As a denomination we hate the Jews? Or will we correct the IPMN?

Sometimes one hopes that if they leave truth beside a stony path someone might trip over it instead of the stones. There would be healing in the tripping rather than bruises. Evil is in the world and we are afraid to acknowledge that it is connected to our own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

We have returned to the beginnings of the early twentieth century and its bent towards Jew hating, which in the end is a bent towards hating Jesus who came as a blessing from the Jews. God chose them as a people who would bless the world with a redeemer. But we have chosen as a denomination to side with those who want to demean and hurt the Jewish people.

And yes, once again I am writing about the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the PC (U.S.A.), and James Wall, former editor of Christian Century and a leading anti-Semite of this present century. The FaceBook page of the IPMN has linked to one of Wall’s articles and he in his typical fashion has used writers who belong to the anti-Semitic Veterans Today to make his points.

In his article, Congress Becomes a Mob of Mindless, Cheering Sycophants, Wall uses writer Franklin Lamb’s analysis posted at My Catbird Seat. Both Lamb and My Catbird Seat’s owner, Debbie Menon are on staff for Veterans Today. Lamb as an International Correspondent, Menon as Middle East Issues editor.

On just this issue of VT one of their more vile anti-Semites has an article CIA Treachery in Texas »., While Campbell spews all kinds of nonsense, this article is nothing compared to earlier articles where he named Nazi Germany the good guys and in another article wanted to hang Rabbis.

The Southern Poverty Law blog “Hate Watch” has an article about Veterans Today. It is entitled Buyer Beware: Veterans Today and its Anti-Israel Agenda. Are we as a denomination so incompetent at peace making that using radical Jew hating organizations like Veterans Today, and its sister groups and people, James Wall, My Catbird Seat, Intifada Voice of Palestine (linked to by the IPMN several days ago, and Salem-News.com is considered an acceptable way of addressing Middle East Issues?

I have to say the truth. If we keep allowing this kind of rhetoric to spew from the pages of the PC (U.S.A) we can no longer claim the Theological Declaration of Barmen as one of our Confessions. As a matter of fact we can no longer claim the text of any of our documents including the Holy Scripture, God’s word.

For those far away

For Memorial Day and for all of those far from those they love:

Do not fret ...

For almost a year and a half I neglected my garden partly because of writing and renewal work. One of my granddaughters tried gardening here last summer. Because I did not explain the needs of my garden she had some problems with it. For instance my soil is very acid and it doesn’t grow leafy vegetables very well. But throw an overripe strawberry anywhere and you will soon have a strawberry plant.

Many spots are shady in the summer and in those places it is best to grow mostly peas, garlic and onions. All gardens have special needs; they are like people and churches. I am reminded of the first part of Psalms 37 when I think of gardens, people and churches.

Do not fret because of evildoers, be not envious toward wrong doers. For they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your ways to the Lord, trust also in him, and he will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday.

When I think of the words “dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness” I think of the call of every Christian. That word cultivate has so many shades of meaning, tend, grow, care, nurture. Faithfulness to Jesus is something we watch over by following him in so many ways. And it is there in the rest of the verses.

Delighting ourselves in him, we read his word, meditate on his great sacrifice for us. Committing our ways to him, we are obedient to his commandments, love each other and lift up those who are needy.

And the righteousness he brings forth in us is his righteousness that is why it comes forth like light. His judgment is for us and gives us noonday light because in him we are made holy. Sinners, yet in Jesus we are loved and forgiven.

This is for the church struggling and confused and for myself.

Banning books, burning books is there a difference?

The Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) thinks that an article about banning books printed in Israel is a great addition to their Facebook BDS movement links. The article Scotland: Glasgow districts boycott Israeli books is really a glimpse of the past, all the way back to Nazi Germany.

The article begins, “Several districts in southwest Scotland expands boycott on Israeli products, bar stores from carrying English translations of Israeli books.’A place that boycotts books isn't far from a place that burns them,' says Ambassador Ron Prosor.”

