Anti-Judaism at the UCC

I don't like to throw around the labels "antisemitic" or "anti-Jewish," but I'm at a loss on what else to do with this statement from John H. Thomas, the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ (UCC).

First, it seems eminently clear that these mainliners - like other mainliners - are suffering from "protest jealousy." The references to Vietnam make that clear. They missed the 60s, they missed Biafra, they missed Apartheid. Anti-war protests are passe. So now they want blindly to take up the Palestinian cause, a cause for which I critically expressed support -- but not like this.

That much I can handle.

But this --

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians turns on this very point. Could Jews extend to Gentiles "citizenship" in the covenant? Could Gentiles extend to Jews hospitality? Could the "far off" as Paul describes them, "be brought near?" And could the hostility be brought to an end? Could the dividing wall be broken down? Paul reminds the Gentiles that they were at one time "aliens from the commonwealth, strangers to the covenants of promise." Now, in Christ, "you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." Could those who are alien, strange, different, indeed in some sense repulsive, be brought near from the safety of a far distance? Could citizenship be extended?

-- and this --

We in the United Church of Christ have always affirmed the right of Jews to citizenship in a homeland marked by safe and secure borders. That is not subject to debate. We have even said that God’s covenant with the Jews, their citizenship in the commonwealth of God’s promise made to Abraham and Sarah, remains intact, inviolate, that it has not been superseded by the covenant we know in Christ. On this matter, too, we will not debate this summer. But we have also said that the denial of citizenship to Palestinians is an outrage that cannot be tolerated, a denial that, in the end, threatens the citizenship of all in the Middle East. To experience the crossings, even as secure Americans with passports, to see the assault on the dignity of elders by brash young security forces no doubt using arrogance to hide their own frustration and fear, is to feel the humiliation of those denied citizenship. To watch with Palestinians the security wall being constructed, dividing them from their ancestral homes and olive groves, depriving them of access to work and schools, is to feel the humiliation of the undocumented. To see enormous Jewish settlements relentlessly encroaching into the Occupied Territories is to feel the rage of citizens turned into subjects. To walk through Beirut’s Sabra and Shatilla camps where Palestinians have been pent up for fifty years, as in the camps in Gaza, unwanted by the world, is to sense the despair of citizens turned refugees; indeed it is to see a cauldron where citizens are lured into terrorism and the violence that threatens every innocent citizen, Israeli and Arab alike. And to know that all of this is bankrolled by huge amounts of American foreign aid is to be challenged in our own responsibilities of citizenship.

-- manages to express an extraordinary supercilious Christian anti-Judaism at the same time as it conflates "Jews" with "Israelis" and denies the legitimacy of a Jewish state.

The UCC Minister cannot even bring himself to acknowledge the State of Israel, referring only to "the availability of citizenship in a homeland called Israel." And while "powerless Palestinians" are "lured into terrorism," inherently "hostile Israeli security forces" are "capricious" martinets.

"We in the United Church of Christ have always affirmed the right of Jews to citizenship in a homeland marked by safe and secure borders," Mr. Thomas declaims. Any homeland -- the United States, perhaps, or the United Kingdom, both of which have "safe and secure borders" -- just not the State of Israel.

Let me be clear: Israel's record with respect to the Palestinians is shameful. The United States's record with respect to Native Americans was shameful. But that does not mean that either Israel or the United States has no right to exist. Similarly, it is to be hoped that disengagement from Gaza is only the first step toward the realization of full Palestinian sovereignty. But Palestinians must take responsibility for the acts of terror that men and women have committed in their name.

With mainline friends like Mr. Thomas, who needs enemies? At least evangelicals are up front about their theology.

(Via Bill.)