Archive for the ‘United Methodist Church’ Category
by James M. Wall When the gavel fell on the Episcopalian convention, July 10, three major U.S. Protestant denominations had formally ended their 2012 discussions on how much religious support they were willing to give Palestinians under occupation. The most charitable answer for all three gatherings is, not much. Judging by the degree of hostility stirred up […]
Filed under: Episcopal Church, Middle East, Middle East Politics, Politics in Religion, Presbyterian Church USA, Religion and politics, Religious Faith, United Methodist Church | 20 Comments
by James M. Wall (Two Israeli soldiers guard Palestinian children in Hebron.) Jimmy Carter wrote a New York Times op-ed piece this week, A Cruel and Unusual Record, which states flatly: “The United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights. Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, […]
Filed under: Middle East, Middle East Politics, Presbyterian Church USA, Religious Faith, United Methodist Church | 10 Comments
Tags: human-rights, presbyterian general assembly
by James M. Wall By a vote of 558 to 367, a strong majority of lay and clerical delegates to the United Methodist General Conference called this week for a boycott of Israeli companies operating in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The resolution denounces the Israeli occupation and the settlements in a sweeping indictment. It calls for “all […]
Filed under: Media, Middle East Politics, Politics in Religion, United Methodist Church | 16 Comments
by James M. Wall The United Methodist Church has delayed a vote on a resolution on divestment from three US companies which “aid and abet”* Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The vote was initially set for Tuesday, but has been delayed until later this week. There is speculation among General Conference delegates […]
Filed under: Middle East Politics, Obama, Politics and Elections, Presbyterian Church USA, Religion and politics, United Methodist Church | 9 Comments
Tags: ambassador ryan crocker, Middle East, politics
by James M. Wall The mainstream media does not know it, and far too many high steeple church folk do not want to know it. But in Tampa, Florida, this week, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church will make a decision. They will spend the week writing and rewriting. Some, like Alissa Bertsch […]
Filed under: Middle East Politics, Politics in Religion, Presbyterian Church USA, Religion and politics, United Methodist Church | 8 Comments
by James M. Wall “Throw Their Dirty, Filthy Ships Out of the Water!” In the 2006 movie, Amazing Grace, John Newton shouts these words at William Wilberforce, a member of Parliament who was the leader of a 19th century fight to force the British government to bar British ships and ports from participating in the slave […]
Filed under: Middle East, Middle East Politics, Movies, Religious Faith, United Methodist Church | 15 Comments
Fby James M. Wall A stunning new poem by German novelist Gunter Grass, has “broken the silence” on Israel as a nuclear power. Western journalists and politicians have long enforced that silence by unspoken and unwritten common agreement. The silence was successfully imposed for two reasons: The Holocaust and the fear of being called anti-Semitic. […]
Filed under: Episcopal Church, Middle East, Middle East Politics, Netanyahu, Presbyterian Church, United Methodist Church | 17 Comments
Church Leader Tells Palestinians and Israelis “eat together and listen to each other’s stories”
by James M. Wall (New Comments Posted Below) An appalling shallowness has descended over Mainline Protestantism. Episcopalians, United Methodists and Presbyterians are actually debating how they should deal with the Israeli Occupation Martin Luther King, sitting in that Birmingham city jail, would most certainly inform these prelates that there is no debating evil. A brutal […]
Filed under: Episcopal Church, Middle East, Middle East Politics, Presbyterian Church, Religion and politics, Religious Faith, United Methodist Church | 38 Comments
by James M. Wall Two events arrive next month on the American political calendar: The annual AIPAC Policy Conference, and the ninth anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death. These two events are related the way yin relates to yang, a concept from Asian philosophy which “is used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected […]
Filed under: Middle East Politics, Netanyahu, Obama, Presbyterian Church USA, Religion and politics, United Methodist Church | 18 Comments
by James M. Wall Israeli blogger Noam Sheizal writes in the US based, Foreign Policy’s The Middle East Channel, that the majority of voters in Israel currently have no interest in ending the country’s 44 year-long military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Sheizal, a columnist for +972, a progressive Israeli website, concludes in his […]
Filed under: Middle East Politics, Religion and politics, United Methodist Church | 17 Comments
Tags: alan dershowitz, israel lobby, west bank and gaza