The article continues, “Two and a half years ago, shortly after Operation Cast Lead, the West Dunbartonshire Regional Council, located west of Glasgow, approved a bill that called to boycott goods produced in Israel.”

Sacramento Presbytery, Synod of the Pacific and trust-Update

Trust will always be one of the greatest, rarest, and happiest blessings of our life in community, though it can emerge only on the dark background of a necessary mistrust. We have learnt never to trust a scoundrel an inch, but to give ourselves to the trustworthy without reserve.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

Letters & Papers From Prison

Saturday, May 21, 2011, was the Sacramento Presbytery meeting in a small town, McCloud, in the beautiful Shasta Mountain area of California. The sermon, about the centrality of Jesus Christ, the hymn, In Christ Alone, and the reading of that part of the Declaration of Barmen which states that “Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death,” were comforts for what would follow.

The Synod of the Pacific having taken over the cases against Roseville and Fair Oaks Church’s from the Sacramento presbytery had extracted 810, 000 from Roseville and 1.1million from Fair Oaks. The money was then given to Sacramento Presbytery. My pastor, Rev. Don Baird sent a motion to the Presbytery which we were to vote on at the meeting. The motion asked the Presbytery to “Receive from the Roseville Presbyterian Church their original gift of $160, 000 and Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church their original gift of 250, 000, gifts they offered and we accepted in 2007, and return all additional amounts they may have already sent to the Sacramento Presbytery as a result of their negotiations with the Synod of the Pacific as a gesture of our charity and oneness in Christ.”

Eight reasons were listed as to why the money should be returned. One of them was “Because Fair Oaks Presbyterian and Roseville Presbyterian churches have been in our community for over 50 years and we look forward to sharing ecumenical ministry with them each for many more years to come.”

An important technical reason was because: “the Sacramento Presbytery has the authority of trusteeship of all the congregational properties (G-8.0601) and responsibility for ecumenical relations within its boundaries (G-15.0101, .0102, .0103; 10.0102q; 11.0103u)”

A commissioner who has been a past Moderator of our Presbytery, sent an inquiry about the motion, without any Evangelical knowing, to a lawyer, Stephen L. Taber, who not only works for Meyers/Nave but is also connected, by profession to the Covenant Network. The lawyer's return letter was sandwiched in between a motion to table the first motion. I did not see it until just today because both were passed out by the lady during the second motion.

On the back of the motion to table and the letter from Taber, was a copied article from The Layman, which they had taken from the Sacramento Bee. It was about Fair Oaks accomplishment of raising the1.1 million to pay to the Synod. One can only suppose that the article was there to suggest that any church that can raise money that fast should not have their money returned to them. The second motion passed 41 to 38.

The worst part of this debate was a letter from the Synod of the Pacific read to the Presbytery. I will put that next, but what most of the commissioners do not know is that the Stated Clerk of the Synod sent this message to our Stated Clerk: (I am posting it as it appears in what was sent to me)

“Dear Carolyn,
Attached please find a letter from the Synod Coordinating=Council to the
Commissioners of your Sacramento Presbytery. Please r=ad prior to the vote on
the motion mentioned in the letter.
Thank you =or your assistance in this matter.
And please phone me when you receive =his, since you and I have had trouble with
our email in the past!
Ble=sings to you and the commissioners as you deliberate on the business at ha=d
this Saturday!
Wendy
Rev. Wendy G. Warner
Stated Clerk
Syn=d of the Pacific”

Here is the letter from the Synod:
To the Presbytery of Sacramento
C/o Carolyn Knight, Stated Clerk

Dear Commissioners to the Sacramento Presbytery meeting of May 21, 2011,
It has come to the attention of the Coordinating Council of the Synod of the Pacific that there is a motion on your Presbytery docket stating:
That the Sacramento Presbytery receive from the Roseville Presbyterian Church their original gift of 160, 000 and Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church their original gift of 250, 000, gifts they offered and we accepted in 2007, and return all additional amounts they may have already sent to the Sacramento Presbytery as a result of their negotiations with the Synod of the Pacific as a gesture of our charity and oneness in Christ.

