July 23, 2004

Presbyterian Church of USA is divesting itself of investments in Israel.
posted by pyrrthon1 20 years ago
  • Hmmm. Interesting.
  • So in terms of crazy-ass religious loonies, the Presbyterians are slightly less on a scale of craziness than the fundo Jews? Hmmm. Maybe we should draw up a chart.
  • Good for them.
  • In fact this is the first act by an organized religion that has made sense to me in years.
  • "By reaching this decision we want to make sure that we are not investing in activities of the kind we are trying to prevent. We see so much violence, and we want to assure ourselves that we have nothing to do with it," said Jay Rock, coordinator for Interfaith Relations at the Presbyterian church. Damn good thing churches are tax-exempt. Or, you know, it'd amount to the same thing.
  • This seems so sensible and sane -- amazing.
  • Wow! An act of morality from a religious organization. In this (usa) christian nation , i suspect more groups would react the same if they were aware that some palestinians were christians. At one time, one in five of the Arab inhabitants of Palestine was Christian; now it's about one in fifty. "The fact is that Palestinian Christians not only have been killed, but many others have been maimed and disabled for life by Israeli bullets. Christians have also suffered under the inhumane Israeli siege by not being able to leave their towns, go to their jobs, seek medical care, and attend schools. Churches have been fired on by Israeli anti-tank missiles..."The christian coalition is all for backing Israel, despite palestinian christian's plight I guess the money and media help supress this information.
  • According to a friend of mine, there are many Arab Christians in the American Presbyterian Church, so this may not be as uncharacteristic as it might seem.
  • Not enough to sway policy. The vast majority of presbyterians are of Scottish descent. Maybe the Scots just identify with the Palestinians because of their own history with the English.