The Christian Divide: Liberal Protestants Criticize Israel, the Religious Right Defends Her
A few comments:
1. As Jimmy Carter has shown, there is a new actor on the political stage: liberal Christians. (Per the Globe):
The Rev. Ralph Galen, minister of Andover's Unitarian Universalist Congregation and a member of Merrimack Valley People for Peace, said [Rabbi Robert] Goldstein's stance against Wheels of Justice has disappointed him. "The situation in the Middle East is so complex that it's already at a boiling point," said Galen, who helped bring The Wheels of Justice to neighboring North Andover two years ago with less resistance. "It just pushes us over and it's so hard to maintain our rationality, but we must."
Liberal Protestants used to be quiet about the Middle East, now they're demanding to be heard; the Presbyterian church, for instance, is debating divestment. This is part of the rage at Jimmy Carter: rightwing Jews want to keep the Middle East club exclusive. 2. Contrast the liberal churches' position with the strength that pro-Israel groups are drawing from the religious right. See Zev Chafets's new book, A Match Made in Heaven, about evangelicals' support for Israel, reviewed lately in Commentary Magazine. Chafets calls it the "wonderful Judeo-evangelical alliance." I wonder how wonderful it is. To preserve Israel from criticism, the American-Jewish community is being drawn further and further right.
3. The Globe article features a student at Andover High calling for a balanced panel discussion of the issues, rather than "just" Wheels for Justice. The pity to me here is that a Jewish kid is being mobilized in an argument about a country he probably has never been to, and whose apartheid-like practices he has no idea of. The pressure on Jewish kids these days is sure intense! I feel for them. When I was a little Jewish kid, I was protesting the Vietnam War with my parents and hearing about the Freedom Riders. What larks! True enough, I was being indoctrinated, too, but it was a hopeful set of values, one I still choose to embrace, liberal universalist ideas going back to abolitionism. These kids are being indoctrinated in a narrower set of religious-nationalist values: basically, Arabs Bad, Israelis Good.
This Andover controversy is another example of the desperate actions of people with something to hide - much like the virtual rants of the ignorant trolls who linger on this blog...remember Hamlet? "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
Liberal protestants have never been particularly quiet about the middle east and have aligned themselves with the Arabs for some time now. And considering the Christian situation in the middle east outside of Israel it has done them no good at all. And talk about a paternalistic attitude towards a Jewish high school student. Obviously in the mind of Phil Weiss he/she is incapable of actually coming to a pro-Israel position and not betraying their own people without brain washing.
the image of these millionaire suburbanites barking at people trying to bring attention to the palestinians daily struggles is hilarious. It's Like Paris hilton chewing out a salvation army volenteer for ringing their bell too loudly outside the mall.
Cuz their lives aren't good enough already, they deserve to be insulated from reality as well.
great to see parents behaving as boorishly at a library as they do at soccer games. they're just all around boors!
The cries of "balance" only seem to come out if the event is one where Palestinians are portrayed in a positive light or shown having legitimate grievances. Speakers or events promoting a Zionist narrative are considered balanced a priori. Look at how much flak Spielberg took for the movie "Munich."
"Liberal protestants have never been particularly quiet about the middle east and have aligned themselves with the Arabs for some time now. And considering the Christian situation in the middle east outside of Israel it has done them no good at all." (BP)
Phil Weiss quoted a Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church. FYI, there are precious few Unitarians today who would call themselves "Christians". Although the church did emerge as a protestant church hundreds of years ago, it has evolved far beyond it's Catholic roots.
Perhaps someday you will give up your profoundly erroneous belief that everything is about religion.
I wonder who has the higher standard of living: the jews in Andover or the arabs in the occupied territories.
Lester, I remember when the Gaza green houses, a thriving agricultural enterprise was turned over, intact, to the Arabs. And they destroyed them. Why, it's their nature I suppose.
that doesn't answer my question.
hey there mr. weiss, that was a brief but pretty darn solid article. one thing i wanted to add is a comment on one irony of the religipous right's love of israel, most notably that the "christian zionist" movement is loaded with anti-semites, but that no longer seems to be an issue these days because their politics are zionsit. this gets kookier when you consider the following: the end times and the rapture will see the religious right heading north; guess where the rest of us go?
ugh
about that andover presentation...not one student opted out, though the entire student body was given the option.
Gene, you were talking about the Arabs standard of living. If they were concerned about that they would have made peace and continued a thriving export industry. But, they can't, its not in them. But when it comes to killing Jews they are good.
bill- wow if that's true we should definately throw israel under the bus and get out of the middle east. anyone who wants to hang around that place is on their own!!
It's the only plan that makes sense. after all, "it's not in them" so there's no hope. at all
when you are right you are right goombah