While we certainly encourage gestures of “charity and oneness in Christ”, this particular gesture, hence this motion, can only be seen as an attempted irregularity.

First, the motion quoted above does not mention the repayment of the legal costs incurred by the Presbytery and the Synod in the pursuit of settlement of the civil cases and the negotiations precipated by the Fair Oaks and Roseville churches in the filing of their civil cases. Over 200, 000 has been spent by these two governing bodies seeking resolution to these cases, and the governing bodies must be repaid.

Secondly, the Presbytery of Sacramento VOTED to request that the Synod assume original jurisdiction over these two cases, and the Synod VOTED to accept that request. These two actions were never rescinded by either body and are thus still in effect.

Finally, Chapter VII of the Book of Order states clearly that “all property by or for a particular church, a presbytery … is held in trust nevertheless for the use and benefit of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)” G-8.0201. Since both churches requested of the Presbytery of Sacramento that they be dismissed to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which is a denomination which has no relationship with the PC (U.S.A.), and both churches are in some stage of effecting that dismissal, it is clear that any monies given to either church would not benefit the PC (U.S.A.). Such a ‘gift’ which would come from property that is limited to the use and benefit of the PC (U.S.A.) and therefore would violate the provision of the Book of Order.

Dear friends in the Sacramento Presbytery, we are keenly aware that these are difficult days in the life of our denomination. We pray, as our brothers and sisters in Christ, that we may find our way together along the path which is before us. “(Bold mine, capitalized lettering of voted authors.)

This is signed Coordinating Council of the Synod of the Pacific by the Synod Executive, Rob Brink and by the Synod Stated Clerk Wendy Warner.

Here are some answers to the letter.

1. The legal fees have already been paid they are not a part of the money that is being written about in the first motion.

2. “From the time we asked that the synod appoint an Administrative Commission to deal with this issue, the synod decided to move forward without appointing an Administrative Commission and to deal with the issue as they deemed necessary. “Once the agreements and payments by the two churches [were made it] terminated the synods authority as to our original request.” (known source)

3. The PCUSA is in communion with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church according to the Book of OrderG-15.0201 (2).
“a. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is in full communion with those churches so recognized by ecumenical agreements approved by the General assembly.
b. The General Assembly is in correspondence with the highest governing body:
(2) of those churches that are members of the ecumenical bodies in which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) holds membership”

Both the PC (U.S.A.) and the EPC belong to the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

One of the arguments for tabling the first motion was because God has given this to us as a gift, and although it may be hard we should receive it.

In the tabling motion it states that such money could be used for-“new church development, mission work, a viable resource center, specialized ministries (as Latino or other ethnic ministries.)”

Will our Lord honor the use of what is considered by some blood money for his work? Will he even see it as his work?

When all of the debate was over, and we were on to other issues, one very quiet pastor who rarely speaks took the floor to talk about a well known older pastor who had died and had been given a memorial service by the speaking pastor’s church. He mentioned that his church had been too small to hold the 500 people who came. But, he said, Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church generously allowed them to use their Church.

Update-"The two churches paid the total cost of all legal fees incurred by the Presbytery and Synod. The Sacramento Presbytery received $203,550.02."

Letter on file.

Words: beautiful or boring?

In a denomination which calls for diversity and the use of the imagination in ministry, it is sad that one hears little that lifts up the beautifulness of language. Just a few days ago I wrote about Sylvia Thorson-Smith writing and speaking on how patriarchy was the cause of most social ills. Her words included, “patriarchal sex bolsters patriarchal injustice. Compulsory heterosexuality – the social mandate that everyone be heterosexual – also requires that all men dominate all women, and the world. Lesbian, gay, …”

Almost a year ago, before General Assembly in June of 2010, I wrote about the Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns placing their recommendations on all overtures that would have opened the Book of Order to include same gender marriage. They wrote:

The practice of excluding people who are gay and lesbian from marriage has its roots in the persistence of patriarchal standards for the lives of women and men. The notion that men and maleness is superior dictates that men and women behave in particular ways that abide by the rules their sex dictates. For this reason, same-gender loving women and men are perceived as a direct threat to the norms that patriarchy lays out, as they, in their loving, challenge the models of prescribed masculinity and femininity that patriarchy determines. Gay men are a threat as they are perceived as “too feminine,” and lesbian women are perceived as “too masculine.

