned to pronounce on matters of state. Their expertise lies more in the realm of the spiritual and philosophical. Even in those areas, they often get it wrong.
For example, disgracefully, Catholic teachings too often prompt gay people to feel like a subhuman species.
Religious institutions are at their finest when administering to the needy and downtrodden and inspiring individuals to be better human beings than they otherwise would be.
Moreover, church credibility in Canada has been damaged by the residential school abuse fiasco, in which the United Church played its own role.
Since 1965 the United Church’s membership has dropped by half; the average churchgoer is aged 65.
The church now spends more than it takes in and has been closing churches and laying off staff.
Clearly, its governing council should be concentrating on these issues instead of worrying about boycotting pretzels from Ma’ale Adumim.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Barbara Yaffe
No comments:
Post a Comment