I wanted to add a personal word to Jonathan’s post regarding the Presbyterian Church USA’s anti-Israel bias.
Years ago my wife, children, and I attended a PCUSA church, where we enjoyed a very good relationship with the senior pastor, who baptized two of our children. Our church was fairly orthodox theologically and certainly more conservative theologically than the official positions of the PCUSA. But in a relatively short period of time, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, my wife and I heard a guest speaker from the pulpit and a guest Sunday school teacher make wholly inappropriate statements against Israel. I raised the matter with the minister, who put me in touch with an associate pastor who oversaw such matters. And in the course of my discussions with her, I eventually learned our church was serving as host to a group with deep and troubling biases against Israel.
It is one thing, and a commendable thing, to show concern for the plight of Palestinian Christians. But it is quite another to use that issue as a pre-text to excoriate Israel. And so I raised my objections, including in e-mails which went into excruciating detail to refute the claims that were being made against the Jewish state and to underscore how unwise and offensive it was to allow our church to become a tool in the propaganda war against Israel. I also made personal appeals to leaders in our church to pull back from its stance. It never really did, and eventually, we left the church. We had established close friendships over the years, but I didn’t feel like we could be a part of a church that was not simply political (which as a general matter I find quite troublesome), but which in this case was promoting pernicious falsehoods.
I relay this episode simply to underscore how prevalent the anti-Israeli bias is within certain liberal religious institutions. Those who represent them often speak about “social justice” — and yet they implicitly side with the forces of injustice, of hate, and of violence. One is reminded of the words of Isaiah, who prophesied, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Peter Wehner discovers that his local church has both an anti-Israel animus and hosts anti-Israel organizations. Unable to change its policy he leaves it along with his family. Barack Hussein Obama attends a church headed by a well-known anti-Israel , anti-white and probably anti-Semitic extremist pastor. He remains a member of that church for more than 20 years; marries in that church; baptizes his children there; and in one year contributes $30,000 to it. Would it be wrong to draw certain conclusions from the behavior of these two individuals?
I believe you are exactly right mhloutbeltway. Peter Wehner is a man of honor. Most of us here at Commentary know who President Obama is.
I've had similar experiences with a PCUSA congregation. I left when on the occasion of his suicide the pastor compared DC's own Mitch Snyder, homeless activist and all around provocateur, to Moses.
Markedly relevant to Wehner's experience is “the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect”, as defined in an often-quoted excerpt from a talk by Michael Crichton at the International Leadership Forum, La Jolla, April 26, 2002, titled “Why Speculate” : n n"Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward — reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them. nIn any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know. nThat is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I’d point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn’t. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia. " n nWhen Wehner's pastor began talking on a topic in which Wehner had the greater expertise, he immediately recognized the distortions. Any of us in a similar situation would do the same (I experienced it, most notably, watching a "60 Minutes" report that blithely omitted most of the facts actually known to me). nBut what happens when the pastor, or tv pundit, moves on to topics where we don't have the facts at our fingertips? Do we then accept their interpretations uncritically? n nA lot of the negative stereotypes about class, political party, race, and religion are perpetuated because we all fall prey to the Amnesia Effect. n n n
it takes alot of spirit to stand up to people you once held in great esteem. I congratulate him and thank him for his strength of conviction. Mr. Wehner should know though that he is not alone. I actually left my Temple last year after the associate rabbi started quoting from Alinksy and the chief rabbi wrote glowing reports about his work with JStreet and his visit to Gaza including what a great job Hamas was doing (yet never one word about Gilad Shalit or the Jews of sderot). I always knew the man was very liberal, that never totally bothered me, but it became tiresome that a rabbi apologizes for Jews defending themselves and remaining alive with the requisite its all Israel's fault. I realized that this man was no longer someone I would seek guidance from nor someone I could any longer respect. The truly sad thing is that he was also the only rabbi in my area that would bar mitzvah my special needs children. So the decision to leave that Temple was terribly heartbreaking but ultimately a necessary one when deciding the importance of my own self-respect and what I wanted to teach my children. Kudos Mr. Wehner. In truth your children will be better off to have as a parent someone with true humanity and conviction.
The Presbyterians are right about Israel. Denial is not a river in Egypt, and deniers don't have a leg to stand on anymore. Israel IS persecuting the Palestinians unmercifully. It's over, ladies, and gents. The cover-up is kaput.
Actually, I have two legs to stand on and the overwhelming majority of your fellow citizens think you are full of it. But keep shoveling.
aha! now we get to it. "Israeli100" on another post claims to be a "former IDF officer." I thought that sounded a little fishy. n nnow we see that not only was he or she probably never in the IDF, he/she is actually an Israel basher! n nIsraeli100: lots of Jew haters come on commentary and try to get us riled up with anti-Israel comments like your lame one above. they never stay long, because they quickly find out the rest of us are here for real discussion, not bigotry. and they get bored because nobody takes their bait. n nso enjoy your stay, and please know that we won't miss you when you go.
On another forum I saw a "former IDF officer" get taken apart by a real IDF officer. It was delightful and almost painful to watch, as the real one struck up a friendly and casual chat and only then began asking awkward questions which caused the fake one to mumble and stumble and to eventually disappear. n nThe silly numpty above, the one claiming to be Israeli, should be arrested and tried for crimes agains the dignity of the English language with his "denial is not a river in Egypt." Where do these weenies crawl out from? Another lost Paulbot looking for his leader?
Yikes, Jews are occupying Judea!
LOL! Perfect!