I thought of how dead some words become when they are anchored in cultural and sociological narcissism. How empty of life words become when they come with the name Christian but do not lift up Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Words that defy the light of Scripture become idols and much like stone or wooden idols they have no wisdom or meaning. They are just lies and lies that sound and look like other lies- they are all boring, unimaginative and yes, even deadly.

When I first began writing of Thorson-Smith’s thoughts about patriarchy and LGBT ordination I kept turning to a small book of poetry that I love. I know why now. I was searching past the boring words of radical feminism.

The writer, Irina Ratushinskaya, who at one time was an activist in Russia, an Orthodox Christian and also a poet, spent seven years in prison for her poetry. Her words are beautiful; they do not ring with idol words but with reality. The book of poetry I am reading says of Ratushinskaya and her prison poems, “She copied her poems in a tiny hand onto strips of paper which were hidden and then smuggled out of the camp.”

‘We have learned’

We have learned, indeed, to throw time into tins
And have stirred in the condensed night at all times.
This century grows ever darker, and the next will not come soon,
To wipe clean the names off yesterday’s prison wall.

We loaded it with the voices of departing friends,
With the names of unborn children-for a new wall.
We equipped it so lovingly, but we ourselves
Do not row in it, we are not even allowed on board.

But covering the measured-out load with coarse matting
We still manage to broadcast the seed.
Our hands are torn but we still pluck out the dragon’s
Teeth from the crops, which are fated to stand after us.

These are words that are full of meaning, suffering and speak of preservation as well as despair. The unborn children, whose names the women prisoners write on the wall, will never come because the author and the other women after suffering extreme cold will not be able to conceive children. Hopefully, we who love Jesus and are moved by the Holy Spirit would not write ‘patriarchy’ on any wall or paper but instead passionate beautiful words that flow from faithfulness. Words that sing because the heart, the mind, the hand know Christ.

Loving Jesus and justice?

As I wrote the posting on patriarchy I started thinking about true activist. By that I mean people who care deeply about social issues that have to do with secular society but are nonetheless biblical. For example people like William Wilberforce who fought so long in Britain against slavery and the slave trade.

But mostly I was thinking of women since I was writing about radical feminist’s attempts to understand ethics by turning biblical mandates on their head. I wrote about Feminist’s ethics and biblical principles for my Master Thesis and so that holds some interest for me.[1]

One of the women I looked at in my thesis was Josephine Butler (1828-1907). She worked for reforms to aide prostitutes who were legally misused. Her work involved the fight against what was at the time called white slavery as it existed in England and then in several other countries. Another person who did some of the same work, an American doctor, who ministered in China, Katharine Bushnell (1856-1946), wrote Bible Studies for women. And both of these women were devout Christians who loved Jesus.

A more recent activist and historian, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, started the first women’s study department in a university, at Emory. Fox-Genoese’s conversion flowed from her concerns over abortion and the rise of those promoting euthanasia. Although Sylvia Thorson-Smith, who I wrote about in my last posting, referenced her in the book Body and Soul, Fox-Genovese was ignored and distained because of her stand against abortion and because of a book she wrote, Feminism is not the Story of My Life.

In Fox-Genoese’s statement about her conversion she wrote, “A Christian, by definition, is one who accepts Jesus Christ as his personal savior and, no less important, as Lord. Everything depends upon belief. “Her story can be read at First Things.

All of these women stood up in some way for the oppressed. One does not need to throw away the word of God in order to care about others. And a plus is that holding on to God’s unchanging words places the activist on a solid foundation; their roads will be straight, bordered by both the truth of God and the justice of God.



[1] The first chapter of my thesis can be read here, “Early Feminism: Equality, Ethical Theory and Religion.”